the shrewdness of apes

taxonomy

well it's April 14th, so i hope everyone has their taxes done. this is the first year i've ever not done mine myself, as the wife and i dropped ours off last weekend. i don't want to cast aspersions, but this accountant (found through a friend) seemed to be operating in some gray-market area of the income tax field. the office where we met him was in this weird Brooklyn storefront with a bunch of 20 year-old office furniture and some dying potted plants. he was in the back, down the wood-paneled hallway in a cluttered office that may or may not have had a secret exit. but he was quick and efficient and we're getting a nice chunk of change back all told, so no complaints.

all this was sort of long way of getting to talking about the really odd part of that day. as we walked along Quentin Rd. in South Brooklyn back towards the subway, we noticed a tree full of green and blue parakeets - at least 10 or 20 of them. it certainly seemed out of place, even in this relatively suburban part of the city. i had noticed a number of large nests populating the power lines above the sidewalk on the way there, and it then dawned on me that there was a colony of these birds that lived in the entrance gate to Green-Wood Cemetery. further digging revealed that there are colonies of these Monk Parakeets (also known as Quaker Parrots) around Brooklyn College and Marine Park. the nests are huge, weighing up to a ton in some cases and are very distinctive.

the big question is where they came from and what to do with them. native to South America, there are possible colonies in as many as 15 states and Canada. the NY colony most likely originated when birds escaped from a crate at JFK airport in 1967. and while they certainly spice up the wildlife for those of us who secretly wish for pigeons to get crushed under the wheels of a bus, the case can be made that these invaders could harm native species and agriculture. as pets though, they live 25-30 years and have been voted as on the ten best talkers, making them extremely popular. i'm suprised some enterprising Brooklyn kids haven't started trapping them and selling them on street corners.

Posted by jamie at April 14, 2004 01:09 PM