Rio 2 – Heather Kostick

You may have heard of this species since it inspired the movie Rio, an animated movie about Blu, a Blue Macaw (really, it’s a Spix’s but they changed that in the movie), who is raised in captivity after being poached from the wild, and ends up back in Brazil for a breeding program, and then the story gets a little complicated after that when he’s poached again. I won’t ruin the rest of it, but it’s a good movie, so see it for yourself – my birds also enjoy the movie. Now, let’s get to the clip of the real Spix’s macaw flying in Brazil…

The video evidence: http://www.birdlife.org/americas/news/spix%E2%80%99s-macaw-reappears-brazil

Now that you’ve seen it for yourself…

This is not the only species to make a comeback from extinction: American Alligator, Canada Goose, White-tailed Deer, Whooping Crane, Gray Wolf, Grizzly Bear, Giant Pandas, etc.

Look at those two little dinosaurs... I mean Spix's macaws. Source: Audubon. — Look at those two little dinosaurs… I mean Spix’s macaws.
Source: Audubon.

This comeback is wonderful considering it’s humans that generally are speeding up the process of extinction with deforestation, over-hunting/over-fishing/over-harvesting, pollution, farming, global warming, poaching, and whatever else it is that our species does to drastically change the environment. Perhaps that like other success stories, this is an indication that despite the threats, something humans have changed (i.e., forest practices, habitat restoration and/or protection) have had a positive impact on the comeback of the species. However, considering that rainforests and other habitats of Brazil are still highly under threat, Spix’s macaw is not out of the woods yet. Also, I hope that researchers are going to go in there soon to do some monitoring and find more individuals of this macaw species. It’s been 15 years since the last one was spotted in the wild, so hopefully just like in Rio 2, they’ve found a mini pocket of undisturbed paradise that will get protected to prevent any more disturbance by humans.