Pretty polly or pests? Dutch in a flap over parakeets

Yahoo – AFP, Charlotte VAN OUWERKERK, 12 March 2018

Thousands of rose-ringed parakeets, close relatives of parrots, have made their
home in the Netherlands over the past five decades, and their growing presence has
become a source of noisy debate

To their detractors, they're dirty alien invaders whose incessant chatter ruins Sunday morning lie-ins. To their supporters, they're beautiful, cheerful reminders of warmer climes amid the winter chill.

Love 'em or hate 'em, thousands of rose-ringed parakeets, close relatives of parrots, have made their home in the Netherlands over the past five decades, and their growing presence has become a source of noisy debate.

Like in other European cities such as London and Paris, the colourful green birds with distinctive red beaks have proliferated over the years.

They gather in garden trees and around schools; they even roost outside the Dutch parliament in The Hague, with urban legend telling how one debate was drowned out by the birds' constant calls.

Imported from Pakistan in the 1960s to brighten the aviaries of wealthy Europeans -- especially the Dutch and British -- over the years many escaped and have now successfully adapted to life in the city.

Indeed, the rose-ringed, or ring-necked parakeet was listed among Europe's top 100 most invasive species in the scientific journal "Biological Invasions" in December.

While their fans claim they are victims of a knee-jerk fear of anything new, some groups actively lobby for their numbers to be culled.

In Amsterdam, where one of the largest colonies of parakeets lives, the town hall has banned residents from putting out food in some areas or risk a 70 euro ($86) fine.

Critics argue the flying flocks undermine the natural order, pinching the resting spaces of owls and bats, leaving behind piles of bird droppings and ravaging trees and plants.

"Some residents are even thinking of moving house because of their infernal noise," said Wilfred Reinhold, president of an association fighting against the birds' presence in the country.

'Charming, but destructive'

With plentiful food, few predators and lots of water, the living is easy in the Netherlands, where the flocks have grown unchecked.

In Leiden, biologist Roelant Jonker has taken the country's oldest colony of the birds under his wing, despite being allergic to their feathers and even though his passion was sorely tested six years ago.

In Amsterdam, home to one of the largest colonies of
parakeets, the town hall has banned residents from
putting out food in some areas or risk a fine of 70 euros

While studying a group of yellow-eared parrots in the jungles of Colombia, Jonker was taken hostage by FARC rebels, a "traumatising experience" which lasted eight months.

But he remains determined to protect the estimated 15,000 parakeets which now call the Netherlands home. By comparison, France is 15 times bigger but counts only some 10,000 parakeets.

"Of course they are charming... but they also cause a lot of damage," said Reinhold, keeping a watchful eye on some budding chestnut trees outside the Dutch parliament.

A recently published picture of an embassy-lined street near the royal palace sullied with parrot droppings has only added grist to his mill.

'Here to stay'

Reinhold insists that measures should be taken to stop the flocks.

"Nets could be dropped on the trees at night to catch hundreds of them," he suggested, accepting however that using guns to shoot them down "would not be a very good idea in the city".

But removing them would be too costly, argued Jonker, declaring: "There is nothing to do. They are here, they are going to stay."

He pointed to some birch trees, saying they had once been imported by the Romans and were now an integral part of the Dutch landscape.

The next generation will see the parakeets "as ordinary birds... and they will be as ordinary as all the different colours of people and birds in Europe," he added.

Ring-necked parakeets in The Netherlands are falling victim to 'eco xenophobia' according to Dutch biologist Roelant Joncker, who says the belief that these bright green birds drive out native species is simply untrue. pic.twitter.com/0gN2dNqf0u

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 13, 2018

Dutch scientists use dna testing to identify illegally logged wood

DutchNews, March 5, 2018

Researchers at Wageningen University are using dna testing to help identify tropical hardwood which has been cut down illegally. 

Around 30 to 90% of all tropical hardwood is logged illegally, and checks on the origin of wood, however thorough, are not particularly effective because documentation may be fraudulent, the universitysays. 

The new method identifies the wood’s dna and is precise enough to differentiate between trees cut down in places that are practically next door to each other. This is important because position can mark the difference between legal and illegally logged wood. 

‘The fact that we can accurately differentiate the origin of timber down to a 14 km radius is new,’ says lead author Mart Vlam of the Forest Ecology and Forest Management Research Group at Wageningen University. ‘Previous studies only managed to do that on a much less refined scale.’ 

The research involved collecting several hundred timber samples in five timber concessions in Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville together with two logging companies. These samples were used to create a reference-database. 

‘We ran a blind test on some of the samples,’ says Vlam. ‘I had 12 pieces of timber of which I knew the origin but the genetic specialists at Wageningen Environmental Research didn’t. I gave them the samples and asked them to identify which concessions they came from. They got it right 92% of the time – that’s a great score.’ 

This study demonstrates that genetic analysis has great potential for use in forensic testing of tropical hardwood. 

‘But a lot needs to be done before these tests can be used as evidence in court,’says lead researcher Pieter Zuidema. ‘We need to collect timber samples from a much larger area and our analyses and labs will have to meet strict criteria. We can’t do that on our own, so we are collaborating in a worldwide network of researchers, labs and authorities.’