page_title: Mascarene grey parakeet
section_title: Behaviour and ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Mascarene grey parakeet / Behaviour and ecology
caption_attribution_description: Copper engraving from 'Het Tweede Boeck' (made in the Netherlands) showing Dutch activities on the shore of Mauritius during the 1598 voyage of Admiral Jacob van Neck, as well as the first published depictions of a dodo (2) and a broad-billed parrot (5), both now extinct. From image: Zijn Schiltpadden sonder Vleughels. (These are turtles without wings.) Desen Voghel die is soo groot als een Swaen/ gaven hem den naem Walchvoghel/ want doen wy de leckere Duyfkens ende ander cleyn ghevoghelte ghenoech vinghen/ doen taelden wy niet meer naer desen Voghel. (This bird is as large as a swan / gave it the name Loathing Bird / for when we had caught the delicious doves and other small birds / we no longer craved this bird.) Een Palmboom/ welckers bladeren soo groot zijn dat eenen hem daer mede can beschutten voor den reghen en Sonne. (A palm tree / of which the leaves are so large that one can protect you against the rain and sun.) Dit is een Voghel ghenoemt Rabos Forcados, hebbende een steert inde ghedaente van een snyders scheere alsmense yt reckte ende inde lengde trock/ waren sy een vadem lanck. (This is a bird named Rabos Forcados, having a tail in the shape of a cutter's knife; if you stretched them out and pulled them lengthwise they were a fathom long.) Een Voghel die wy den Indische Raven noemden/ zijnde zo groot als een Papegaey van duederley coleuren. (A bird which we called the Indian Raven / being as large as a parrot of manifold colours.) Desen boom hebben wy een Compertiment aengemaeckt met drie Wapens/ Hollant/ Zeelant/ ende Amsterdam. (On this tree we made a compartment with three coats of arms / Holland / Sealand / and Amsterdam.) Van desen Palmites Boom hadden ons volck seer goede ververssinge/ want dit stucken gheteeckent met Letter A. was seer goet voor be scheurbuyck/ ende goede ververfinghe voor ons. (Of this palm tree our people had very good refreshments / for this piece signed with the letter A was very good against scurvy / and a good refreshment for us.) Een Vleermuys seer groot/ hebbende thoeft als een Meercat/ vonden deser seer veel/ banghen haer aldus aende boomen. (A bat, very large / having the head of a meerkat / found this very often / thus hanging on the trees.) Hier smeden wy onse yserwerck dat wy van doen hadden / stelden voor onse Smit een Smisse op/ ende timmerden een nieuwe Boot in plaets van die verloren was. (Here we forged our ironwork which we had to do / erected for our blacksmith a smithy / and built a new boat instead of the one that was lost.) Zijn seker Hutten ghemaeckt voor die ghene die aen Lant bleven te arbeyden om den Smit ende Cuyper te helpen. (Certainly huts were made for those who stayed working on land to help the blacksmith and the cooper.) Hier hieltmen des Sondaechs predicatie/ des voormiddaechs de een belft/ en als die te scheep waren/ is voer de ander belft des namiddaechs wederom een predicatie ghedaen. Hier worde Lauwerens (gheboren opt Eylant Madagascar) ghedoopt/ met noch anderen/ na dat sy belydenis haers gheloofs ghedaen hadden. (Here the sunday service was held/ in the morning the first half/ and when they were on board the ship/ another service was held for the other half. Here Lawrence (born on the island Madagascar) was baptized / with several others / after they had spoken their confessions of faith.) Hier waren wy visschende/ vanghende so veel Vis dat wy met een hael anderbalf Ton vulden. (Here we were fishing / catching so much Fish that with one haul we filled one-and-a-half barrel.)
context_page_description: The Mascarene grey parakeet or Thirioux's grey parrot, is an extinct species of parrot which was endemic to the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. It has been classified as a member of the tribe Psittaculini, along with other parrots from the Islands.
  Subfossil bones of the Mascarene grey parakeet found on Mauritius were first described in 1973 as belonging to a smaller relative of the broad-billed parrot in the genus Lophopsittacus. Apart from their size, the bones were very similar to those of other Mascarene parrots. The subfossils were later connected with 17th- and 18th-century descriptions of small grey parrots on Mauritius and Réunion, together with a single illustration published in a journal describing a voyage in 1602, and the species was instead reassigned to the genus Psittacula.
  The Mascarene grey parakeet was grey, had a long tail, and was larger than other species of the genus Psittacula, which are usually green. The grey parrots were said to be easy to hunt, as the capture of one would result in its calling out to summon the whole flock.
context_section_description: According to Cheke and Hume, the anatomy of the Mascarene grey parakeet suggests that its habits were largely terrestrial, and it may have eaten the fruits of the hurricane palm and the bottle palm, due to their abundance. Like the extinct Mauritian duck and the Mascarene coot, it appears that the Mascarene grey parakeet inhabited both Mauritius and Réunion. Both populations were said to be easy to hunt by capturing one individual and making it call out, which would summon an entire flock.
  Van West-Zanen, who visited Mauritius in 1602, was the first to mention grey parrots there, and he also described the hunting methods used:
  ... some of the people went bird hunting. They could grab as many birds as they wished and could catch them by hand. It was an entertaining sight to see. The grey parrots are especially tame and if one is caught and made to cry out, soon hundreds of the birds fly around ones’ ears, which were then hit to the ground with little sticks.
  Dutch sailor Willem Ysbrandtszoon Bontekoe was on Réunion in 1618, and described the same behaviour, in the first account of the grey parrots there:
  Coming further inland we found [a] great number of geese, doves, grey parrots and other birds, also many land-turtles... And what we most did marvel at, when we held one of the parrots and other birds and squeezed it till it screamed, there came all the others from thereabout as if they would free it and let themselves be caught as well, so we had enough of them to eat.
  In 1705, French pilot engineer Jean Feuilley gave a more detailed description of the parrots of Réunion and their ecology:
  There are several sorts of parrot, of different sizes and colours. Some are the size of a hen, grey, the beak red [Mascarene parrot]; others the same colour the size of a pigeon [Mascarene grey parakeet], and yet others, smaller, are green [Réunion parakeet]. There are great quantities, especially in the Sainte-Suzanne area and on the mountainsides. They are very good to eat, especially when they are fat, which is from the month of June until the month of September, because at that time the trees produce a certain wild seed that these birds eat.
  Many other endemic species of Mauritius and Réunion were lost after the arrival of humans, so that the ecosystems of these islands are severely damaged and hard to reconstruct. Before humans arrived, the islands were entirely covered in forests, very little of which remains today, because of deforestation. The surviving endemic fauna is still seriously threatened. On Mauritius, the Mascarene grey parakeet lived alongside other recently extinct birds such as the dodo, the red rail, the broad-billed parrot, the Mauritius blue pigeon, the Mauritius owl, the Mascarene coot, the Mauritian shelduck, the Mauritian duck, and the Mauritius night heron. On Réunion, it lived alongside the Réunion ibis, the hoopoe starling, the Mascarene parrot, the Réunion parakeet, the Réunion swamphen, the Réunion owl, the Réunion night heron, and the Réunion pink pigeon.
caption: Depiction of the Dutch on Mauritius in 1598, with various parrots above
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:02:07 02:19:19", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11517", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2595", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2126"}