Trade and habitat change virtually eliminate the Grey Parrot Psittacus erithacus from Ghana

The heavily traded Grey Parrot Psittacus erithacus is believed to have undergone rapid population decline, yet there are almost no quantitative data on abundance changes over time from anywhere within its huge range. We reviewed the species' historical abundance across Ghana, undertook targeted searches during 3- to 5-day visits to 42 100-km(2) cells across the country's forest zone, repeated counts at 22 parrot roosts first performed two decades ago and gauged around 900 people's perceptions of the decline and its causes. In over 150days of fieldwork, just 32 groups (maximum group size=12) were recorded in 10 cells. Encounter rates averaged 0.15 individuals per hour of targeted search, around 15 times lower than those recorded in the early 1990s. No active roosts were found, and only 18 individuals were recorded in three roost areas that each harboured 700-1200 birds two decades ago. Interviewees stressed the importance of very tall trees of commercially important species such as Terminalia superba and Ceiba pentandra for nesting and roosting, and believed that the felling of large trees on farmland (42% of responses) and trapping for trade (37%) were the two main causes of decline. Ghana has lost 90-99% of its Grey Parrots since 1992, a time when the population had presumably already been seriously reduced by two decades of extremely heavy trade. There is no evidence that, away from one or two localities, declines are less severe anywhere else within the West African range of P.erithacus, or across the entire range of the recently split Timneh Parrot Psittacus timneh.