African grey parrots are incredibly intelligent. They are also extremely sensitive, social, can express emotion and have an extraordinary ability to learn and imitate human speech. And it is these characteristics that have result in the species being a hugely desire candidate for a pet around the world. Sadly, this makes the African grey parrot one of the most trade birds worldwide.

These incredible animals is being illegally capture in Cameroon and elsewhere in the forests of equatorial Africa to be sale as pets. Every year thousands of individuals, mostly adults, are capture and ssle at a rate so high that the total wild population could be reducing by 21% each year [1]! More than 1.3 million individuals were export between the early 1980s – 2014, with perhaps some 100,000 birds per year being capture in Cameroon during the late 1990s and early 2000s [2]. The vast majority of capture African Grey Parrots die before export as they are extremely susceptible to stress when put into small cages and poor captive conditions.

African Grey Parrots

In 2016, the African Grey Parrot was upgrade to the status of Endanger (IUCN) because the wild population is decreasing so rapidly. The species is now by law considered a Class A species, benefiting from the highest level of protection in Cameroon. This means it is now an offense to take African Grey Parrots from the wild.