Spix's Macaw news

There is an excellent book called Spix's Macaw by Tony Juinpeer. It gives the history of discovery, the troubles that beset the captive breeding program etc. As it was published in 2002 it is a little out of date but the historical stuff is really good.
 
eduardo_Brazil said:
Hi,

All know Spix Macaws in captivity are under the ownership of IBAMA.
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Are you sure about this as this was a major issue in the past. As far as I know are the birds in Germany and at Al-Wabra in private hands. I know the Brazilian government might claim ownership but this might not be a done case. I had the idea that for now this issue was left aside for the sake of the species.
 
cockroach said:
So how many Spix macaw are known to be in captivity (or estimated to be held by private keepers)?
And I am not clear about which organizations and private keepers cooperate and disposed to exchange or loan the birds? If I understand Loro Parque cooperate with ACTP. But what about Al Wabra or another keepers?

Thanks.
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Funnily enough, many sources online tell about 120 Spix left, of which 80 are involved in the management program which are the ones publicised on Al Wabra's site. The whereabouts of the remaining 40 animals I've never managed to uncover anything about. Seeing the attempted robbery in Switzerland and the prices these animals could fetch, i'm not all that surprised though...

Does anyone have any clue where these animals could be, why there are not in the program and would they add anything to the program or are they just genetically "surplus" (as far as this species could have surplus, really)...
 
jwer said:
The animal was probably at the "Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP), Berlin, Germany"

They had 0.2 at june '09 so i guess he was sent there to mate with the females there. This information comes from;
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yes, sorry, you never said 'Zoo' I just interpreted this wrong.

I'm surprised that a male has been moved backwards and forwards like this in a species which develops a long standing 'pair bond' for breeding. I wonder if its temporary stay in Berlin was fruitful? Is there now a shortage of adult/proven breeding males in the population, that they had to 'share' this male?

To my knowledge (all?) the birds in Switzerland were removed to Al Wabra and or Germany(Berlin?) but of course there are still(or may be) various 'hidden' birds which have still not come to be officially recognised, as the Al Wabra census indicates, so some could still be in Switzerland too.
 
Try to forget the 120 number. This is a number that firstly appeared on the birdlife website without any reference to the source. After that it spread. There is no proof for 120 spix macaws. We know of the existance of 71 birds in the studbook and there are claims (but no proof) for an additional 12 in Switzerland.
If someone can point me out where the other 37 birds are i would love to hear it but neither in the program neither in the avicultural world there are indications for this. But please do not follow a number put on the website of a ngo without any reference for it.

The male in germany was originally paired up with his current partner in Tenerife before being send to Berlin for 2 years. where he was successful. what the current plans are with the two females (mother and daughter) i dont know
 
DDcorvus said:
We know of the existance of 71 birds in the studbook and there are claims (but no proof) for an additional 12 in Switzerland.
The male in germany was originally paired up with his current partner in Tenerife before being send to Berlin for 2 years. where he was successful. what the current plans are with the two females (mother and daughter) i dont know
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Yes, the Studbook recognises 71 known birds and no others in Switzerland.

Is the 'daughter' in Berlin the offspring of the (returned) Loro Parc male? I'm still surprised they were able to pair him with a different female successfully and now re-pair him back at Loro Parc. A bit risky I would have thought to do this, but if it was successful, that is good. It indicates though that they are short of adult males now, at least outside of Al Wabra.
 
yes the young female is a daughter of the ACTP female and the breeding male of the Loro Parque. And he did not only helped to fertilize the eggs in Berlin he is also the father of the last born chick in Tenerife (the one born in 2010). So they succesfully re- paired him with his former partner.
 
So do we know how many are in Berlin. Is it just the two? I thought it was more than that.
 
ACTP claims to have 14 Spix Macaws out of which 12 are in Switzerland (no independent proof on those) and 2 of them in Berlin. So yes there are just the 2 females in Berlin.
 
DDcorvus said:
ACTP claims to have 14 Spix Macaws out of which 12 are in Switzerland (no independent proof on those) and 2 of them in Berlin. So yes there are just the 2 females in Berlin.
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Very mysterious...:confused: so the two in Berlin are 'known' birds and included in the Studbook, but the 12 supposedly in Switzerland are still part of the 'invisible' population?
 
DDcorvus said:
And the existence of Glaucous Macaws is still based on rumours the last confirmed sighting was in the 60's with only preluded with one in 51. This are the only two records for the last 100 years.
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I have always been tempted to wonder if Lear's and Glaucous Macaws might in fact be seperate populations of the same species. They are remarkably similar apart from differences in hue of their plumages.
 
Pertinax said:
Very mysterious...:confused: so the two in Berlin are 'known' birds and included in the Studbook, but the 12 supposedly in Switzerland are still part of the 'invisible' population?
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Basicly yes and the 12 might be there (looking at the recent history of the species kept in Switzerland it is possible) they might not. For now as there is no independence proof for these birds they are not included in the studbook. (If they are there in Switzerland they are private owned as the ACTP is a collective of private breeders and then these breeders might not want to get into the public too much as Brasil is claiming ownership of all spixmacaw's in the world).
 
Pertinax said:
I have always been tempted to wonder if Lear's and Glaucous Macaws might in fact be seperate populations of the same species. They are remarkably similar apart from differences in hue of their plumages.
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Except that there habitats seperated a lot the birds are also depending on different species of palm. The lear's macaw is depending on the licuri palm and the glaucous macaw are depending on the yatay palm. So they are closely related but quite sure different species.
 
DDcorvus said:
Basicly yes and the 12 might be there (looking at the recent history of the species kept in Switzerland it is possible) they might not. For now as there is no independence proof for these birds they are not included in the studbook. (If they are there in Switzerland they are private owned as the ACTP is a collective of private breeders and then these breeders might not want to get into the public too much as Brasil is claiming ownership of all spixmacaw's in the world).
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Well and Im wondering why ACTP dont sent is 2 birds (previously only 1 female) to this collection in Switzerland before give the ownership of this bird to Brazil??

Im quite sure that there is no any bird in Switzerland due the poor breeding results they have had there in the past.
 
I agree with you Eduardo and if there are any macaws I guess it would be some old birds without any breeding record.
 
Maybe you want to check out this video where Dr. Matthias Reinschmidt feed one of our baby Spix. Today it's not a baby anymore. :)

 
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On their website the AWWP report they have bred a further 6 Spix Macaw this year 2010 (plus 2 Lear's).

The website says the new young Spix are 1 male, 5 female , thus increasing the existing preponderance of females in the captive (and only) population.
 
Alpza in is Conservation Newsletter from july 2010, about conservation projects also shows the spix macaw project and says that Brazil dont is owner of the birds that are abroad (maybe olny a part them?) and that they are aware of some birds not registered in the programm, and they estimate that a total amount of 150 macaws in captivity.

Only spanish:

http://www.alpza.com/docs/NEWSLETTER JULIO 2010 pdf.pdf
 
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