Austrian zoo successfully raises endangered parrots from smuggled eggs
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Austrian customs officials seized 74 parrot eggs at Vienna-Schwechat Airport in 2011 and transferred them to Schönbrunn Zoo.
From those eggs hatched Red-spectacled Amazons and Jamaican Amazons, both parrot species facing significant threats in their native habitats. Recently, Schönbrunn Zoo achieved a milestone by naturally raising three Red-spectacled Amazon chicks with their parents. Zoo Director Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck described the success as turning a case of illegal wildlife trade into a conservation achievement.
The zoo’s care team successfully maintained and now breeds these demanding parrots through expertise and persistence. Schönbrunn Zoo is particularly important for the Red-spectacled Amazon because it holds the only breeding pair in Europe and has become the only European zoo successfully raising the species. Experts estimate only around 15,000 Red-spectacled Amazons remain in the wild on Jamaica, where the species faces habitat loss, predation by invasive species, and climate change.
Alongside the Red-spectacled Amazons, four Jamaican Amazon chicks are also growing at the zoo. Schönbrunn Zoo emphasizes that despite this positive development, illegal wildlife trade remains a serious threat to Amazon parrots and many other animals.
