No-one is competent to say how many Spix's Macaws are still living in the wild. There is said to be just one free-one left. We might be somewhat cautious to accept this. The four Australian species mentioned above have references to them being quite exterminated. Consider the Mauritius parakeet Psittacula echo. The rather small island on which it lives is continually subject to survey. At least one resident ornithologist is employed, full-time in conservation. This green, long-tailed parrot, which although 'shy' seems not, by the reports, to be anywhere near as difficult to approach as Spix's macaw. After seven years it was found to have a somewhat larger wild population than had been accredited.
Illiger's Macaw is supposed to be endangered in the wild. Yet I have seen quite large populations, certainly adding up to thousands, in areas of Brazil several hundred miles to the north-east. of their accepted range. Likewise a population of Hyacinthine Macaws exists to the north of the Amazon River in the state of Amapa. Their presence had been reported almost a hundred years ago, yet is was not until last year that they were again cited, nor were they uncommon. Recent ornithological examination has turned up several species of macaw, including Coulon's, previously unreported from Bolivia.
Man is the reason for Spix's Macaw decline. He, and his domestic livestock, have made it increasingly difficult for the bird to find food, refuge and nest-sites. The tragedy is aggravated into scandal because the largest known population (it might have been the only surviving population) was plundered into complete destruction by psittaculturalists. Almost everyone of the captives in Europe, Brazil and the Philippines have been feloniously abstracted from this one population. The rumour is that several have been captive-bred in Brazil in the past; for myself I doubt the numbers suggested. The truth is that captive-breeding attempts so far have been appalling. The few reared do not make up for the number of adults that have died and continue to die. Eggs are produced, but ignorance on how to rear chicks from them has prevented numbers from rising.
For myself, I do not believe that conservation for Spix's, or indeed any macaw, can come through captive breeding. All ought to have complete protection in the wild. This can only come if trading in wild-taken birds is made illegal. It does seem a somewhat bizarre prestige that certain people seek to get from being a prison warder. What makes it so paradoxical is that the incarcerated are innocent, they are the robbed (losing liberty) and their gaolers, certainly as in the case of so many Spix's Macaws, are the criminals, breaking the law by purchasing wild-stolen birds. The amount of money spent on ownership would have, if it had been put into wild conservation, helped to maintain a viable wild population. Some of this cash could have gone into research and study. Surely the birds would have benefited by being left where they were in an established colony. Many of the captive pairs were trapped at their nest-holes. They were breeding when caught. had they been left where they were some of their offspring might have survived.
Apart from Joseph Wolf's 1907 painting the illustration accompanying this article is the only known to have been made from live Spix's Macaws. The renowned artists, Jenevora Searight, studied wild and captive examples to make her picture. The bird in the foreground is perched on a branch of the last nesting tree used by the macaw.
Other articles on the Spix's Macaw
Index of articles
Blue Macaws Homepage
