There were 16 speakers from 10 countries who all have involvement with the blue macaws

I have just got back from attending the 1st International Parrot Symposium in Dublin. It was held at Trinity College in the heart of the city on Saturday, 26th and Sunday 28th June. There were 16 speakers from 10 countries, which included Matthias Reinschmidt from Loro Parque, Cristina Miyaki from São Paulo University in Brazil, Lorenzo Crosta from Italy, Rick Jordan and Mark Stafford from the USA, who all have involvement with the blue macaws.

Matthias confirmed that Loro Parque now have four pairs of Spix's Macaw in the breeding centre in Tenerife (reported on 17th March below) and he continues to have success with breeding Lear's Macaws. Cristina talked about the DNA studies she has carried out in recent years, which revealed, for example, that the last remaining Spix's Macaw in the wild, which disappeared nine years ago  produced a hybrid embryo from its pairing with a female Illiger's Macaw (Primolius maracana). You can see the text of the paper produced in 2001 by clicking here. She also confirmed  that most of the Hyacinthine Macaws traded illegally within Brazil originate from outside the Pantanal, where most of the existing population occurs (see report on 8th July 2008 below).