One of Trinidad and Tobago’s treasured national birds is proving to be an economic asset, while growing concern surrounds the other, with fears it could pose a serious threat to the country’s agricultural sector.
Those contrasting realities were highlighted during the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago’s Toute Bagai Lecture Series, where experts examined the benefits of one national bird and the risks posed by the other.
Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly’s Division of Natural Resources and Forestry, Darren Henry, issued a cautionary note to agricultural producers in the country about the potential impact of the Cocrico.
“The Cocrico that is in the Emperor Valley Zoo, you have to do your best to ensure that those birds don’t get out and into the forest. It will be chaotic for the agricultural sector industry in Trinidad. One of the things that we will be working on shortly is to do a census or do some studies to determine what’s the population status, and what intervention is needed or are needed at this particular time.”
Noting that farmers in Tobago describe the Cocrico as a pest, Assembly Member Henry was quick to stress that the THA is not culling the birds.
“At this present time we don’t know the status of the Cocrico, and that is one of the things that we have to work on. We don’t know what their numbers are. We only assuming that the Cocrico are high in numbers, but we don’t know for sure. So that is one of the challenges that we have as managers to manage the national bird.”
Meanwhile, University of the West Indies lecturer and author Dr Ryan Mohammed indicated that the Scarlet Ibis contributes to the local economy.
“Since the early 1970s, bird watching and ecotours in the Caroni Swamp were generating well over a million TT annually and that number is increased now.”
Dr Mohammed noted that those figures are outdated and are likely much higher today, given that the Caroni Swamp is internationally renowned for hosting one of the world’s largest communal roosts of Scarlet Ibis.
“The peak breeding season thus far has documented roughly about five thousand birds in Trinidad, which is approximately 50 per cent of the northern hemisphere of roosting birds during the temperate climate, north temperate climate, autumn to winter, so which means Trinidad could potentially have a significant proportion of all breeding birds for our hemisphere.”
The lecture series was part of the National Trust’s celebration of Trinidad and Tobago’s 50th anniversary as a republic.