As the 2021 mango season wraps up, one local farmer says Cayman’s national parrot has “riddled” his yield and he’s had enough.
“It is going to be an all-out war with me and the parrots,” Franklin Smith told the Cayman Compass.
Smith said over the course of this season, he estimates he has lost in the region of a thousand mangoes, including as blossoms, before the fruit has had a chance to develop.
“I have suffered this season and past seasons with the loss of mangoes, where the parrots have riddled them, plus now that the mangoes are finishing up, they are turning to the avocados, and I can only take so much and no more.”
Smith, who has been farming full time in East End since 1982, says he also counted 124 destroyed young avocados from one tree alone.
The avocados sell from two dollars per pound, which means losses could be between $496-$1240, per avocado tree, according to Smith.
“That’s plenty money, but at this stage, what do I get? Zero,” he said.
The Department of Environment told the Compass that they are aware of Smith’s clash with the local parrots. They did not comment any further on the matter.
Smith said his complaints over the years have fallen on deaf ears, time and time again.
“The government has no interest at all or the DOE,” said Smith. “This is what farmers are making their living from. They have millions of dollars, for the environment but they don’t… care how the farmers live, they only care that the parrots live.”
Smith suggest government could reimburse farmers for their losses caused by the parrots.
“If the government cared for the farmers, they would compensate the farmers,” he said. “I am suggesting that every year, they have people go around and there’s enough people on this island idling to collect this data and count to reimburse the farmers. Until then, if I find them in my trees, I am going to take them out.”
Related Videos
Typical.
A human that is technically a foreigner to these islands (humans have only lived on these islands for about 300 years) wants to “take out” our national bird that is indigenous, endemic, and scientifically listed as “vulnerable” to extinction.
I come from a family of farmers, and we learned long ago that you can’t “fight” the wildlife; you have to just understand and learn how to keep your crops protected.
If he really wants to protect his fruit, he should come up with a way to keep the birds from being able to get to the trees, such as protecting them with nets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj9gB1RMIag
https://www.amazon.com/DGCUS-Netting-Poultry-Protect-Plants/dp/B07FFY1TYG/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_i=B07FFY1TYG&psc=1
Concur, protect the trees – don’t harm the poor birds for doing what comes naturally to them. This is ludicrous behavior!!
Someone please help (and stop) this farmer from ‘taking out’ wild birds that he teases by providing a food source for them, then expects them to understand they are not to partake…seriously??? How about a scarecrow, or hang some plastic owls, or utilize the netting (though it sounds like Russell would probably utilize the netting to entangle the poor birds).
So sad that a human being that should be smarter than the parrots would behave this way!!
I can understand Mr Smith’s frustration. We have a very fruitful carambola tree which used to supply us with up to 200 big juicy fruit after each flowering. Then the parrots discovered it and now we get none. The worst of it is their wasteful habit of stripping every fruit from the tree down to the tiniest pea sized ones and almost all of them are not eaten but stripped long before they get the chance to mature and ripen. These birds have sharp beaks and will not be deterred by nets.