‘Extinct’ parrots return to Brazil again

Twenty years ago, the future of parrots Spix Macaw (Macau) couldn’t look more ominous. The last member of this unique parrot species has disappeared from the wild, leaving only a few dozen birds in collectors’ cages around the world.

However, thanks to a remarkable international rescue program, the Spix parrots – with their gray heads and vivid blue plumage – have made a spectacular comeback. A flock is now flying freely over its old homeland in Brazil, after being released there a month ago. Later this year, officials plan to release more birds and hope the parrots will begin breeding in the wild next spring.

“The project is going extremely well,” the biologist stated Tom Whiteof the US Fish and Wildlife Service and a technical advisor to the rescue project. “It’s been almost a month since we released the birds and they’ve all survived. They behave as a swarm. They remain in the area of ​​their release and begin to sample the local vegetation. Everything is going as well as it could be».

This particular species of parrot, named after the German biologist, Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix, who first collected a specimen in 1819, fell victim for two specific reasons. As agriculture spread across South America, an area of ​​scrublands and thorn forests known as the Caatinga in northeastern Brazil was overgrazed by goats and other animals. The land was severely eroded and parrot numbers declined as their habitat was destroyed.

“This loss of numbers also had another effect.” said the biologist to the “Guardian” newspaper. “As soon as an animal is endangered, collectors want to own it. And that’s exactly what happened with this particular species. They became rare and “rogue” individuals decided to try to take the few that remained in the wild for their private collections».

The future for the species looked bleak until the bird’s fortunes were revived by an animated film. 2011 saw the release of the movie ‘Rio’, the story of a domesticated male Spix Macaw named ‘Blu’ who is brought to Rio de Janeiro to mate with a free female, ‘Jewel’. The film and its sequel, Rio 2, grossed nearly $1 billion.

Later in 2018, Michel Temer, then president of Brazil, signed a decree establishing a parrot wildlife sanctuary in the northeastern state of Bahia, while a breeding program, using parrots from private collections, was set up at various centers in Worldwide.

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