The blue parrot from the movie Rio saved from extinction

Everyone will feel more or less the blue parrot Brazilian animation film Rio. It was 2011 and the film was about the adventures of a blue parrot, the last male specimen of Spix’s macaw in the world. The bird is named after who first discovered it in 1819: the German naturalist Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix. After 20 years, the parrot has returned to its habitat in Brazil for free. Along with this news are also the first releases of a captive breeding project that has been going on for years.

Blue parrots have a sweet tooth for seeds, fruits and Caribbean trees. To influence their ever closer extinction, since ancient times, there are several factors. It is the centuries of deforestation, habitat change and anthropogenic development along the São Francisco River. Over the years, it has been difficult to identify a major reintegration project of this rare species.

On the other hand, however, they have worked so tirelessly that they are now easy to count 180 copies ready to go home. The goal is to provide adequate reproduction, but also to reconstruct the ideal survival habitat. The latter is represented by dry forests called caatinga. For this reason, the researchers, together with other forces, decided to plant about 50 thousand seedlings of 26 different species. A way to revive another 100 hectares of forest along the Rio São Francisco River, to recreate the real home of the blue parrot.

Meanwhile, Spix’s altar from the movie Rio has returned home, despite the need to stop habitat loss, deforestation and conversion of land to pastures. However, hopes of being able to see that beautiful blue creature in the forests of Bahia have come true. Now the hardest part will be to keep the light of that hope burning.