Little Blue
Phillip Kelley | April 2020
It was 2012 when 13-year-old me sat down in class to watch a movie one day when my teacher didn’t feel like teaching. We watched Rio, a Disney movie about the adventure of Blu, a blue macaw, who had been stolen from his home in Rio de Janeiro as a baby, and eventually goes on a journey around the world to try and save his species.
It wasn’t until many years later when I realized that this heartwarming children’s movie, was a romanticized twist on a tragic story of stealing, smuggling, and a race to save a species that was reality for the Spix Macaw. When I learned this, I became alarmed that we didn’t even discuss the real tragedy that inspired the story to be written when we sat down to watch it that day in class. I began to think that maybe this is part of the problem. Watching romanticized animated stories of real-life tragedies twists us into thinking they’re not real, or are as easily solved as they look on the screen. I felt like it was only right to revisit the topic that I had brushed off so easily, and learn the reality behind the story of ‘Blu”.
In 1819, Johann Baptist von Spix, a German naturalist, and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, a botanist, were in Brazil searching for unusual plants and animals, collecting specimens to send back home. They had been there two entire years before discovering the little blue macaw, which would eventually be named the Spix Macaw after Spix himself. Even at the time of its discovery, the macaw was incredibly illusive and rare, and managed to go 84 years before being observed in the wild again. This caused people to believe that the initial specimen had actually been a member of a different species that was incorrectly thought to be a unique species. However, the bird made an appearance again in 1903, confirming that the species was real, and sparking a worldwide interest in the animal.
Scientists from around the world began rushing to find more of these birds and learn about them. And unfortunately, the hype surrounding the animal also caught the attention of people were looking to make a quick fortune off these birds. Trappers and smugglers became increasingly interested in the rare and beautiful blue macaw, and went to extreme measures to get their hands on them. Adults were captured, and eggs and babies were abducted from their nests and smuggled around the world to supply the illegal bird trade. Because of their striking blue color and rarity, they were able to be sold for up to $40,000 on the black market to bird enthusiasts and exotic animal collectors who didn’t know or didn’t care about where the birds came from.
Simultaneously, as the birds were facing direct attacks by humans, they were also facing a subtler, but equally detrimental attack in the form of habitat destruction. We don’t know much about the nature of these birds in the wild, but we do know that they relied heavily upon the Caraiba woodlands for feeding and nesting, and these woodlands were being destroyed as colonizers tried to find space to graze livestock, and the goats, sheep, and cattle they brought, ate the young trees and prevented the macaws’ habitat from recovering. Although it’s not clear why, once this woodland was destroyed, the birds were unable to move into the surrounding area or find other trees to make their nests in. Something about this particular woodland was unique and integral to their survival.
As they were watching their home being destroyed by humans, they were also watching a different species steal their remaining nesting spaces. Africanized Honey Bees had been introduced to Brazil in 1956 to increase honey production; however, when several swarms of these bees escaped they began posing a huge issue to the macaws. These bees aggressively competed with the birds for nesting sites, and were even known to invade the macaws’ nests and drive out or kill chicks and occasionally nesting females. This reduced the available nesting areas even further, preventing their reproduction.
Because sightings of these beautiful birds were always incredibly rare, it’s uncertain when or how exactly the final wild Spix Macaw met its demise, and although some people wonder if maybe they’re still out there in un-surveyed parts of the world, experts have officially categorized them as extinct in the wild. There’s a lot that we don’t know about their story; however, the one thing we know for sure is that humans prioritizing monetary gain, no matter the consequences, was a key factor in accelerating this process.
Now, much like in the movie Rio, scientists are planning ways to undo what has already been done to the species by attempting to breed the macaws remaining in captivity with the goal of increasing the population enough to one day release back into the wild. Unfortunately, this goal is not as simple and straightforward as Rio makes it seem.
First of all, we’re not sure how many of these birds actually exist in captivity. There is no way to find out how many of these macaws were sold around the world in the illegal bird trade, or where they ended up. Additionally, captive breeding successfully is incredibly tricky, especially with endangered birds. Over an eight year period of breeding these macaws in captivity, only 33 chicks hatched from 331 eggs laid. This sets us up for a very long, slow process of trying to increase the population.
Additionally, another problem arises when we look at the plans to reintroduce these birds back into the wild. Because these birds were rarely ever observed in the wild, we know very little about their lives when they aren’t in captivity. This would mean that we don’t really know how to prepare them to live in the wild, and once released they might be unable to survive on their own.
In other words, it’s a whole lot more difficult to fix the problems we cause than it is to be mindful of the impacts of our actions and take care to protect species in the wild, so we don’t have to attempt to reintroduce them.
Sources
Hemmings, N., et al. “Causes of Hatching Failure in Endangered Birds.” Biology Letters, vol. 8, no. 6, 2012, pp. 964–967., doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0655.
Juniper, Tony. Spix's Macaw: the Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird. William Collins, 2016.
Juniper, Tony, and Carlos Yamashita. “The Conservation of Spix Macaw.” ORYX, vol. 24, 1990.
“The Real Macaw.” The Australian Magazine (New South Wales, Australia), 2019.
EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgin&AN=edsgcl.582894980&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Waugh, David R. “Lora Parque Fundacion Returns Macaws to Brazil in Conservation Action.” AFA Watchbird, journals.tdl.org/watchbird/index.php/watchbird/article/view/1161/0.
Phillip Kelley | April 2020
It was 2012 when 13-year-old me sat down in class to watch a movie one day when my teacher didn’t feel like teaching. We watched Rio, a Disney movie about the adventure of Blu, a blue macaw, who had been stolen from his home in Rio de Janeiro as a baby, and eventually goes on a journey around the world to try and save his species.
It wasn’t until many years later when I realized that this heartwarming children’s movie, was a romanticized twist on a tragic story of stealing, smuggling, and a race to save a species that was reality for the Spix Macaw. When I learned this, I became alarmed that we didn’t even discuss the real tragedy that inspired the story to be written when we sat down to watch it that day in class. I began to think that maybe this is part of the problem. Watching romanticized animated stories of real-life tragedies twists us into thinking they’re not real, or are as easily solved as they look on the screen. I felt like it was only right to revisit the topic that I had brushed off so easily, and learn the reality behind the story of ‘Blu”.
In 1819, Johann Baptist von Spix, a German naturalist, and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, a botanist, were in Brazil searching for unusual plants and animals, collecting specimens to send back home. They had been there two entire years before discovering the little blue macaw, which would eventually be named the Spix Macaw after Spix himself. Even at the time of its discovery, the macaw was incredibly illusive and rare, and managed to go 84 years before being observed in the wild again. This caused people to believe that the initial specimen had actually been a member of a different species that was incorrectly thought to be a unique species. However, the bird made an appearance again in 1903, confirming that the species was real, and sparking a worldwide interest in the animal.
Scientists from around the world began rushing to find more of these birds and learn about them. And unfortunately, the hype surrounding the animal also caught the attention of people were looking to make a quick fortune off these birds. Trappers and smugglers became increasingly interested in the rare and beautiful blue macaw, and went to extreme measures to get their hands on them. Adults were captured, and eggs and babies were abducted from their nests and smuggled around the world to supply the illegal bird trade. Because of their striking blue color and rarity, they were able to be sold for up to $40,000 on the black market to bird enthusiasts and exotic animal collectors who didn’t know or didn’t care about where the birds came from.
Simultaneously, as the birds were facing direct attacks by humans, they were also facing a subtler, but equally detrimental attack in the form of habitat destruction. We don’t know much about the nature of these birds in the wild, but we do know that they relied heavily upon the Caraiba woodlands for feeding and nesting, and these woodlands were being destroyed as colonizers tried to find space to graze livestock, and the goats, sheep, and cattle they brought, ate the young trees and prevented the macaws’ habitat from recovering. Although it’s not clear why, once this woodland was destroyed, the birds were unable to move into the surrounding area or find other trees to make their nests in. Something about this particular woodland was unique and integral to their survival.
As they were watching their home being destroyed by humans, they were also watching a different species steal their remaining nesting spaces. Africanized Honey Bees had been introduced to Brazil in 1956 to increase honey production; however, when several swarms of these bees escaped they began posing a huge issue to the macaws. These bees aggressively competed with the birds for nesting sites, and were even known to invade the macaws’ nests and drive out or kill chicks and occasionally nesting females. This reduced the available nesting areas even further, preventing their reproduction.
Because sightings of these beautiful birds were always incredibly rare, it’s uncertain when or how exactly the final wild Spix Macaw met its demise, and although some people wonder if maybe they’re still out there in un-surveyed parts of the world, experts have officially categorized them as extinct in the wild. There’s a lot that we don’t know about their story; however, the one thing we know for sure is that humans prioritizing monetary gain, no matter the consequences, was a key factor in accelerating this process.
Now, much like in the movie Rio, scientists are planning ways to undo what has already been done to the species by attempting to breed the macaws remaining in captivity with the goal of increasing the population enough to one day release back into the wild. Unfortunately, this goal is not as simple and straightforward as Rio makes it seem.
First of all, we’re not sure how many of these birds actually exist in captivity. There is no way to find out how many of these macaws were sold around the world in the illegal bird trade, or where they ended up. Additionally, captive breeding successfully is incredibly tricky, especially with endangered birds. Over an eight year period of breeding these macaws in captivity, only 33 chicks hatched from 331 eggs laid. This sets us up for a very long, slow process of trying to increase the population.
Additionally, another problem arises when we look at the plans to reintroduce these birds back into the wild. Because these birds were rarely ever observed in the wild, we know very little about their lives when they aren’t in captivity. This would mean that we don’t really know how to prepare them to live in the wild, and once released they might be unable to survive on their own.
In other words, it’s a whole lot more difficult to fix the problems we cause than it is to be mindful of the impacts of our actions and take care to protect species in the wild, so we don’t have to attempt to reintroduce them.
Sources
Hemmings, N., et al. “Causes of Hatching Failure in Endangered Birds.” Biology Letters, vol. 8, no. 6, 2012, pp. 964–967., doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0655.
Juniper, Tony. Spix's Macaw: the Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird. William Collins, 2016.
Juniper, Tony, and Carlos Yamashita. “The Conservation of Spix Macaw.” ORYX, vol. 24, 1990.
“The Real Macaw.” The Australian Magazine (New South Wales, Australia), 2019.
EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgin&AN=edsgcl.582894980&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Waugh, David R. “Lora Parque Fundacion Returns Macaws to Brazil in Conservation Action.” AFA Watchbird, journals.tdl.org/watchbird/index.php/watchbird/article/view/1161/0.