Parrots Over Puerto Rico

The passage explains that people have hunted parrots and destroyed their nests. Which point made in the passage do these details support?

• Parrots lived in Puerto Rico long before people did.

• Both people and parrots have thrived in warm climates.

• People have caused many problems for Puerto Rican parrots

• Both parrots and people have harmed the world around them.

According to the passage, how have hurricanes affected Puerto Rican parrots?

• They have caused the birds to flee the rain forest.

• They have blown down the trees where the birds lived.

• They have left the birds with few small animals to prey on.

• They have flooded the areas where the birds searched for food.

What is the main purpose of the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program?

• to protect and save Puerto Rican parrots

• to teach people about Puerto Rican parrots

• to keep as many parrots as possible in aviaries

• to show young parrots how the older ones behave.

The passage says that scientists used discarded feathers to rebuild a parrot’s wings that had been damaged. What does discarded mean?

• made by artists from the area

• valued highly because they are rare

• handled carefully in order to avoid breaking

• set aside because they were no longer wanted

Which two main ideas does the passage mostly explore?

• the history of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican parrots

• the history of El Yunque and the parrots that live there

• the Taíno people and their effects on Puerto Rican parrots

• the attempts to capture San Juan and the parrots that live there

Main Idea: Multiple Choice

• Puerto Rican Parrots once lived in Puerto Rico in the millions, but now there are only a few left.

• People caused the population of Puerto Rican

  parrots to decline.

• Scientist have been trying to raise the Parrots in c

  captivity and release them back into the wild in

  order to restore their populations.

• After humans came to Puerto Rico, the Puerto

  Rican parrots experienced a number of problems

  and were almost extinct, but a group of

  scientist is working hard to save them.

What is the best summary of the selection?

• Scientist and Puerto Riccan citizen work hard to find solutions to save their native birds. First the protect the species, then they build aviaries to begin raising the parrots in captivity. They also build special nesting boxes so that the parrots can raise their eggs safe from their enemies. As the population of captive birds grew they were able to release more into the wild. Soon captive birds were able to find mates and have chicks in the wild.

• Once there were millions of parrots on the island of Puerto Rico, then people began to come and settle the island bringing invasive species with them. The parrots faced rats who ate their chicks, thrashers who stole their nest, people who knocked down their tree homes to build houses and farms, and various other problems that caused their species to shrink to just 200 birds. Scientist took action in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s to begin bringing the species back. Scientist build an aviary, develop special nesting boxes, use incubators to hatch eggs, and train and release captive birds back into the wild. Now captive birds are being released, finding mates, and growing the species in the wild.

• Once there were millions of parrots on the island of Puerto Rico, then the Spanish came. There were many wars on Puerto Rico because everyone wanted to get the island from Spain. Africanos also came too. They were brought to toil on the land. Other native people brought different plants and produce to grow on the island. After America defeated Spain, the island became a United States Commonwealth. Many people moved to the United States and the people left behind built farms and moved to other parts of the island.

• After the settlers arrived rats began stealing the parrots eggs from the trees were they nested. Then birds called Thrashers would steal the parrots nest while they were away. Hurricanes sometimes blew over the trees were the birds nested and people also cut down the trees to make charcoal for their fires. The birds numbers kept going down each year.