Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for
Date of this Version
October 1973
Abstract
The monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus) is considered to be a serious agricultural pest in South America. The species is resident in a sizable area from southeast Bolivia, Paraguay, and southern Brazil, through Uruguay, to central Argentina (Meyer de Schauensee, 1970: 103). Since it is hardy, adaptable, and widely sold as a cage bird, there is now concern that large enough populations may become established in the United States to cause damage to grain and fruit crops (Bump, 1971). In April 1973, I visited Uruguay under the sponsorship of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) to investigate patterns of agricultural bird damage, the methods being used to control it, and the possibility of using some of the more recent control methods developed in the United States.