35
submitted 1 month ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/world@lemmy.world

The town of Hilario Ascasubi near Argentina's eastern Atlantic coast has a parrot problem.

Thousands of the green-yellow-red birds have invaded, driven by deforestation in the surrounding hills, according to biologists. They bite on the town's electric cables, causing outages, and are driving residents around the bend with their incessant screeching and deposits everywhere of parrot poo.

"The hillsides are disappearing, and this is causing them to come closer to the cities to find food, shelter and water," biologist Daiana Lera said, explaining that much of Argentina's forest land has been gradually lost over the years.

In the past few years, the parrots have started to arrive, seeking refuge in the town through autumn and winter. At times, according to locals, there are up to 10 parrots for each of the town's 5,000 human inhabitants. During the summer, the birds migrate south to the cliffs of Patagonia for the breeding season.

top 8 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago

I have zero empathy for the residents. Push your gov'ts to stop raping the land and start replanting the forest if you want the parrots to leave.

[-] NoNotLikeThat@lemm.ee 12 points 1 month ago

I feel bad for the parrots. Habitat displacement is a massive problem. Hope they can get the deforestation under control, and fix the ecological damage.

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago

For other parrot enthusiasts who were wondering as I was, these seem to be Patagonian Conures (not endangered, and somewhat common as a pet). I hope this spurs people into conserving their habitat.

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Lol, no. They'll cull the remaining parrots until they're no longer a nuisance. Fast forward 10 years and some rodent or insect population will cause even worse problems for the town, and it'll turn out the parrots were a primary predator of said problem. This will continue repeatedly until the collapse of human civilisation.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago

That escalated quickly.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

There are feral parrots in Los Angeles. It's weird as fuck to go outside in the morning with a cup of tea and suddenly hear a parrot squawk.

[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago
[-] MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:

MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.Newshttps://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentine-town-battles-parrot-invasion-2024-09-30/
Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
35 points (100.0% liked)

World News

39000 readers
2096 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS