The future of the Spix's macaw was not good in the past. Only a few dozen birds remain in the wild after the last member disappeared. It was clear that the prospects for Cyanopsitta spixii were not good.
Spix's macaws have made a stunning comeback thanks to an international rescue project. A flock was released from Brazil a month ago and is now flying over the country. The parrots will be released later this year and hope to breed in the wild next spring.
Tom White of the US Fish and Wildlife Service is a technical adviser to the rescue project. All of the birds that we released have survived.
They are in the vicinity of their release and are starting to sample vegetation. It's going as well as possible.
The Spix's macaw was named after a German scientist who first collected a specimen in 1819. The Caatinga is a shrubland and thorn forest in north-eastern Brazil where the parrot's homeland was overrun by goats and other animals. The land was destroyed and the numbers of macaws dropped as a result.
The secondary effect was caused by the loss in numbers. People want to own an animal when it becomes extinct. That is what happened to the Spix's Macaw. Unscrupulous individuals decided to take the few that remained in the wild for their private collections because they became rare.
The future for the bird looked bleak until it was revived by an animation film. Rio, the story of a domesticated male Spix's macaw named Blu, who is taken to Rio de Brazil to mate with a free-spirited female named Jewel, was released in 2011. Rio 2 made almost $1 billion. The films showed the threat to a global audience.
The president of Brazil signed a decree that established a refuge for macaws in the north-eastern state of Bahia, while a breeding programme using parrots from private collections was established around the globe. The association for the conserve of threatened parrots is based in Germany.
The Spix's macaw was saved due to the growing sophistication of modern genetics.
Inbreeding can be a real problem if you want to build up numbers of animals. The techniques used to check the genetic status of these birds were very sophisticated and allowed breeders to match birds very carefully.
It's easier to produce offspring from birds with artificial insemination.
Several hundred Spix's macaws have been bred in captivity and eight of them were released in June. Along with the Spix's macaws, eight Illiger's macaws were also released on 11 June.
The end result of generations of captive breeding has taken the edge off their survival skills.
By mixing them with Illiger's macaws, who were basically just wild birds brought briefly into captivity, the Spix can see where they get food and alert them to potential predators.
Each tagged bird is being monitored carefully. If things go well, we will release another 12 Spix's macaws in December.
The birds will all be young. We have made sure that there are several natural and artificial nest cavities in the area to encourage the birds to start breeding in the area.
Things are going well so far.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
