São Paulo – In nature, the last specimen of the blue macaw, a bird typical of Northeast Brazil, was seen in October of the year 2000. Ever since, the animal has not been found in its natural habitat, and was declared extinct from the country’s forests. Now, it only lives in captivity, and out of 74 birds known, 54 are maintained by the Al Wabra Wildlife Conservation Centre, in Qatar.
Maintained by sheikh Saoud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al Thani, the Al Wabra Centre maintains 2,500 animals, including mammals and birds, in a 2.5 square kilometre area near the city of Al Shahaniya, in the central area of the Arab country. The first blue macaws arrived at the centre in February of the year 2000, coming from the Birds International Incorporated (BII), a conservation centre in the Philippines.
After that, the centre has also received specimens of blue macaws from a private breeder in Switzerland and new ones from BII. In 2006, by invitation of the Brazilian Environment and Renewable Natural Resource Institute (Ibama), the Al Abra became an official member of the Working Group for the Recovery of Blue Macaws. In Brazil, a few birds of the species remain, maintained by the Lymington Foundation and the São Paulo Zoo.
"The Al Wabra Centre is a very active partner for the conservation of the species," declares Hugo Vercilo, the general coordinator for Endangered Species at the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Conservation Institute (ICMBio), an organization of the Ministry of Environment.
The Australian Ryan Watson is in charge of blue macaw conservation and breeding work at Al Wabra. His job is not easy, considering that out of 73 existing specimens, 69 have originated from only two birds, which were sisters. This genetic proximity makes the breeding of blue macaws even harder, aside from the fact that the species has not taken to being bred in captivity. Out of 260 eggs that have been laid by the females, only 27 have hatched. The good news is that all of the young birds that were born have survived.
"There are four people who work directly and exclusively with the blue macaws, apart from many other people involved at different levels, ranging from veterinarians to maintenance personnel. They all perform important work in caring for the blue macaws at Al Wabra," says Watson of his team’s activities.
In 2008, the Al Wabra purchased Fazenda Concórdia, a farm in the municipality of Curaçá, in the state of Bahia. It was there, in a plot covering 2,380 hectares, that the last blue macaw was seen in the wild, almost 11 years ago. The centre intends for the farm to go back to being the home of this type of bird. They are forecasted to return to Brazil in early 2014.
The females should be the first to be released in the farm, because they are much higher in number than males. If they adapt well, then their offspring, including a few males, will also be set loose to form a natural reproduction group.
The average lifespan of a blue macaw bred in captivity ranges from 25 to 30 years. Currently, the oldest bird of the species, a male, is already 37 and is kept at the Al Wabra Centre. According to Watson, this is an exceptional age for the species. He also highlights that last year, Al Wabra successfully hatched two eggs from this specimen, which had not bred in 10 years. "It was a really great result," he says.
Aside from the blue macaws, the Al Wabra Centre, which is closed to the general public, maintains three other Brazilian bird species: 14 Anodorhynchus leari, seven Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus and six Aratinga guarouba.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
