Spatial and Temporal Trends in the Invasion Dynamics of the Ring-Necked Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) in the Urban Complex of Thessaloniki, Greece

Simple Summary The ring-necked parakeet is a charismatic parrot that has become one of the most successful invasive bird species in Europe. Originally from Africa and Asia, its presence in Greece counts more than four decades. However, until now, no one has studied how its population is changing or what makes it thrive in Greek cities. In this study, we recorded the presence and abundance of parakeets across the urban complex of Thessaloniki to understand where they live, how many there are, and how their presence and numbers are changing. We found that their presence is mostly associated with dense urban areas and green spaces. In addition, their population showed strong short-term growth, increasing by an estimated 64% from 2024 to 2025. Our results suggest that Thessaloniki supports a large and expanding parakeet population. Keeping track of their numbers in the future is important, since their spread could affect native wildlife.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Animals

• Publication date

  2026-01-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/ani16020224PMID 41594413PMCID 12837961
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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