Told you they're the best, why do you think I got one?
I'm preparing to write a very detailed article about this cape vs uncape mess with research and details. But for now, briefly, here's what I've come to learn about it:
Money is good.
Scientists like money.
Scientists get money grants when they propose interesting research.
Conservations societies can also get money by creating protection efforts.
There exist 3 subspecies of the Cape Parrot, Poicephalus Robustus:
P. r. robustus, P. r. fuscicollis, P. r. suahlicus
Robustus is nominate and known as Cape Parrot, Fuscicollis is also known as Brown-Necked Parrot (Not to be confused with Brown-Headed Parrot), and Suahelicus is known as Grey-Headed Parrot (not to be confused with Grey Parrot).
P. Robustus Robustus lives in small high altitude region of South Africa and is becoming quite endangered with remaining populations estimated to be no more than several thousand. A few scientists got some South African government grants and conservation society grants to manipulate some wording to be able to name the P. r. robustus a separate species so that it could be considered an endangered species. The other subspecies are doing pretty well and messing up the overall classification. Imagine a good neighborhood with one square block of poverty and trying to separate that into a different township so that it could be considered in poverty and receive special funding.
They proposed two new species of Capes:
P. Robustus and P. Fuscicollis (which would contain the Fuscicollis and Suahilicus subspecies) in order to be able to declare Poicephalus Robustus an endangered species. Most of the evidence they used was based on minute variations in physiology and dna analysis that demonstrated a slightly bigger divergence between p.r.r from p.r.f and p.r.s.. While some scientists jumped on the band wagon and supported the species split so they could get this thing called "money" too, Cites did not buy it and rejects the claim that the two are different species. Based on the evidence given for splitting the species (and the scientists literally said in the paper that the main reason they want to split the species is for the sake of conservation), it is not convincing (based on the definition of a species as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing viable offspring). Furthermore I have heard rumors of successful/viable mixing of the species but have not found any written evidence to support or reject this.
Finally the breeders in the US jumped on the bandwagon and started calling them uncapes. You see the P.r.r is not bred domestically and the breeders decided it would be bad rap to claim they are breeding "cape parrots" which are thought to be critically endangered. So the clarify that they are breeding a different, non-endangered sort of parrot, they started calling them uncapes. Basically this is a load of politics and quite likely will change when the money pays to go the other way. All of the above is what I've learned from my breeder, the process of looking into getting a cape, and reading several scholarly essays on the topic and discussing with a psychologist/evolutionist. When I can get some more research in (my hardest part has been to acquire some of the papers I need for evidence cause they are published in discreet and very rare journals), I will write my own take on the situation and why I insist on calling Truman a Cape Parrot, Poicephalus Robustus Fuscicollis.
I think this ridiculous naming debate is counter productive and forces people to argue about subtle technicalities rather than doing something more meaningful. I have found it very frustrating because as I was considering getting a Cape I was extremely confused because some insist on using the new taxa while others hold onto the original. Really the original taxa is the predominantly accepted one but the proponents of the change are the ones being most vocal and pretending the new one is undisputed. This makes it twice as hard to get info. For the period between when I ordered my Cape and receiving him, I purely assumed that he was a Brown Headed Parrot, Poicephalus Fuscicollis Fuscicollis. However, upon reading some of these papers and talking to more people, I realized that this is a completely open case and until someone can prove to me that P. r. f. is incapable of producing viable offspring with P. r. r, I will remain skeptical of the politically motivated information.
PS I made a nice little map on
http://poicephalus.org to show their native range.