EAF IV: Blue-throated Macaw + Friends

Feb 22, 201510 min read

Deviation Actions

KiwiCocktail

Published: Feb 22, 2015

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Welcome to the fourth part of the Endangered Animals Feature for Unframed-Nature!

Previous parts: Snow Leopard | African Wild Dog | Blue Whale

Endangered Animal: Blue-throated Macaw

These brightly colored birds are popular pets, but in the wild they can only found in the Beni area in northern Bolivia. Although they look similar to the common Blue and Gold Macaw, the Blue-throated Macaw is smaller in size and lacks the green spot on its crown.
Macaws are very social birds, and they mate for life. As pets, they can live up to 50 years.
Since many of the other critically endangered Macaws are believed to be extinct in the wild, the Blue-throated Macaw may very well be the rarest wild macaw in the world, with an estimated population size of 110-130 individuals. The population in captivity is many times larger than the wild population.

The number of Blue-throated Macaws greatly declined in the 1970's and 1980's, when they were subject to national and international cage-bird trade.
Live export from Bolivia was banned in 1984, but illegal export continued, though today it's been greatly reduced.
The population not only suffers from trade, but also loss of habitat - mostly burning and felling of trees.
They also suffer from nest-site competition from other birds as well as bats, and are occasionally disturbed by human activity, mammals and other birds. Additionally, the birds are hunted for their feathers and risk reduced fertility due to inbreeding from the small population.

All hope for these Macaws isn't lost, however.
Many landowners on whose ranches the population occurs are sympathetic towards the threatened species and support the conservation work done for it.
A reserve has been established, and various actions such as nest box campaigns and education programmes have been launched.

Blue-throated Macaw info:

Ara glaucogularis

IUCN status: Critically endangered

IUCN Red list
BirdLife International

Animal Diversity

Support the species:
World Parrot Trust: Blue-throated Macaw

Blue-throated Macaw feature

Preening Blue-throated Macaw by MorrighanGW

Beautifully Fragile: Blue-Throated Macaw by CreativeFelli

Sadly, the Blue-throated Macaw is not the only one of its kind that's in trouble - there are many other Macaws that are threatened or nearly extinct.

100 or less:Blue throated, red fronted, spix macaw by veracauwenberghs

Spix's Macaw (Critically endangered)

The Spix's Macaw is known by many from the movie Rio. The last known wild individual died in 2000, and thus the species is believed to be extinct in the wild.

Read more on the IUCN Red List

Glaucous Macaw (Critically endangered)

Glaucous Macaw Sneak Peek by NinaBolenArt

With the last confirmed sightings of this species being from the 1960's, the Glaucous Macaw is believed to be extinct.

Read more on the IUCN Red List

Lear's Macaw (Endangered)

These Brazilian birds have been critically endangered in the past decades, but intensive conservation action has increased their numbers.

Read more on the IUCN Red List

Red-fronted Macaw (Endangered)

The endangered Red-fronted Macaws are popular pets in Bolivia, and are illegally trapped to supply that demand. Their population is small and continues to decline.

Read more on the IUCN Red List

Great Green Macaw (Endangered)

Deceptively similar to the popular pet parrot Military Macaw, the Great Green is larger in size and severely threatened by deforestation and hunting. It can be found in Central and South America from Honduras to Equador, although many of those subpopulations are disappearing.

Read more on the IUCN Red List