Parakeet ’crime map’ busts Bogart and Hendrix myths

Using geographic profiling to map half a century of ring-necked parakeet sightings, a research team involving UCL has found no evidence to support any of the colourful legends surrounding the birds' origins in the UK. Stories have circulated in recent years that seek to explain how the non-native bright green birds ( Psittacula krameri ) started breeding and spread to become one of Britain's most successful alien species. Despite sightings dating back to the 1860s, many insist that Jimi Hendrix first released a pair on Carnaby Street. Others claim a flock was let go from the set of the Bogart and Hepburn classic The African Queen when filming wrapped in 1951. One theory suggests that parakeets kept at Syon Park escaped in the 1970s when a plane crashed through the aviary roof, while another blames damage to aviaries during the Great Storm of 1987. A new spatial analysis, published in the Journal of Zoology , backed by an extensive search of archived newspaper articles, concludes that Britain's booming parakeet population has instead grown from numerous small-scale accidental and intentional pet releases. The research team from Queen Mary University of London, UCL, and Goldsmiths, University of London conclude that intentional releases may have been encouraged from 1929-1931 and in 1952 by dramatic media coverage of fatal 'parrot fever' outbreaks.