His presentation provided much previously unknown information on the situation with breeding the Spix's Macaw in captivity

One of the most interesting presentations at the AFA annual convention this year - held in August in San Antonio, Texas, was that given by Cromwell Purchase, the Blue Macaws Scientific Co-ordinator at Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar. His presentation  "Reproductive Research Strategies for the Spix's Macaw " provided much previously unknown information on the situation with breeding the Spix's Macaw in captivity. At the end of September Sven Hammer, who held a senior position at Al-Wabra and now works for Goerlitz Zoo in Germany, gave a presentation at the annual meeting of the German parrot conservation organisation, Fonds für bedrohte Papageien - this year at Leipzig Zoo - where he expanded on the information provided by Cromwell Purchase. All of this information was included in a paper published in Der Zoologische Garten - an Elsevier publication - earlier this year. I have put the salient points together for this website and you can access them by clicking here. You can acquire the complete paper, which was published in English and contains tables as well as illustrations, by visiting the website for the journal.