Spix's Macaw

August 18, 2003
For the magnificent blue parrots of South America, beauty and intelligence have been a curse. These qualities, in addition to the birds' rare numbers, have made the animals highly attractive to human collectors. Despite a ban on endangered-parrot trading since 1975, smugglers have continued to trap and sell blue parrots—including the rarest, Spix's macaw—on the international market. By 1990, only one wild Spix's remained. Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, recounts the riveting adventures of the team of specialists that finally documented the presence of this last wild bird in Brazil's remote northeast interior and launched efforts to try to protect it. He describes the forces that drive the black market in macaws—chiefly poverty, corruption and greed—and notes that "parrots are today part of an illegal trade in wildlife that ranks second in value only to the multibillion-dollar clandestine drugs and arms markets." Indeed, a rare parrot can fetch as much as $40,000. Juniper presents a fascinating overview of the long history of human-parrot relationships, which date to ancient times, and also describes the efforts to breed Spix's macaws in captivity. Juniper is an impassioned advocate for the world's rarest bird, and also demonstrates a deep understanding of the social issues involved in saving endangered wildlife. The situation for the Spix's remains precarious; whether it will share the fate of the dodo or eventually flourish again, as did the almost-extinct Przewalski's horse and European bison, depends on "human cooperation, foresight and generosity."