What's new on the Blue Macaws website??
As the Blue Macaws website is being constantly updated with new material and images, I have decided to report on these additions so that frequent visitors can access them quickly and easily. Please remember to send me feedback by e-mail occasionally. This actually helps!! Please remember to put the word "Anodorhynchus" or something easily recognisable in the subject box, not "Hi" or "Hello" as these words are used extensively in spam e-mail and they will get deleted unread
There are now more than 350 images on the website, some on the images pages, but many on the articles pages, which are historical and historic. Click on any item hyperlinked in blue to get images or links to articles elsewhere on the website.
Hier klicken fur die Neuheiten in deutscher Sprache.
Wednesday, 30th April 2008
Some more news from Loro Parque. The Lear's Macaw breeding female laid three eggs at the beginning of April, but unfortunately damaged two of them beyond repair. However Curator Matthias Reinschmidt managed to rescue one undamaged and placed it in an incubator. It successfully hatched two days ago and now is being hand-reared by Matthias. The breeding female then laid two more fertile eggs and again damaged one of them, but Matthias rescued these as well, repaired the damaged egg and they are in an incubator until they are placed with suitable experienced foster parents in the next few days. Loro Parque is fortunate in having such an experienced and highly competent aviculturist as curator.
Friday, 25th April 2008
A recent study conducted in the Pantanal has shown that the greatest predator of Hyacinthine Macaw eggs and young, the Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco), also contributes considerably to the dispersal of the seeds of the manduvi tree, the main nesting tree of the Hyacinthine Macaw. It is the shortage of these large trees that played a major role in the decrease of the macaw population in recent decades. The macaw population has stabilised and increased in recent years because of the dedicated work of the Projeto Arara Azul team under the leadership of Neiva Guedes. They have prevented unnecessary logging, maintained nesting trees and installed nestboxes, which have taken pressure off the competition among various avian species for suitable nesting cavities.
It is estimated that Hyacinthine Macaws lose nearly a quarter of the eggs laid each year to predators, which include jays, possums and coatis as well as toucans, but the latter take over half. The toucans will also predate macaw nestlings. However on the plus side they disperse widely the seeds of the manduvi. They apparently collect nearly 90% of the seeds, which are dispersed. I shall put the full study on the website as soon as I have it.
Friday, 14th March 2008
My apologies to all regular website visitors for not reporting recently, but I have been very busy working since my last report. I also went to Brazil and Chile as well as the Caribbean in December. A lot is happening with various projects for the blue macaws and I am still working on re-vamping the website. The website run by Arkive has film footage I took in April 1995 to the Spix's Macaw area. There is unique footage of the female re-introduced to the wild in March 1995, but which went missing some four weeks later. Later it was reported she flew into power lines and was found dead by a local farm-hand. I also took footage of the huge aviary built to house her until she was acclimated for release as well as some footage of the young male, which was kept there for a while and was visited by the female. There is also some brief footage of the last wild male, which disappeared at the end of 2000, with his Illiger's Macaw mate. They were extremely difficult to approach. You can visit the Arkive website by clicking here .
Tuesday, 21st November 2007
On looking back at recent reports I have noticed that I did not complete giving information on the three Lear's Macaws hatched at Loro Parque in Tenerife this year. One of the two pairs of Lear's Macaws, then newly housed in the enclosure with the rock face to simulate their natural breeding habitat, laid an egg at the end of April, which they sadly damaged beyond repair. Five days later they laid another, which was removed almost immediately and found to have a small hole, which was repaired. This egg was placed with an experienced pair of Green-winged macaws (Ara chloroptera). As reported below on 27th May 2007, it successfully hatched on May 14th and was reared by the Green-winged macaws.
Then in mid-June the Lear's Macaws laid a further clutch with three eggs. The first was again slightly damaged, but after removal and repair was placed with another pair of Green-winged Macaws. This hatched on 16th July as reported below on 22nd July 2007 and is also being reared by its foster parents. The second egg was badly damaged and was replaced with a pottery egg. The third egg was laid shortly thereafter, but as the parents did not damage it, the team at Loro Parque decided to leave it with the parents to incubate and hatch, which it did on 23rd July. The parents reared it so well that it weighed 172g at 13 days. The image here shows its bulging crop.
The first hatchling fledged in the middle of August and was soon flying around its aviary. It displayed the natural fear, which parent-reared young exhibit and sought protection from its foster parents despite the difference in plumage colour and size. The second hatchling fledged in September, by which time the first one was feeding on its own although still occasionally begging from its foster parents. Finally the third hatchling in the care of its natural parents fledged recently and like the other two is doing well.
This is the first European natural breeding of the Lear's Macaw and Matthias Reinschmidt and his team at Loro Parque are to be congratulated for their dedication and well-deserved success.
Saturday 27th October 2007
It's a long time since I published any news, but quite a lot has been happening. The Lear's Macaw young hatched earlier this year at both Al-Wabra Wildlife Conservation and Loro Parque are doing well. I went to the American Federation of Aviculture's three-day annual meeting - this time in Los Angeles - in August. Ryan Watson, the young Australian aviculturist from Al-Wabra Wildlife Condervation, gave a presentation each day on various aspects of the important work there and I shall put these up in the next few days. Simon Jensen, who has just moved from Al-Wabra to Walrode Bird Park in Germany was also there as was David Waugh from Loro Parque, so there was excellent opportunity for networking with other "blue macaw " people as well as listening to a wide range of presentations.
I also attended at the beginning of this month the one-day annual meeting of the German Fonds für bedrohte Papageien (Engl: Funds for Endangered Parrots), which was held this year at Leipzig Zoo. The talks were again excellent and included a presentation from Sven Hammer, the German veterinarian, who has played a major part in setting up the establishment in the middle of the desert at Al-Wabra Wildlife Conservation and continues to lead the team there. There have been some serious disease problems with the Spix's Macaws acquired from the Philippines and Switzerland, which Sven and his team in Qatar have had to contend with. They are to be commended for their openness in discussing this situation as well as their success in breeding with their livestock.
Incidentally Leipzig is one of those old city centre zoos, which is investing heavily to take it from the 19th to the 21st century. The primate enclosures are very large and provide the various primates (gorillas, chimpanzees, oran-utans, gibbons and bonobos) living in them an interesting spacious environment. The elephant compound is also very attractive offering the possibility of seeing elephants swimming underwater through a subterranean glass panel.
We are still working on re-designing the website, which should be finished by the end of the year.
Monday 23rd July 2007
The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has reported that a count of the Lear's Macaw population carried out by Fundação Biodiversitas staff in June 2007 at the Canudos Biological Station in Bahia, Brazil - a reserve supported by the organisation - arrived at a total of 751 individuals. The macaws were counted as they flew out of the canyons where they roost and nest to their licuri palm feeding areas.
The report states that the global population in 1987 was estimated at just 70 birds, although Carlos Yamashita, the highly-respected Brazilian scientist, told me several times in the early to mid-nineties that he thought it was nearer 200. The 2003 census arrived at 455 macaws, and until last month’s count, the current population was estimated at 652 (survey 2006).
Mike Parr, Vice President of the American Bird Conservancy said “This is a remarkable success story – a species on the brink of extinction is now rebounding because its nesting grounds were protected.”
With the support of ABC, Fundação Biodiversitas has acquired land to expand the Canudos Biological Station to a 3,600 acre nature reserve, a ten-fold increase from its original size (see report below on 4th April 2007). At present this represents the only protected area for this critically endangered species.
“The protection of such a vital site for the Lear’s Macaw, through the expansion of the Canudos Biological Station, is a huge step towards the preservation of the species,” said Eduardo Figueiredo, Coordinator of the Biodiversitas Lear’s Macaw Conservation Programme. “The growing population confirms how essential it is to protect an endangered species’ habitat.”
For 18 years, Biodiversitas has protected the Lear’s Macaw colony in the state of Bahia. Now the conservation group is implementing protective measures for the reserve, and aims to secure additional dry forest areas that are vital for the species feeding. In addition, the project involves extensive environmental education, through both ecotourism and improving pride and understanding of the natural ecosystem among local people.
Sunday, 22nd July 2007
The young Lear's macaw hatched in May at Loro Parque is doing very well as you can see from this image sent to me today. One of the fertile eggs mentioned in the Al-Wabra press release below has successfully hatched. Hopefully the second one will also hatch soon.
Friday, 20th July 2007
I received an e-mail today from Al-Wabra Wildlife Conservation (AWWP) with some wonderful news. They have successfully hatched three more Lear's Macaws, which are now 16, 31 and 34 days old. Here is an image of the 16 day old macaw on its own.
They have made the following statement on the Al-Wabra website.
"The three chicks are being hand-reared by experienced staff after being artificially incubated. Unfortunately the breeding pair which produced the eggs has not yet developed sound incubation skills and several eggs laid were damaged beyond repair before being able to be removed to the relative safety of an incubator. The Lear’s Macaw is rarely bred in captivity and up until last year when AWWP bred their first ever offspring, the species has not officially been bred in 22 years.
The Lear’s Macaws held at AWWP are on breeding loan from the Brazilian Government and are part of an international captive breeding program managed by IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for Natural Resources and Heritage). The birds are managed within a studbook along with other Lear’s Macaws held in Brazil at the Sao Paulo Zoo, Rio Zoo, Crax Foundation and the Lymington Foundation. Outside of Brazil, other Lear’s Macaws in the studbook managed program are held at Harewood Bird Gardens - UK and Loro Parque – Canary Islands. After receiving two pairs of Lear’s Macaws late last year, Loro Parque have also experienced recent breeding success with one chick so far and two more fertile eggs pending.
Congratulations to Ryan Watson and his team at Al-Wabra!
Tuesday, 17th July 2007
I received a belated copy of AFA Watchbird (Volume XXXIII, Number 4, 2006) in which there is a report of partnership between the American Federation of Aviculture (AFA) and AVID Identification Systems Inc to provide three 125 KHZ scanners to help conservation efforts to save the Lear's and Spix's Macaws. One has gone to Yara de Melo Barros of IBAMA, another to Dr Lorenzo Crosta, the official Lear's and Spix's Macaw conservation committee veterinarian and the Lymington Foundation near São Paulo in Brazil. The Lear's and Spix's Macaws at the Lymington Foundation are already microchipped with AVID identification chips. The micro-chipping of all macaws in captivity will assist in controlling their movement between breeding centres and deter theft.
In the July issue of Papageien there is also the first part of an article on keeping and feeding of Lear's Macaws held at the Al-Wabra Wildlife Conservation (AWWP) in Qatar. Complied by Simon Jensen, now at Walsrode in Germany, Ryan Watson and Dr Sven Hammer, it provides a good deal of information about maintaining these magnificent macaws successfully in captivity. There are a number of interesting articles on the blue macaws produced by the team at Al-Wabra, which can be viewed at the official website at http://awwp.alwabra.com/ under publications.
Friday, 8th June 2007
I visited the Summer Fair of Fine Art and Antiques at Olympia in London yesterday and to my utter astonishment came across an original lithograph of the magnificent study of a Glaucous Macaw by M.Werner allegedly taken from a live specimen in the London Zoo in 1830, which appeared in Bourjot Saint-Hilaire's Histoire Naturelle de Perroquets, published in 1837-8. I saw this stunning portrait for the first time at the London Natural History Museum library in 1991 when I was researching the Glaucous Macaw. Needless to say I could not leave the Olympia show without it. The photo I took of it today to replace the rather poor one I have used in the past on the website still does not do the original justice, but is definitely an improvement. A close-up of the head has also been placed on the Glaucous Macaw images page.
Monday, 4th June 2007
The young Lear's Macaw is now three weeks old and weighs 495 g (hatch weight 20g). Called Edward he is being cared for by an experienced pair of Green-winged Macaws (Ara chloropterus). The Lear's Macaw parents had started exhibiting their readiness to reproduce at the end of April soon after being housed in the enclosure with the artificial rock-face. Unfortunately they irreparably damaged the first egg they laid and thus the second egg was removed as soon as possible after being laid. Although very slightly damaged it was repaired and placed under the Green-winged macaws, who hatched it and will care for the young macaw until it fledges in seven to eight weeks. Click here for the full press release from Loro Parque.
Sunday, 3rd June 2007
Just a quick notice that a TV programme made by Gabi Schlag and Benno Weg on the Spix's Macaw will be broadcast on the Arte channel on Wednesday, 6th June at 7.00 p.m. The programme makers visited all the individuals with captive birds apart from the recalcitrant Swiss breeders as well as the last known habitat for the species near Curaça in northern Bahia. If you can receive the Arte channel, make sure you watch it.
Sunday, 27th May 2007
More glad tidings. I am now able to announce that Loro Parque has successfully hatched its first Lear's Macaw. Now 13 days old the new arrival was produced by one of the two pairs sent to Loro Parque last November and housed in an enclosure with an artificial rock-face (see report below on 12th April 2007). Curator Matthias Reinschmidt is putting together a detailed report and I shall publish this on the website as soon as I receive it. In the meantime congratulations again to Matthias and his dedicated team.
Sunday, 13th May 2007
I have received the following excellent news from Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation
" The Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation (AWWP) is proud to announce the hatching of three Spix’s Macaws in late April. This breeding success has increased AWWP’s Spix’s Macaw population to 50 individuals; now comprising of 20 males, 27 females and the 3 juveniles whose sex is yet to be determined. Since 2004 AWWP has hatched 15 Spix’s Macaws and is confident of breeding more offspring this year. The Spix’s Macaw is one of the most critically endangered species in the world with only captive populations existing after the last wild bird disappeared in 2000. AWWP is part of an international breeding and recovery program managed by the Brazilian Government’s natural resources branch IBAMA. Five institutions in Brazil, Tenerife, Germany and Qatar are home to a current total of 78 Spix’s Macaws which are included in an international studbook. AWWP’s Blue Macaw Coordinator (Ryan Watson) is the primary studbook manager and is assisted by co-studbook keepers Matthias Reinschmidt (Loro Parque-Tenerife) and Onildo Marini Filho (IBAMA). The hope is that sometime in the near future captive bred birds can be used to re-establish the species to its native Caatinga habitat in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Bahia."
Thursday, 3rd May 2007
I have got just got back from Los Angeles where I attended the two-day weekend symposium organised by Parrots International. The presentations were excellent as was the networking opportunity with other parrot conservationists. There was lots of good news including the latest count of Lear's Macaws in the wild, which indicated there were now some 650 macaws at the two locations in Bahia.
Not so good was the information that the operation of the eco-tourist project at the Hyacinthine cliffs in Piaui by BioBrasil had been abandoned. I was unable to find the BioBrasil website to verify this. If correct this will be devastating for the Hyacinthine Macaws there, who have been "manipulated" to visit certain sites to feed and be photographed. I am trying to get further information on this and will report the results.
I have obtained a copy of the Management Plan for the Lear's Macaw produced by IBAMA with a team of experts and will provide a summary shortly. I can confirm that the three Lear's Macaws confiscated from Harry Sissen will remain in the UK at a new IBAMA approved Breeding Centre at Harewood Hall. The ownership of the birds will rest with the Brazilian Government and will be managed within the Captive programme.
Finally this website, which was put together over ten years ago is being given an extensive overhaul. It should make it much easier to navigate as well as providing sound and unique video footage at long last.
Thursday, 12th April 2007
I have had disappointing news from the Berlepsch estate in Thuringia in eastern Germany - see item below on 4th January 2007. I was hoping that they might still have diaries kept by Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch during his expedition to eastern Paraguay in 1886, which would indicate the exact location where he had seen the blue macaws, which I suspect might have been Glaucous Macaws (Anodorhynchus glaucus). Unfortunately if he had diaries, they have been long lost.
Wednesday, 4th April 2007
The last three months have been exceedingly busy for me workwise with a lot of travelling in Europe and unfortunately I have had no opportunity to post news to the website. However, the past six weeks have also been busy and exciting as well for blue macaw conservation. So there is some catching up to do.
FIRSTLY the Lear's Macaws sent to Loro Parque reported below on 4th December 2006 are doing well and are now housed in an enclosure with an artificial cliff face. Hopefully this will encourage them to breed.
SECONDLY at the meeting of the Committee for the Conservation of the Spix's Macaw held last October in São Paulo Zoo, Ryan Watson, the studbook-keeper, recommended that a proven male held in Germany should be transferred to Brazil to pair with an egg-laying female there. The German entrepreneur, Martin Guth, who had acquired a number of Spix's Macaws from Switzerland with the permission of the German CITES authorities, had set up the Verein zur Erhaltung bedrohter Papageien (Engl: Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots - ACPT) and transferred ownership of the Spix's macaws to it. The female in Brazil had laid 13 infertile eggs in the past year and the male in Germany had been successful in a pairing with his sibling. As this was not to be recommended for genetic management purposes, it was decided to split the sibling pair, send the male to Brazil and pair the female in Germany with a proven male from Loro Parque. Another male will be sent this Spring to Loro Parque from ACPT in Germany to replace the male already transferred from there to Germany.
The transfer to Brazil was meticulously organised. The male was firstly separated from the female six weeks before the planned departure date and underwent a thorough examination by the well-known German veterinarian Marcellus Bürkle. The macaw remained in quarantine until the results came through, which revealed no reason for not transferring the macaw to Brazil. This transfer required export and import documentation as well as a special permit from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture because of strict avian influenza regulations. By the beginning of February everything was in place and Martin Guth travelled with the macaw via Madrid to São Paulo. After a further four-week quarantine period he was introduced to his new partner in a breeding station belonging to IBAMA, the Brazilian wildlife authority, and hopefully there will be a successful result to report on later this year. There is no doubt that the appearance of Martin Guth on the scene and his acquisitions from the recalcitrant Swiss breeders has dramatically transformed the situation with the conservation of the Spix's Macaw for the better.
THIRDLY Martin Guth has joined with Bill and Linda Wittcoff of the Lymington Foundation in Brazil and Mark and Marie Stafford of Parrots International based in Los Angeles to buy 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of land near Curaça in Bahia. This was where Spix's Macaws last occurred in the wild and where the nest of the mixed Spix/Illigers Macaw pair was located. According to information released by Parrots International the purchase went through on 14th February 2007. The group wishes to restore the habitat and construct a permanent field station so that the future re-introduction of the species to the wild can be assured.
FOURTHLY another land purchase is going ahead in Bahia, this time for the Lear's Macaw near Canudos. The American Bird Conservancy is teaming up with the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund and the Brazilian conservation group Fundação Biodiversitas to purchase more than 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of vital habitat to protect the Lear's Macaw. According to information recently released by the American Bird Conservancy the project will protect key nesting sites, ensure their protection through hiring of forest guards and support education efforts in local communities. The Lear's Macaw and the protection of its habitat are priorities for the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE), a global initiative, that aims to protect critically endangered species depending on single sites for their survival. Fundação Biodiversitas has operated a research station near Canudos for many years - I stayed there in 1997 and 1998 - and the land purchase will expand the area under its control.
FINALLY a warning alert against rogue traders on the Internet. In Europe we are familiar with self-styled breeders from West Africa offering rare and endangered species for sale on the Internet, but these advertisements are widely recognised as typical scams from that region. I have been recently informed that a similar scam is being operated by a fraudulent breeder from the Cameroons on the Mercado Libre website in South America. Whatever your interest, do not waste your time with these people.
Thursday, 11th January 2007
More excellent news from Loro Parque. The young Spix's Macaw, which hatched a week ago, is doing well. Congratulations to all at Loro Parque especially Matthias Reinschmidt. I can now also include the paper published by David Waugh and Matthias Reinschmidt entitled " News on the captive management of the Lear’s Macaw" - see 4th December 2006 below - in German, Spanish and Portuguese. Just click on the relevant language. The Portuguese translation is brought thanks to the Brazilian journal Atualidades ornitologicas.
Thursday, 4th January 2007
I have been sent a report written by German aristocrat Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch (1857 - 1933) about a trip to the forests of eastern Paraguay bordering southern Brazil in 1886, which was published in the Journal of Ornithology in 1917. In this report entitled "Wichtige Beobachtungen im paraguayischen Urwald (Eng: Important observations in the Paraguayan forests), he states that he saw enormous flocks of Amazon parrots and smaller groups of the three macaws found there - Ara chloropterus (sic), Ara ararauna and Anodorhynchus leari. Now it is not possible that the Anodorhynchus macaws he saw there were Lear's Macaws (A. leari) as this macaw only occurs in Bahia thousands of kilometres to the northeast. It is also very unlikely to have been the Hyacinthine Macaw as the range of that Anodorhynchus macaw in Paraguay extends just to the far north-west of that country. However it might have been the Glaucous Macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus). This report is especially interesting as the area visited by Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch must have been near the location where the last anecdotal and unconfirmed sighting of the Glaucous Macaw in the 1960s originates - see the report with comment on 15th August 2006 below. My thanks to Claus Rasmussen from the University of Illinois for sending me this report by Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch.
Incidentally he came from a very interesting family. His close relative Hans Hermann Carl Count Berlepsch (1850-1915) was also an ardent ornithologist. He collected over 60,000 specimens from all over the world, which were sold by his son to the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, after his death and forms the basis for the important collection there having survived the devastation of the Second World War. Interestingly Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch in his youth kept Carolina Parakeets (Conuropsis carolinensis) at liberty at his home at Burg Seebach in Thuringia, Germany. He started off with two pairs who initially lived and nested in a dovecot. They bred prolifically and soon there were more than 20, who nested in natural hollows in several nearby lime trees. They were accustomed to fly together for miles in the surrounding countryside and Hans informed local people about this from time to time in regional newspapers. However, one day just after Christmas they disappeared and despite searches were never seen again. It was only several decades later that smoked remains of the parakeets were discovered in an inn some 30 miles (50 km) distant from Burg Seebach and the occupant reported that his father, the inn-keeper, had shot the birds over a two day period when he discovered them perching in a lime tree in his yard. Apparently the surviving parakeets had refused to leave their fallen comrades and were thus easy to finish off. This species, which was endemic in the south-eastern USA, was officially declared extinct in 1939. The last wild specimen was killed in Okeechobee County in Florida in 1904 and the last captive bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918.
Saturday, 30th December 2006
Some time ago Kate Gammond, who keeps and breeds Hyacinthine Macaws in Bahrain sent me some information on her experiences. There was also an article published in March 2005 on these experiences and I reproduce this here. I shall endeavour to get some more up-to-date information. Every year in Germany at the end of October the aviculturists' group based in a suburb of Cologne holds a meeting of Hyacinthine Macaw keepers to discuss problems and exchange ideas and information. The persistent problem of full term dead in shell hatching failures peculiar to the species will form an important part of the next meeting there in October 2007.
Friday 29th December 2006
It appears from the WWF website that £ 326,000 (approx. $US 640,000) was raised from the public by the Extinct programme. Half - £ 163,000 (approx. $US 320,000) - of this will go to tiger projects and the remainder will be divided up evenly between the other seven projects. So each will apparently receive just under £ 23,300 (approx. $US 45,700). Although not as much as hoped for by the programme makers, this additional funding will help the projects considerably. In the case of the Projeto Arara Azul, it will enable the team to widen the area it is working in and protect more Hyacinthine Macaws. Well done, Neiva!
Monday, 18th December 2006
WWF told me this morning that it is still collecting donations and awaiting monies collected by ITV, the TV channel. It did not yet know how much had been raised through the Extinct programme. As it will be closing its offices for Christmas and New Year this Friday, it is not very likely that this information will be available until early in January 2007.
Saturday, 16th December 2006 (late)
After a week of presentations for the eight animals nominated for the Extinct TV programme, the final episode was transmitted live this evening and the voting results from the viewers were announced. The Bengal Tiger came in first place followed closely by the Giant Panda and Mountain Gorilla. No surprises there! The tiger project will get half of the money donated to WWF through the programme and the remaining seven projects, including the Projeto Arara Azul, will share the remaining half equally. They have not yet announced how much has been donated, but it should be a substantial sum. I shall report this information as soon as it becomes known.
Friday, 8th December 2006
A report on the incidence of avian chlamydiosis in wild parrots in the Pantanal has recently been published in Veterinary Microbiology. A team of Brazilian scientists, which included Neiva Guedes, Director of the Projeto Arara Azul, took throat and cloacal swabs from 32 nestlings of the Blue-fronted Amazon (Amazona aestiva) as well as 45 nestlings of the Hyacinthine macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) and tested them for the presence of the bacteria Chlamydophila psittaci, which causes avian chlamydiosis in birds and when transmitted to humans psittacosis. The cloacal samples from two of the Amazons aged between 32 and 45 days were found to be positive. With four macaw nestlings throat swabs proved to be positive and cloacal swabs in as many as 12 macaw nestlings. The age of the infected macaws ranged from 33 to 88 days. The results seem to indicate that the bacteria C. psittaci is wide-spread in the Pantanal. However none of the nestlings infected manifested any symptoms of avian chlamydiosis.
Tuesday 5th December 2006
I have been sent this photo of fifteen year old Teddy Roosevelt Jnr in 1902 with a blue macaw by Michael Strobl from Vienna, who asked whether the macaw could possibly be a Glaucous Macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus). It is in fact a Hyacinthine Macaw, but still an interesting historical picture. Teddy Jnr's father, who was President of the USA at the time the photo was taken, was greatly interested in wildlife and mounted an expedition to Brazil from October 1913 to April 1914. The expedition spent considerable time in Mato Grosso, which at that time was comprised of today's states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, and noted about the Hyacinthine Macaw that "at many points on the journey through Matto (sic) Grosso this superbly colored macaw was abundant. They were invariably seen in pairs"
Monday, 4th December 2006
More than three months has passed since I last reported, but much has happened. The weather here in southern England has been very wet and blustery in the last week, apparently so much so that we had no power for twelve hours yesterday. When we rang the power company, EDF Energy, we were told by an automated female voice that it was aware of the problem and there was no point in putting us through to a real person as he or she would not be able to tell us any more. It is astonishing that in 21st century Britain and situated only 60 miles (100 kms) from its capital, London, one should be deprived of essential electrical power for such a long period because of typical seasonal and therefore surely to be expected wet, windy weather conditions.
However, now some good news. Firstly four young Lear's macaws - two male and two female - have been transferred from São Paulo Zoo to Loro Parque. This occurred at the beginning of November. They are still in quarantine, but will soon be transferred to the breeding centre at La Vera, where they will be paired and hopefully there will be similar success as that reported below on 21st August at Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar. I have been sent this photo of one of the macaws. Also David Waugh and Matthias Reinschmidt of the Loro Parque Fundación have published a paper entitled " News on the captive management of the Lear’s Macaw", which can be accessed by clicking here.
Secondly the Hyacinthine Macaw is one of the subjects of Extinct, an exciting new television programme in the UK to promote support and funding among the viewing public for conservation projects under the auspicies of WWF . It will be broadcast as a prime time show running from Saturday 9th to Saturday 16th December and features eight endangered species around the world that are threatened with extinction within the next century through habitat loss, poaching and climate change. The animals highlighted in the programme are the Bengal tiger, mountain gorilla, giant panda, Asian elephant, polar bear, orang-utan, leatherback turtle and the hyacinthine macaw.
The Hyacinthine Macaw Project (Projeto Arara Azul) in the Pantanal directed by Neiva Guedes has been chosen and support for the project will be advocated by a celebrity, in this case Michael Portillo, the erstwhile senior Conservative politician, who forsook political life and high office to become a television presenter after his bid to become leader of the Conservative Party failed in 2001. He will visit the project to learn about the threats these creatures face and the solutions WWF and its partners are working on to ensure their survival. He will return to the television studio to make the case for supporting the project before an invited audience and the viewing public. More information about this programme "Extinct" can be found by clicking here. Even if you are unable to view the programme you can still make a much-needed donation by visiting this website.
Thirdly when attending the 6th International Parrot Convention organised by Loro Parque Fundación in Tenerife in the Canary Islands at the end of September I met Linda and Willian Wittkoff, who have set up the Fundacão Lymington near São Paulo. Presley, the Spix's Macaw, who was kept as a pet in the USA for some 30 years, before being repatriated to Brazil four years ago, was given into their care and after one year has undergone an amazing transformation. He is now kept together with a female and may soon produce offspring. Both Linda and Willian deserve congratulating for their unstinting care of this macaw. In September 2005 he looked like this. In July of this year he looked like this.
While on the subject of Spix's Macaws I was reminded when studying the bare facial patch and feather structure of the Spix's Macaw of the bambiraptor at the Discovery Building in Silver Spring, a suburb of Washington DC. Some have believed the Spix's macaw to be a relict species and probably nearing the end of its allotted period. This picture shows clearly how reptilian birds can look.
The 6th International Parrot Convention in Tenerife was a great success with an excellent programme of presentations from experts from around the globe. It also afforded great opportunity to network and exchange views and opinions. I have attended all the conventions from the first in 1986 and the topics presented and discussed have greatly altered over the two decades with conservation really at the forefront. This is undoubtedly due to the dramatic increase in conservation projects in all the countries where parrots are endemic and the efforts of organisations like the Loro Parque Fundación, which to date has contributed well over $ US 4 Million to parrot conservation projects. I am already looking forward to the next one in 2010.
Tuesday, 21st August 2006
Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar has announced the successful hatching and rearing of a Lear's Macaw. Although the young macaw hatched on 14th July, they wanted to see how it progressed before announcing this landmark result. It is now more than 34 days old and thriving. Two fertile eggs were laid by the adult pair, but one died at an early stage of its development within the egg. They have four pairs of Lear's Macaws in Qatar on loan from the Brazilian government since 2004 and have admitted the species is challenging to breed successfully in captivity. AWWP’s successful breeding of a Lear’s Macaw represents the first offspring bred as part of the official IBAMA initiated captive breeding programme.
The last officially recognised breeding of Lear's Macaws in captivity
was in the 1984 at Busch Gardens in Florida. It is believed that the captive
Lear's Macaws in Switzerland have bred, but the small group of breeders there is
very secretive about its successes with both Lear's and Spix's Macaws. More
information and images of the young macaw at various stages in the last six
weeks can be viewed at its website at
http://alwabra.com/awwp/pr-lears.php
Tuesday, 15th August 2006
I have just returned from attending this year's American Federation of Aviculture (AFA) convention in Dallas. There were a number of very interesting and informative presentations as well as excellent opportunity to network. While there I managed to visit the Dallas Zoo and the Dallas World Aquarium. The latter was particularly interesting, indeed amazing, because it is constructed within an old warehouse in the heart of downtown Dallas. I was shown round by the senior aviculturist, Josef Lindholm III, who gave two presentations at the convention on aracaris and cotingas. He had met some of the leading aviculturists of the past, including shortly before his death in 1985, Jean Delacours, who apparently in his early teens saw a Glaucous Macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus) at the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris just over 100 years ago in the opening years of the 20th century. According to Josef he commented "It was quite ugly! - Too large a head, too short a tail, an unattractive colour... Not pretty at all... But it was the only one I saw in the world!" When I visited the museum at the Jardin D'Acclimatation towards the end of the 1980s I took a photo of the Glaucous Macaw specimen there being held alongside that of a Lear's Macaw.
While on the subject of the Glaucous Macaw, Carlos Bianchi, who works closely with IBAMA, the Brazilian government wildlife agency, on both the Lear's Macaw and Spix's Macaw programmes, mentioned in his presentation on the status and conservation of parrots in Brazil that this species had been declared extinct in the Brazilian Red List to be published later this year although the IUCN in their publication last year (2005) persisted in giving it a status of critical. The reason for this appears to be a number of unconfirmed reports of sightings as well as a comment by Fernando Costa Straube in his work on avifauna in the southeast region of the state of Parana [Contribuições ao conhecimento da avifauna da região sudoeste do estado do Paraná (Brasil)] published in 1988. He says that he was informed by local inhabitants that between 1961 and 1964 there were two species of macaw living along the margins of the river Iguaçu. One was red with blue wings, which he took to be the Green-winged Macaw (Ara chloroptera) and the other was more seldom, smaller, greenish-blue with yellow at the base of its bill. He then puts in brackets the name Anodorhynchus glaucus with a question mark.
This question mark has apparently been converted to recorded sightings by the experts at the IUCN. However, I do not believe these reports justify a belief in the species' continued existence. Two more expeditions have been mounted recently and have found no trace of the species. Reports such as that above are notoriously unreliable. I can remember being told by a rancher in the northern Pantanal eleven years ago that he had seen a small blue macaw in the area. When I showed him illustrations of the four blue macaws he pointed at the Spix's Macaw and insisted that was the bird. "Sky blue" he kept repeating. At the time we thought there was a remote possibility it might have been an escapee from a trafficker on his way to Paraguay - some eight years earlier three Spix's Macaws had been confiscated from a house in Asuncion. However, we soon came to the view that the rancher was just simply mistaken.
Friday, 9th June 2006
Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation has issued a press release on its website with a picture of the seven, yes seven, Spix's Macaws bred there this year. With the offspring bred in 2004 and 2005 Al Wabra has successfully reared 12 Spix's macaws.
All chicks have been hand-reared by specialist staff at Al Wabra, but they hope more clutches will soon follow from the respective pairs, allowing them to parent-rear some of their young. They also hope that other pairs will start reproducing and bring them one step closer to re-establishing the species back to the nature in Brazil as part of the international recovery effort.
Sunday, 29th May 2006
The swallows arrived back earlier this month and are nesting again in the eaves of the stable building. The young male Spix's Macaw transferred to Loro Parque from Germany in March is settling down well with the young female bred there. Also earlier this month I visited the mission museum at Steyl in the Netherlands after learning that there is a Spix's Macaw captured in the early 1930s on display there. I went there with Axel Hirschfeld from the Komitee gegen Vogelmord. The deputy curator kindly took measurements and I took some photos although the light was not very good to protect the extensive taxidermy collection there of animals and birds sent during the early years of the 20th century from all the mission houses throughout the world.
Some fourteen years ago Joe Cuddy and I visited Nelson Kawall in Sao Paulo and saw a magnificent macaw there, which Nelson said was a very rare naturally occurring mutation of the Blue and Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna). Nelson and other Brazilian aviculturists called it Ara mosaica because of the curious mosaic like blue patterning on its otherwise golden yellow plumage. The next time we went we were disappointed to discover that he had exchanged it with Antonio de Dios in the Philippines for a pair of Cinnamon Blue and Yellow Macaws, another mutation of the species with a pale cinnamon sheen to the blue feathers on the wings and back. The photographs I took at the time have appeared over the years in English and German language publications, but I reproduce them here and here.
Sunday, 23rd April 2006
St George's Day and I heard the cuckoo for the first time this year today. Two weeks ago I flew to Singapore for a three day business trip, but managed to find time to visit the Jurong Bird Park, about which I had heard and read so much. The large walk-through aviaries are especially impressive. Apart from the many parrots I saw several species of bird-of-paradise and the great blue turaco, which I saw last seventeen years ago when I visited Ruanda and its neighbouring countries. I also saw and heard at Jurong Bird Park a Yellow-naped Amazon parrot, which can count to ten in Malay, Chinese and English. It also sang a Malay love song, a Chinese children's rhyme and Happy Birthday in English to three visitors celebrating their birthday that day.
Whilst on the subject of impressive presentations I should like to remind interested website visitors that the early registration booking date for the International Parrot Convention held every four years at Loro Parque, Tenerife is fast approaching. All registrations received before 31st May are subject to a substantial discount. This great occasion, which attracts more than 850 delegates from around the world, will be held from Wednesday, 27th to Saturday, 30th September 2006. It begins with a welcome reception on the evening of 27th September, then the mornings of the next three days are given over to a series of presentations by scientists, field-workers, conservationists and leading aviculturists. More information and booking forms are available by visiting the convention website at www.loroparque-fundacion.com
Thursday, 16th February 2006
Further to the good news from Loro Parque I can confirm that the Spix's Macaw - a female - hatched by the team at Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar at the end of last October is well and thriving. This is in addition to their success in rearing two young earlier in the year (see the news item below on 1st June 2005)
Friday 3rd February 2006
The Bundesamt für Naturschutz (Federal Department for Nature Conservation) based in Bonn, which is the CITES authority in Germany, has issued a public statement explaining its decision to allow the importation of the Spix's Macaws from Switzerland. I have translated this into English for non-German speakers. Many questions have been raised in Germany, particularly from breeders, about this unusual step for an organisation, which normally strictly applies the rules. The original German text can be seen by clicking here
Tuesday 31st January 2006
Some more excellent news from Loro Parque. Another Spix's Macaw was hatched successfully on 17th January. The egg was laid on Christmas Day last year completely outside the usual breeding period and was incubated by the adult female until it was established the egg was fertile. It was then removed to an incubator for the remainder of the incubation period. The hatchling weighed 13.5 g. It was then fed every two hours by the team at Loro Parque and now at two weeks weighs just over 70 g The owner of the Spix's macaws transferred to Germany from Switzerland last year has now signed up to the official recovery programme and will transfer a male to Loro Parque to form a new unrelated pair there. Both this step and the new arrival will make further considerable contributions to the recovery of the species and its eventual rehabilitation in the wild.
Sunday 30th October 2005
There have been some very recent significant changes in the situation with the captive Spix's Macaw population. Until then the only macaws officially in the Recovery Programme were the four held at Loro Parque, Tenerife and the seven macaws in Sao Paulo Zoo. The macaws belonging to several Swiss holders and Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar perhaps numbering some 90 macaws were not in the programme.
The Fonds für bedrohte Papageien (Funds for Endangered Parrots), a very active group of aviculturists affiliated to the Zoological Society for Population and Species Conservation based in Munich, who raise significant sums of money to fund conservation projects around the world, held its annual one day seminar on Saturday 29th October at the Ornithea show in Porz, a suburb of the city of Cologne on the banks of the River Rhine. There the attendees were informed that 3 Spix's Macaws - an adult pair and its male offspring hatched in 2004 - have been recently transferred to Germany from Switzerland with the full agreement of the German authorities and IBAMA. Negotiations are underway for the transfer of other macaws held in Switzerland by private individuals to Germany to be held at two secure establishment near Berlin.
Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation has also just confirmed in a press release that the 15 Spix's Macaws it was holding in Switzerland have been transferred to Qatar, the final two birds being moved on 25th September. The main consideration was security and then the problem with the macaws of PDD. These macaws will be held separately to the macaws already in Qatar, which were acquired from Antonio de Dios in the Phillippines. The full text of the press release can be read on the News Page of the website or by visiting the Al-Wabra website.
Friday, 14th October 2005
I had a report at the beginning of the month that the Spix's Macaws belonging to Sheikh Saud Al-Thani held in Switzerland had been transferred to Qatar. An official report is expected soon to confirm this and will appear on this website when it does. There have been movements with other Spix's Macaws held in Switzerland and I expect to be able to report on these at the end of the month.
Monday 29th August 2005
There has been concerning news about an outbreak of Proventricular Dilatation Disease (PDD), otherwise known among aviculturists as macaw wasting disease, among the Spix's Macaws transferred from Antonio de Dios' collection to Qatar. According to a report published by Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation on its website at http://alwabra.com/awwp/sci-pdd.php three Spix's Macaws have died. I have heard from other sources that one or two more may have died since, but cannot confirm this at present. In any event Al-Wabra is to be commended on its openness in publishing this document presented by four distinguished German veterinarians at a meeting in Prague earlier this year.
Also concerning is information that larger numbers of Spix's Macaws are present in Switzerland than generally believed and are being offered for sale with some being transferred outside Switzerland. It is reported as well that Sheikh Al-Thani is seeking to re-home the Spix's Macaws acquired from Roland Messer and at present still in Switzerland. A location in the UK has been among several suggested, but I am not alone in thinking that the Sheikh would be ill-advised to pursue this and hopefully IBAMA would not agree to it.
Wednesday, 1st June 2005
I have heard from the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar that in the first week of May 2005 another two Spix’s Macaw chicks hatched, and are now being hand–reared by the staff there.
Since 2000 the Spix’s Macaw has been considered to be extinct in the wild. All hope to save the bird species from total annihilation now rests with a very small population kept in captivity. These two chicks which are number three and four to hatch under the AWWP management represent additional hope and motivation in the conservation of the species.
Friday, 13th May 2005
I received an e-mail today from Earthwatch informing me that Donald Brightsmith and Dusti Becker will be giving a talk on Thursday 23rd June, 7.00 - 8.30 p.m at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London. The subject is "South American Forest Birds - Ecotourism, Enterprise & Extinction." The theme is summarised as follows: "From the stunning bird bio-diversity of Ecuador's Loma Alta cloud forests to the beautiful and highly prized macaws in the Tambopato region of Peru - how best can local communities conserve their environmental heritage?"
The role of eco-tourism in conservation is very contentious. One only has to consider the situation, for example, with the Lear's Macaw, where these highly endangered macaws were being enticed with corn to certain trees to be photographed by tourists in a hide.
The talk is free, but a ticket is required for admission. You can obtain these by contacting Earthwatch on 01865 318856 or e-mailing events@earthwatch.org.uk
Tuesday, 19th April 2005
I have looked at the CITES trade data for the period mentioned by Mr Santoli (see below) and can find no imports of Lear's Macaws into Switzerland reported between 1979 and 2003.
Lots of happenings to report! Earlier this
year I heard that two Lear's Macaws were exhibited at a show held last
November
by the Amicale du Bec Crochu (English - Friends of Hookbills), an aviculturist
group in the French speaking part of Switzerland. At first I thought this must
be an identification error, but I have discovered they were birds belonging to
a member of the club called Constantin Santoli. Mr Santoli apparently also works with
the local veterinary authorities as a parrot consultant and as such frequently
holds confiscated birds on its behalf. He is pictured here with the macaws.
Mr Santoli allegedly claims to have legal
papers for Lear's Macaws imported in 1980 - although the macaws exhibited at
the recent show appear to be juveniles - and is said to believe there are more
than 30 illegal Lear's Macaws in Switzerland and more than 15 Spix's Macaws. If
this is the case we would strongly urge Mr Santoli to contact IBAMA in
It is also reported in the art world that Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, second cousin of the Emir, has been arrested by the authorities in Qatar for alleged misuse of public funds in the acquisition of expensive works of art for the museums of which he is overseeing the construction in Qatar as part of an ambitious plan to transform the tiny Gulf state into a major international cultural centre. According to the Art Newspaper this month the Sheikh has recently been transferred from house arrest to prison. An Arabic language newspaper Al Sharq has reported that some $US 275 million has been spent by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage (NCCAH) of which Sheikh Saud Al-Thani was until recently chairman. However it seems that this astounding situation will not affect the operation of the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation project in Qatar, where there are four pairs of Lear's Macaws as well as the Spix's Macaws acquired from Antonio de Dios. There are also the macaws held in Switzerland, which the Sheikh acquired from Roland Messer.
I have just returned from
Although my trip was for two days only I did
manage a brief visit to the specimen collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
There I examined the three Glaucous Macaws (Anodorhynchus glaucus)
collected by Cptn. Thomas Page during his expedition to
The date given for the collection of the
macaws on the tags attached to the three specimens was
A belated happy new year to all. I have
experienced problems lately in updating the website after upgrading to Windows
XP, but hope this is now resolved. At the end of last year there was more good
news from Loro Parque with the hatching of a second Spix's Macaw, which is
doing well. The first hatchling is also doing well and is living with an
Illiger's Macaw (A. maracana).
There are some interesting new developments with the Lear's Macaw situation at
Serra Branca and I am preparing a full report for the website on the events
leading up to the withdrawal of BioBrasil from the area last December and what
has occurred in the meantime.
Lorenzo Crosta, the veterinarian from Loro
Parque, was at
Saturday, 2nd October 2004
Harry Sissen was sent to jail again yesterday for 21 months for not paying the
£150,000 (US$ 225,000) court order imposed in September 2001 (see report in
Yorkshire Post on 27th September 2001), which was the amount the Court
determined at the time was due to illegal earnings. He was ordered by the
Tuesday, 3rd August 2004
Just got back from a 10 day trip to Bahia in north-eastern Brazil to visit the
Lear's Macaw area at Serra Branca area and see how construction is progressing
at Praia do Forte on the quarantine facility for Lear's and Spix's Macaws
located there (see report on 12th January 2004 below). I also managed to get a
few hours watching some of the hundreds of humpback whales, who visit the
off-shore area from July to October to mate and calve. The weather was very
windy last week with heavy showers. I waited from Tuesday to Friday before the
weather settled down for a while to allow us to go out with the 25 foot
research schooner. However a cold front moved rapidly up on us and we had to
return to shelter after five hours. Whale watching is much easier later on in the
season.
Regular visitors to the website will recall that I reported at the end of July
2003 that Sheikh Saoud bin Mohd. bin Ali Al-Thani had acquired the Spix's
Macaws belonging to Antonio de Dios in the
The press release can be read on the news
page by clicking here. It confirms that Sheikh
Al-Thani now holds 42 Spix's Macaws and that Roland Messer retained one pair.
Two Spix's macaws have hatched successfully so far this year and an egg is
still in the incubator.
Die deutsche Fassung der Presse-Mitteilung
kann man lesen wenn man hier klickt.
Good news! Diego Calderon was released by the FARC guerrilla group yesterday
three months after being taken hostage. He is back with his family.
Harry Sissen had his judicial review dismissed in the High Court in
Also an article on my trip to Brazil at the
beginning of the year, which I wrote some months ago, has just been published
in the August issue of Parrots magazine, which is distributed mainly in
the UK and the USA. Unfortunately three images of Hyacinthine Macaws in the
Pantanal, which I submitted with the article, have been erroneously captioned
by the publication as Lear's Macaws. The article was also heavily edited
without referral for space reasons, but the original version will appear in
full in the Parrot Society magazine shortly and will of course be posted to
this website.
I heard today that the baby Spix is doing well and weighs 164 g. The Spanish
version of the press release, which was posted to the website in English and
German on
Also the judicial review, which Harry Sissen
applied for, will commence on
A press release from Loro Parque on the hatching of the Spix's Macaw can be
found on the news page. Die deutsche Version kann
man lesen wenn man hier klickt.
The botany expert and the guide abducted by the Colombian guerrilla group FARC
with Diego Garcia Calderon (see below on
The egg hatched successfully at Loro Parque and you can see the young Spix's
Macaw by clicking here. Congratulations to
Loro Parque and in particular Matthias Reinschmidt, the Curator of Birds, for
this success.
As additional background to the story just below I am posting the article published in the latest issue of Cyanopsitta,
the newsletter of Loro Parque Fundación, about veterinarian Lorenzo Crosta's
visit to
A more comprehensive report in German
appeared in the May 2004 issue of <I<>Papageien and can be accessed by
clicking here. Diesen ausführlichen Bericht
in deutscher Sprache über den Transfer des Spix-Ara-Männchens von
I have received confirmation that the pair of Spix's Macaws at Loro Parque
produced two eggs last month - see news below on
As the nest box programme of the Projeto Arara Azul is a vital part of the
conservation work for the Hyacinthine Macaw in the southern Pantanal and is
approaching its 10th year I have separated out the images and put them on a
dedicated page.
Some good news and bad. Firstly I have heard that the Spix's Macaws at Loro
Parque have laid. Secondly I have heard that Diego Calderon, a dedicated young
ornithologist, was taken hostage in mid-April by FARC, the guerrilla group in
The Projeto Arara Azul has just set up its
own website, which can be accessed by clicking here.The video footage of
Hyacinthine macaws in the nest with their young previously viewable on the WWF
The swallows have returned and today I heard the cuckoo for the first time -
some four weeks earlier than last year. All the trees are coming into leaf in
the rolling countryside of this little corner of
Reports of Spix's Macaws in eastern Europe
and especially
Monday,
Apologies to all for the loss of many of the images on the website. These have
hopefully all been restored now. I have posted an extract from the December
2003 issue of Cyanopsitta the newsletter of the Loro Parque Foundation,
to the news page. It once again highlights the
very considerable contribution LPF makes to parrot conservation. However the
information at the end on the acquisition of Spix's Macaws in
Friday, 26th March 2004
Regular visitors to the website may recall that at the end of last July (2003)I
reported that Sheikh Saud bin Mohamed bin Ali Al-Thani of Qatar had acquired
Spix's Macaws owned by Antonio de Dios. At the time neither party would confirm
this. It has now been confirmed that Sheikh Al-Thani acquired 24 Spix's macaws
from Antonio de Dios and now holds 31 macaws in
My personal opinion is that this is a welcome
development in continuing efforts for the conservation of this rare parrot.
Although the private aviculturists were successful in building up the captive
population it is alleged to have been without regard to genetic factors. Very
few zoos have been successful in breeding rare species of parrots and perhaps
the Sheikh can provide a sort of halfway house combining the positive aspects
of both private breeder and zoological institute. He certainly has the
resources and appears to have a genuine desire to make a serious positive contribution
to the conservation, including re-introduction, of the Spix's Macaw.
Lisa Pye has contacted me from
It has been widely reported in the print and
broadcast media that 68 animals have been poisoned very recently at
Harry Sissen has won his right for a judicial review. A short report, which is
appearing in this week's issue of Cage & Aviary Birds, can be read
by clicking here
I went to
It is truly amazing how many Lear's and
Spix's Macaws were kept by zoos and private individuals at that time. Primley
later Paignton Zoo in south Devon had several Lear's and Spix's Macaws in the
1920s, Mossley Zoo in Liverpool and the London Zoo both had Spix's Macaws in
1932, M.F Vanoutryve kept Spix's Macaws at Roubaix, now a part of Lille in
France, in 1930 and J.Delacour reports that there were 4 Hyacinthine Macaws and
7, yes 7, Lear's Macaws at Clères in northern France in December 1939, the
early months of the Second World War. If anyone knows what happened to these
macaws, please e-mail me.
Some of these reports were put on the website
some years ago, but I should like to remind visitors about them. They can be
found on the "Naturalist and other historical documents" page under each species. I particularly like the May
1930 account by Karl Plath, the Curator of Birds at the New Chicago Zoological
Park, of his Spix's Macaw, which he kept at his home in the windy city and
later "summered at the Zoo", which spoke in a feminine voice and
burst into song "in a laughably quavering manner".
I have also put a report from Cage &
Aviary Birds on the latest development in the Harry Sissen case on the
website page dedicated to this vexatious issue.
A belated happy new year to all! I have just returned from a whistle stop tour
of
I then returned to Brazil, visiting the
Projeto Arara Azul at the Pousada Caiman as well as the Pousada Arara Azul in
the southern Pantanal, the capital of Brasilia and Praia do Forte in Bahia
before returning to São Paulo to visit the zoo and meet up with friends in the
scientific and avicultural communities there.
The new quarantine and breeding facilities
for the Lear's and Spix's Macaws are planned on land provided at the EcoResort
at Praia do Forte, which is also the home of the famous Tamar turtle and Humpback
Whale projects. The quarantine facility intended for four pairs or 8 macaws,
which is at present partially built, will occupy 5,000 sq. metres (1.25 acres)
and the breeding facility will stand on 15,000 sq. metres (nearly 4 acres) of
licuri palm covered land some two/three
kilometres from the quarantine facility.
There are at present 13 Lear's Macaws (six
pairs and a male) at
There are also 7 Spix's macaws at
Articles on my trip will appear soon in Parrots
Magazine and Papageien and then on this website. Images of the trip will
appear on the website when developed.
At the beginning of last month I attended the 2nd annual meeting of Hyacinthine
Macaw breeders and keepers in
One very interesting finding was how little
water Hyacinthine Macaws required daily. It is already known that Lear's Macaws
in the wild get their daily liquid intake from squeezing small gooseberry-sized
licuri palm fruits. The Hyacinthine Macaw appears to survive on what amounts to
a thimbleful of water or as Dr Wolf put it equivalent to a small schnapps glass
each day.
Sadly the repatriation of the three confiscated Lear's Macaws to
Sunday, 21st September 2003
The Committee for the Conservation of the Lear's Macaw set up by IBAMA at the
end of May (see below for report) will be meeting on Tuesday, 23rd and
Wednesday 24th September at Praia do Forte, 70 km (45 miles) from Salvador, the
main city of the north-eastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Strategies for the
conservation of the species will be discussed. IBAMA Director, Rômulo Mello,
defined the priorities as monitoring the macaw in its natural habitat,
continuing census activities, which recently indicated that the wild population
had increased to 455 macaws (see below) as well as studying reproduction
biology. He added "the challenge for the scientists is to obtain data on
the productivity of the nesting sites".
Also under discussion will be the recovery of
the species in captivity. A quarantine facility is being constructed under the
supervision of Cemave, the National Centre of Science for the Conservation of
Wild Birds, at Praia do Forte for captive breeding of both the Lear's Macaws
and Spix's Macaw for introduction to the wild. This project is expected to be
completed later this year.
Finally plans for expanding eco-tourism
allowing close observation of the Lear's macaws in the wild without undue
disturbance to them will be developed, again under the supervision of Cemave.
Representatives of both parties have denied there is any truth to the report
that Sheikh Al-Thani has acquired any more of Antonio de Dios's Spix's macaws.
Time will tell! The Sheikh already has eight Spix's Macaws - two pairs from de
Dios acquired in January 2000 and recently four from Roland Messer, the Swiss
aviculturist who controversially bought 15 of Dr. Hämmerli's Spix's Macaws in
1999 - as well as nine Lear's Macaws acquired in eastern Europe. Although the
Swiss authorities also controversially legalised the Spix's Macaws held in
their territory, thus theoretically allowing their export, at present none of
the EU countries will allow their import.
It seems that Sheikh Al-Thani has not acquired all of Antonio de Dios' Spix's
Macaws, but 30 of them. More news shortly.
João Miguel Folgosa Herculano, the thirty-one
year old Portuguese citizen apprehended last week smuggling 58 eggs of rare
bird species, claimed to the authorities that they were quail eggs. The
Brazilian authorities are determined to act forcefully against those involved
in illegal trafficking of Brazilian wildlife.
News has come in today that Sheikh Saud bin Mohamed bin Ali Al-Thani of
More news has come in over the past few days about activities and actions
regarding the Lear's Macaw. Hopefully the three illegally acquired macaws,
which were confiscated five years ago in the
On 30th June four illegally acquired young
Lear's Macaws were recovered by IBAMA from a dealer called
There is good news about the numbers of
Lear's macaws in the wild. Field-workers have ascertained that the population
has increased from 412 to 455 in the last twelve months in the municipalities
of Canudos and Jeremoabo. In addition to the wild population there are 41
macaws in captivity. In 1988 there were estimated to be just 170 macaws in the
wild. Since then the field work has intensified and trafficking has been
deterred by the presence of the field workers.
Finally news came in on 3rd July that the
prefecture of the
On
Priorities of the committee would be the
protection of the wild population currently estimated at 400 individuals, a
scientific study of the species' reproduction with work on productivity of
young and eggs as well as the introduction of new individuals into the wild
population.
A quarantine facility would be set up in
WWF
Good news! We have been waiting anxiously for the cuckoo in
Monday, 10th May 2003
IBAMA, the Brazilian environmental and wildlife protection ministry, has
decided to split the joint committee set up some years ago for the conservation
and protection of the Hyacinthine Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus),
the Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) and Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta
spixii). There will be a separate committee for the Hyacinthine Macaw,
which will include experts such as Neiva Guedes, co-ordinator of the Projeto
Arara Azul in the Pantanal, Yara Barros of IBAMA, Ricardo Bonfim Machado of
Conservation International and well-known ornithologist, Pedro Scherer-Neto.
The judge in the appeal case brought by HM Customs & Excise has decided
that none of the birds confiscated should be returned to Harry Sissen, thus
reversing the Court decision last November. A brief newspaper report can be
read here. Although this report states that
Harry has lodged yet another appeal, other reports suggest that the judge has
ruled this out.
The appeal by HM Customs & Excise against the Court decision last November
to return most of the parrots confiscated from Harry Sissen nearly five years
ago to him has now been heard. The judge has said he will give his decision on
28th April. A regional newspaper report on the appeal hearing can be read here.
A letter on the Spix's Macaw discovered recently in the
The Sissen case grinds remorselessly on. HM Customs & Excise has decided to
appeal against the decision last November in the Magistrates' Court to return
100 of the 144 parrots confiscated to Harry Sissen. The appeal will be heard by
the judge who jailed Harry more than two years ago for the illegal importation
of three Lear's Macaws and six Blue-headed Macaws. There is a full report on
the website page dedicated to this landmark
case.
A Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry set up by the Brazilian Chamber of
Deputies to investigate the trade in Brazilian flora and fauna has been in
session since November 2002. This week several news reports appeared on the
Brazilian Government official website for the Chamber of Deputies. I have
summarised them in English on the news page and
posted the original full Portuguese text to a separate website page.
The final report of the Commission is expected shortly. I believe important
issues about the value of eco-tourism to conservation have been raised. There
are unscrupulous operators out there as well as excellent ones. Among the
unscrupulous there are those who just simply fleece tourists and others who use
eco-tourism to cover other nefarious activities.
Happy new year to all!!!! I have added the press release by Loro Parque
Fundación on the repatriation of the Spix's Macaw discovered in the
Good news!! The Spix's Macaw recently discovered in the
The magistrate deciding the fate of the 144 parrots confiscated by HM Customs
& Excise from Harry Sissen has at long last given his judgment. 100 are to
be returned to the breeder and the remaining 44, including the three Lear's
Macaws (Anodorhynchus leari)and six Blue-headed Macaws (Ara couloni)
illegally acquired will remain with HM Customs & Excise for placement. Two
local reports appear on the news page.
I have received today some excellent images of the Lear's Macaw taken earlier
this year in
I have been meaning for some time to post an article on the Glaucous Macaw by
Claudio Bertonatti of the Fundación Vida Silvestre
Great excitement about a report that a Spix's Macaw has surfaced in the
The 5th International Parrot Convention was held at Loro Parque on
There is also a press
release on the return to
A decision by the magistrate is still awaited
in the Sissen case, although this was expected some weeks ago. As soon as the
decision is known it will be posted to the website.
Saturday 20th July 2002
Reports similar to the one mentioned below about IBAMA's decision to dissolve
the Committee for the Recovery of the Spix's Macaw have appeared on various
websites in Brazil and other media. I have discovered that the origin of all
these reports is the IBAMA
website. That means it's OFFICIAL! The official statement appears on the Blue
Macaws website news page with an English
translation by the website editor. So please let me know if I have made any
mistakes!
I have received an agency report from
Tuesday 25th June 2002
Yet more delay in the Sissen's case as the judge delays his final decision
until August or September after having refused to accept the expert witness
presented by Harry Sissen. The newspaper report in today's Yorkshire Post
can be accessed through the news page.
Monday 10th June 2002
Pedro Salviano Filho, publisher of Atualidades ornitologia, the
Brazilian monthly newspaper for ornithologists and aviculturists, has kindly
sent me the website address for a four minute video from a Brazilian TV
programme capturing the use of infra-red cameras in a nest of a Hyacinthine
Macaw pair monitored by Neiva Guedes of the Projeto Arara Azul. The nest had
three eggs and I assume it was the nest from which triplets were hatched
recently (see below
Sunday, 9th June 2002
There was been another development in the protracted proceedings against Harry
Sissen, when the judge decided to adjourn the hearing until 24th June to allow
him to present DNA evidence on the birds confiscated in 1998. This does not
relate to the Lear's Macaws and Blue-headed Macaws, but the other parrots
taken. The two newspaper reports on this have now been posted to the website on
the news page
Friday 7th June 2002
The final stage of the proceedings against Harry Sissen to decide on the fate
of all the parrots confiscated four years ago - yes, it was four years ago -
started earlier this week and I have placed the first newspaper reports on them on the website. The case should
conclude early next week and hopefully the three Lear's Macaws will then be
repatriated as requested by the Brazilian authorities.
I am pleased to add to the two articles below (
Spring has finally come to
There is a really interesting article by Norbert Hebel on his experiences in
breeding Hyacinthine Macaws, which appeared in the April issue of Gefiederte
Welt and which I have translated to place on the website. It includes an image of a hatchling being fed in the nest
by the adult female. The original German text is viewable
on the German language pages of the website.
There is also a report
on breeding of Hyacinthine macaws in aviculture in
Finally there is news of a change in the
studbook-keeper of the Spix's Macaw project. In March IBAMA decided to appoint
Carlos Bianchi supported by Dr. Wanderlei de Morares - both based in
I am posting an article on the re-pairing of
the Spix's Macaws held at Loro Parque to the website today. This was published
in the December 2001 issue of Cyanopsitta, the newsletter of the Loro
Parque Fundación. The same issue reported that 1,104 young of 167 parrot
species and subspecies were bred at Loro Parque in 2001 compared with 853 of
148 species and subspecies in 2000. The 2001 successes included five
Hyacinthine Macaw young.
Excellent news from the Pantanal with publishing of the annual report for 2001
of the Projeto Arara Azul. The project continues to operate successfully and is
able to announce the successful rearing of triplets
by a wild pair in a nestbox.
An interesting report on the Spix's Macaw saga appeared in today's supplement
to the Times, the leading British daily broadsheet newspaper. Although not
entirely accurate on the history of the recovery programme it sheds new
interesting light on the latest situation. It can be read in the section of the website dedicated to the Spix's
Macaw.
I have also posted a report
in this week's issue of Cage & Aviary Birds on the intervention by Boris
Johnson, Member of Parliament for
Transportation boxes are ready and waiting
and British Airways has agreed to fly then back to
I am informed that HM Customs and Excise has
successfully applied for the final Condemnation hearing to settle legal
ownership of all the birds confiscated to proceed without waiting for a decision
on Harry Sissen's appeal against the Confiscation hearing decision last August.
Even so, this may not take place before the summer.
Monday, 24th December 2001
The World Parrot Convention, which has taken place every four years under the
auspices of Loro Parque in Tenerife, Canary islands since 1986 takes place from
18th to 21st September 2002. More information on this is available at http://www.loroparque.com
The proceedings against Harry Sissen grind on remorselessly slowly. He has now
appealed against the decision in the recent confiscation hearing, which is
holding up the hearing on the livestock confiscated nearly four years ago. This
means additional delay in the repatriation of the Lear's Macaws to
Tuesday, 9th October 2001
I am publishing today the Notification (No. 52)
to the Parties issued by CITES on 10th August 2001 at the request of IBAMA, the
Brazilian wildlife government agency, following the decision by Antonio de Dios
in the Philippines to start selling captive bred Spix's Macaws in his
possession in contravention of the agreement with the Brazilian authority.
Friday,
Hooray!!! The images are back again. No thanks to Technical Support at the ISP.
In the end the problem was quite simple, but time-consuming to solve. Special
thanks to Lloyd Vancil of
I am publishing a short article on