Jason Malham, a New Zealander who has coordinated parakeet work for the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, descends from a tree after checking the nesting site of a Mauritius Echo Parakeet Black River Gorge national park September 11, 2007. In the 1980s, there were only about 10 left alive. But, in a rare success story, a two-decade conservation programme in a wooded corner of Mauritius has brought the Echo Parakeet back from the brink of extinction. It is one of the only good news stories in Wednesday's IUCN Red List -- a list of threatened species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources -- which downgraded the species to "Endangered" from "Critically Endangered" in its last report. Picture taken September 11, 2007. REUTERS/Ed Harris (MAURITIUS) 

A Mauritius Echo Parakeet rests in Black River Gorge national park September 11, 2007. In the 1980s, there were only about 10 left alive. But, in a rare success story, a two-decade conservation programme in a wooded corner of Mauritius has brought the Echo Parakeet back from the brink of extinction. It is one of the only good news stories in Wednesday's IUCN Red List -- a list of threatened species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources -- which downgraded the species to "Endangered" from "Critically Endangered" in its last report. Picture taken September 11, 2007. REUTERS/Ed Harris (MAURITIUS) 

A Mauritius Echo Parakeet rests in Black River Gorge national park September 11, 2007. In the 1980s, there were only about 10 left alive. But, in a rare success story, a two-decade conservation programme in a wooded corner of Mauritius has brought the Echo Parakeet back from the brink of extinction. It is one of the only good news stories in Wednesday's IUCN Red List -- a list of threatened species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources -- which downgraded the species to "Endangered" from "Critically Endangered" in its last report. Picture taken September 11, 2007. REUTERS/Ed Harris (MAURITIUS)