Not even the most agile and astute birdwatcher can keep track of them all. Some 650 species if birds inhabit the Pantanal. Visitors on a tour at the Refúgio Ecológico Caiman, a benchmark ecolodge and nature reserve, had just spotted a savanna hawk (Heterospizias Meridionalis) and an Amazon kingfisher (Chloroceryle Amazon) when three cobalt blue birds whizzed past their truck, followed by two more. The first three headed towards a funky looking box, incongruously hanging on high from a tree trunk.
The little flock of birds came courtesy of the Hyacinth Macaw Project. Just two decades ago the hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) seemed condemned to the fate of related species, the glaucous macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus), believed extinct by many scientists, and the spix macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), extinct in the wild with an estimated 60 individuals in captivity. Poachers purloined an estimated 10,000 hyacinth macaws in the 1980s alone. Disappearing habitat and hunting by native Indians who use the bird’s feathers in headdresses also took their tolls. The hyacinth macaw earned a spot the list of jeopardized animals by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Since a lone biologist named Neiva Guedes launched the Hyacinth Macaw Project 14 years ago, the population has jumped from 1,500 to 5,000 in the 450,000-hectare region it oversees. Guedes cobbled together support from private companies and NGOs and devised unique methods, including that man-made nest on high. From its main base at the Caiman reserve, a team of five monitors about 3,000 individuals that live in 346 natural and 198 man-made nests. Chicks are outfitted with microchips. Blood samples are taken and sent to the University of São Paulo for DNA testing and other analysis.
The Refúgio Ecológico Caiman, also known as the Pousada Caiman, is situated on over 148,000 acres of land, including the working ranch. There’s a core zone of 12,500 acres of wilderness. “The Pousada Caiman has been the reference for a professional (African Lodge type) operation in the Pantanal for more than 15 years,” said a report the Salvador-based Hospitality Institute, a non-profit that encourages high-quality and responsible tourism. “The Pousada Caiman continues to be the top product in the Pantanal, with very comfortable accommodation, tasteful decoration, attentive guides and good wildlife spotting. If you want a well-oiled classy operation, this is the place to go.”
Among the frequent visitors are scientists from Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States who have taken advantage of the Hyacinth Macaw Project’s infrastructure to conduct research. Elsewhere in Brazil and in Peru biologists have adopted much of the project’s modus operandi. Recognition extends to Holland, where Guedes received the royal Golden Ark, an award from the Dutch government for global conservation and the environment. “I think the project run by Neiva Guedes is a model,” said Dener Giovanini, general coordinator of the Brazilian Network to Fight the Trafficking of Wild Animals (RENCTAS).
The hyacinth macaw is prized both for its beauty (its predominately blue feathers stand in stark contrast with the bright yellow of its cheeks and around its eyes) and because of its size. The hyacinth is the world’s largest macaw – measuring one meter from bill to tail in length and weighing 1.3 kilograms. Though the bird is also found in parts of the Amazon and northeastern Brazil, about 70% of the hyacinth macaw population inhabits the Pantanal region.
Along with parrots, macaws comprise part of an order known as psittacidae. “Due to their capacity to imitate the human voice, associated with their intelligence, beauty and docility, [they] are the world’s most popular and wanted pet birds – being surmounted only by dogs and cats,” says a RENCTAS report.
Illegal trafficking continues to pose the biggest danger to the hyacinth macaw. A single bird can fetch $25,000 on the black market, according to the RENCTAS report. The Pantanal is a cattle-raising region, so the Hyacinth Macaw Project enlists the support of ranchers and cowhands. Over 40 ranchers allow fieldworkers to operate on their land. “We’ve tried to involve the local population right from the beginning,” said Guedes.
Numbers are difficult to pin down, but law enforcement officials and anti-trafficking activists agree that by educating local citizens, the project has helped reduce poaching. “The numbers have decreased significantly because of greater awareness,” said Col. Ademar Brites Cardoso of the 15th Battalion of the Environmental Military Police based in Campo Grande. Said Giovanini: “People keep an eye on the birds. And the presence of the researchers helps. There’s definitely been an impact.”
When she started, still graduate student, Guedes discovered that biologists did not have an accepted methodology for studying larger birds. “There was no technique,” she said. “Researchers were accustomed to catching smaller birds in nets, but that wouldn’t work.”
Using mountain climbing techniques and equipment, fieldworkers hoist themselves up trees to inspect nests and collect data, repairing nests damaged by extended use or storms. They perform emergency rescues and sometimes resort to tricks, like taking eggs from nests threatened by predators to incubators and leaving chicken eggs in their stead. Those chicks are hatched in incubators and later returned to the nests.
Each chick is important because hyacinth macaws reproduce slowly. The birds live in couples, and each produces just 1-2 eggs a year. Both eggs and chicks are vulnerable to predators. Nests, made in cavities in the softwood manduvi tree, are at a premium – partly because trees must be at least 60 years old before they are found suitable. Other bird species compete for the use of those nests.
To help address the housing shortage, Guedes and her small team studied the characteristics of natural nests and tested sundry materials before coming up with a man-made nest acceptable to the birds. “The process took a long time – over three years,” she recalled. Hyacinth macaws used about half of the first batch of man-made nests, albeit only 10% by pairs for reproduction. Yet the artificial nests had an unexpected and indirect effect: 17 other species of birds took to the nests, thus reducing competition for natural nests.
Guedes hopes to expand her work to the Amazon and the Brazilian northeast, where hyacinth macaw populations continue to dwindle. “We want to expand,” she said. “But to do that, we need more resources.”
Bill Hinchberger traveled to Mato Grosso do Sul at the invitation of the Refúgio Ecológico Caiman and its public relations firm Voice Communications
Hyacinth Macaw Links
Hyacinth Macaw Project
Brazilian Network to Fight the Trafficking of Wild Animals (RENCTAS)
Parrots International - a US-based conservation group that supports The Hyacinth Macaw Project
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