AVIAN ADDICTS
Stoner parrots decimate India’s opium crop
Parrots flying high are annoying farmers by plundering their poppy fields to feed their opiate addiction. The avian stoners sit perched in waiting until workers slit open the flower pods to help them ripen. They then swoop down in silence – having learned not to squawk – and nibble through the stalks below the pods before they are spotted. Video shows them retreating to high branches where they gorge on the plants leaving them sleeping for hours – and sometimes falling to their death.
In 2015 poppy-raiding parrots were reported in Chittorgarh in the state of Rajasthan, but this year they have been found making a huge dent in crops 40 miles (64km) away in Neemach in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The numbers of birds raiding the fields are increasing with every passing year. Farmers are supposed to hand over a preagreed quantity of produce to the state, which controls opium farming. The birds hit between March and April when the seeds are cut, exposing the latex which contains morphine. Blissed-out birds have become easy target for their predators. Farmers have tried bursting firecrackers, beating tin drums and hurling stones to keep the birds away – but to no avail.
Sobharam Rathod, an opium farmer from Neemach, estimates parrots are stealing around 10 per cent of his crop and he has been given a warning. “Usually, the parrots would make sound when in a group,” he said. “But these birds have become so smart that they don’t make any noise when they swoop on the fields. They start chirping when they fly away with opium pods. We have tried every trick possible to keep them at bay but they keep coming back even at the risk of their life. We keep an eye on them, but they also keep an eye on us. The moment you lower your guard the army of parrots silently swoop onto your field and take away the bulbs.” From the video evidence, the birds would appear to relatives of the ring-necked (or roseringed) parakeets that have now established sizeable colonies in London and the Home Counties (see FT258:23). D.Mirror, 22 Mar 2017.
Ignazio Frailis, 46, from Capoterra, Sardinia, allegedly stabbed his next-door neighbour Maria Bonaria Contu, 60, as she took a walk with friends. It is claimed he stabbed her 11 times and wounded a friend of hers who tried to defend her. Investigators believe unemployed Frailis decided to kill Mrs Contu, a mother of two, because she had coached her parrot to make disparaging remarks about him. Whenever he passed her property, the bird would hurl abuse at him. As the months passed, it became an obsession with him. Arresting officer Eugenio Fatone said that Frailis had previously complained about the parrot. He said: “Officers had tried to talk to both sides and had suggested putting the parrot in a different room, not facing Mr Frailis’s house. Sadly, Mrs Contu didn’t take our advice.” L’Unione Sarda, Heatstreet, 4 May 2017.
When Helen Finch from Nutley in East Sussex went out for the day, her pet parrot, a Congo African grey called Peaches, inadvertently poisoned her three dogs, Maltese terriers Boris and Cassidy and shi tzupug cross Gus. On her return Mrs Finch noted the dogs were
unwell and spotted that a bunch of grapes was missing from the fruit bowl. Knowing that the fruit can cause acute renal failure, she rushed her pets to the vet. “Peaches flies freely around the house, but returns to her cage when I’m not at home,” she said. “She’s a fantastic mimic and she must have called each dog over by name to be fed and then dropped the grapes in front of them from her cage. Boris, Cassidy and Gus then tucked into their illicit meal.”
Grapes along with chocolate, raisins and currants can cause diarrhoea and vomiting in dogs, which can then lead to kidney failure. The dogs were given activated charcoal, to stop their bodies absorbing toxins, and put on intravenous drips to clear their kidneys. They had to stay at the vet’s surgery for two days to recover. Grapes are now banned from the house. D.Mail, 8 April 2017.
Luis Santana, 32, from Connecticut was in a fight when a policeman arrived on the scene. A shirtless Santana then threw a white parrot he was holding at the policeman, and the startled bird bit his finger. Santana ran away, but was apprehended at a house nearby. The parrot turned out to be stolen and was reunited with its owner the following day. NBC Connecticut, 21 Mar 2017.
Mike Long, 53, has his own bottle-opener in the shape of his pet macaw, Rocco. The bird uses his beak to crack open a beer for him when watching football with his mates in Urmston, Greater Manchester. Rocco is such a ‘lad’, said Mr Long, that he had even been to the pub. Metro, 28 Feb 2017.
For more parrot tales, see FT285:9, 316:22-23, 321:23, 344:11.