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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justin C who wrote (62881)	6/11/2002 1:46:07 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Now this is hard to believe but there are wild parrots living in Chicago. They make such a massive nest they can make it through the winters. In bright green wingtips, they stand out among the more subdued hues favored by University students. They often screech during summer mornings near the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art and pick berries off the quads' holly trees in the fall. They are monk parakeets, and they are more than the stuff of campus legend. Known for his own colorful Hawaiian shirts, Stephen Pruett-Jones, associate professor in ecology & evolution, the Committee on Evolutionary Biology, and the College, has embarked on the first major biological and ecological study of America's monk parakeet population. He wants to know whether the monk parakeets-regarded as agricultural pests in their native South America-could harm crops in Illinois and how they survive the harsh Chicago winters. Working out of an office that comfortably accommodates a border collie named Mik, vases of bird feathers, and an inflatable southern hairy-nosed wombat, the 45-year-old zoologist says such questions follow his broader line of inquiry into the evolution of animals' social behavior and their mating systems. He also plans to expand this year his ongoing studies of the mating rituals of the Australian fairy-wrens and of the dark-winged damselfly. But Pruett-Jones says he couldn't resist studying the monk parakeets, given their campus proximity and lack of academic attention. The first sighting of Chicago's free-flying monk parakeets dates to 1973. According to local lore, they settled in Hyde Park after escaping from a cage at O'Hare International Airport. That rumor may be based on a documented escape at a New York airport, Pruett-Jones says, suggesting that the Hyde Park population more likely sprang from the escape or even intentional release of pet monk parakeets, which, unlike some other small parrots, have poor mimicking skills and high-pitched screams. Adding to the birds' legend, the late Mayor Harold Washington is said to have directed police to protect the colorful creatures that flew outside his apartment overlooking "Parrot Park" at Lake Shore Drive and 53rd Street. Today, Pruett-Jones estimates, Hyde Park's monk parakeet population has grown to about 200, with 80 nests perched on power transformers and in the trees of Parrot Park and of Washington Park. He predicts they will be flying all over the continental United States within the next two decades. So far-in at least six other states, including New York and Florida- they have inexplicably chosen parklands, suburban lawns, and backyards with birdfeeders over croplands. "I previously thought the monk parakeets should be controlled because an introduced species is almost always bad for its new environment," Pruett-Jones says. "But now I believe they are sufficiently benign in the habitats where they now occur. They're not a pest, and they don't compete with a native species."