Texas bird course will educate and raise funds for parrot research

College Station, Texas

-- A course originally sponsored to raise money for parrot research will do that and much more when it begins in January 2009.

The Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center are sponsoring the Parrots of the Amazon Rainforest continuing education course, which will take place in the lowland Amazon Rainforest of the Tambopata National Reserve in southeastern Peru from Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, 2009.

Up to 18 students can study parrots in their natural habitat during the course, which is open to anyone, not just veterinary students. Veterinarians, technicians, veterinary students and bird enthusiasts all are welcome to enroll, according to Dr. Donal Brightsmith, one of Schubot's researchers who will head the program.

Registrants must apply for the program before Nov. 15, and the cost is $2,500. Anyone interested must have a valid passport and vaccination against Yellow Fever.

Click here for more information about the program.