Why Are African Gray Parrots Endangered? Trade and Habitat

How serious is the decline?

The African gray parrot once lived in large numbers across the forests of West and Central Africa, from Ivory Coast to Kenya. Today its true population is uncertain, with published estimates ranging from about 630,000 to 13 million birds. The wide range shows how hard the species is to count in dense forest. What researchers agree on is the direction of change: down, in nearly every country.

The clearest evidence comes from Ghana. A study published in 2015 compared new surveys with counts from the early 1990s and found that gray parrot numbers had fallen by 90–99%. The birds were found in only 10 of 42 forest areas surveyed, and three roosts that had once held 700–1,200 birds each held just 18 birds between them. Local people blamed trapping for the pet trade and timber felling. Steep local declines have been reported elsewhere in West Africa too, where forests are most fragmented.

The pet trade: the main cause

Gray parrots are popular pets because they are intelligent and excellent mimics of human speech. That popularity has come at a heavy price. For decades they were among the most traded wild birds in the world. Between 1994 and 2003 alone, more than 359,000 wild-caught gray parrots were traded internationally, and well over a million are thought to have been exported since the mid-1970s.

Researchers estimated that in some years around a fifth of the wild population may have been removed. Official export quotas were often exceeded, and many more birds were smuggled outside the legal system. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, the number of birds taken each year was estimated at several times the official quota.

The trade is also extremely wasteful. Trappers catch parrots at roosts, at nest trees and at forest clearings where flocks come down to drink and eat clay. Birds are often caught with sticky glue on branches or with nets, then crammed into crates. Studies suggest that well over half of wild-caught parrots die between capture and sale, so each bird that reached a buyer may represent two or more taken from the wild.

Why trapping hits gray parrots so hard

Gray parrots are long-lived but breed slowly. A pair raises only a few chicks a year, the young stay with their families for a long time, and birds do not breed until they are about three to five years old. A species like this cannot replace adults as fast as they are removed.

Their social habits make things worse. Gray parrots gather in large, traditional roosts and at mineral-rich forest clearings. These places are easy for trappers to find and allow large numbers of birds to be caught at once. Removing whole roosts can wipe out the local population and the knowledge of feeding sites that young birds learn from older ones.

Habitat loss and other threats

Logging and the clearing of forest for farms and plantations remove the tall, old trees that gray parrots use for nest holes and roosts. Some trappers also cut down nest trees to take chicks, destroying the nest site for the future. As forests shrink, the remaining birds become easier to reach.

Gray parrots are also hunted for meat in some areas, and their body parts are sold for use in traditional medicine. These pressures are smaller than the pet trade overall, but they add to the losses.

What is being done to protect them?

In 2016 the member countries of CITES, the treaty that regulates international trade in wildlife, voted to move the gray parrot to Appendix I, the highest level of protection. Since January 2017, international commercial trade in wild-caught birds has been banned. Captive-bred birds can still be traded with permits, and today most gray parrots sold as pets are bred in captivity.

The ban has not ended the problem. Smuggling continues, and wildlife authorities in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and elsewhere regularly seize illegal shipments. Many confiscated birds are weak or injured; rescue centers rehabilitate those that survive and release them back into suitable forest when possible.

Other conservation measures include:

• Protected areas, such as Lobeke National Park in southeastern Cameroon, where clearings visited by large flocks are guarded;
• Community patrols at roosts and clay licks to deter trappers;
• National laws, such as Kenya’s 2021 permit scheme for privately owned gray parrots;
• Surveys and monitoring to fill gaps in knowledge about where populations survive.

Can African gray parrots recover?

Recovery is possible where forest remains and trapping stops, because gray parrots are adaptable and long-lived. But the species needs time: slow breeding means that numbers will rise only gradually even under good protection. The best thing people outside Africa can do is never buy a wild-caught bird, support organizations that fight wildlife trafficking, and choose sustainably produced forest products.

Gray parrots are one of many species threatened by the wildlife trade; see the wider picture in endangered animals. To learn why these birds are so prized in the first place, read how smart African gray parrots are.