Its habitat is deep in rebel-dominated territory, and the guerrillas have banned hunting wildlife to preserve Colombia's rich biological diversity. It's wonderful that they have survived. His sighting of 17 yellow-eared parrots in neighboring Ecuador five years ago was the first scientifically recorded observation in nearly 80 years. Among nations, Colombia is the second richest after Brazil in biological diversity. It has the world's greatest variety of birds, with 1,850 species, as well as 358 kinds of mammals and more than 45,000 types of plants.
Scientists say the risk of mass extinctions has never been greater.
They're a sensitive barometer of threats to the environment because they often suffer first. The shrinking habitat of the yellow-eared parrot, one of 80 birds native to Colombia in danger of global extinction, is a case in point. Bernabe Lopez, an Argentine ornithologist, spends his days observing the birds from a blind built of dead palm fronds among grazing cattle. Cutting down wax palms was prohibited by law in 1986, but cattle eat their seedlings as well as surrounding vegetation that provides shade the young plants require. Preserving the yellow-eared parrot in captivity is not an option, Krabbe said.