Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LONDON, March 22 (UPI) -- British ornithologists are trying to determine how to deal with an influx of thousands of parakeets in London and its suburbs. Experts believe there are about 30,000 rose-ringed parakeets in city parks and suburban gardens, The Telegraph reported. The birds are originally from India and southern Africa. Advertisement Some ornithologists want a cull to get the numbers down. "They are very pretty and exotic but are having an impact on our woodland tree-crevice nesters," said Tony Drakeford, an ecologist who has seen the numbers of parakeets in a park near his home increase 30 percent in a year. "Something needs to be done but the options are complicated." Tim Webb of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds argues that the parakeets do not compete with birds who nest in crevices because of their large size. No one is completely sure when the parakeets first arrived in London. One legend is that the present-day birds are descended from a flock that escaped from the set of "The African Queen" in 1951, but records have been found of parakeets in London in the 19th century. Advertisement
