Farewell to the macaw of Spix, the beautiful Brazilian blue parrot, made famous by the animated film "Rio" has become extinct in the wild. This is established by a new analysis by BirdLife International published in Science Direct.
Farewell to the macaw of Spix, the beautiful Brazilian blue parrot, made famous by the animated film “Rio” has become extinct in the wild. This is established by a new analysis by BirdLife International published in Science Direct.
Therefore, the number of extinct species (confirmed or very probable) that have disappeared in nature in this century rises to eight. Among them there are also the pygmy owl Pernambuco and the poo'uli last seen in 2004.
If the hope always remains that of changing your mind about some specimen bred in captivity, the certainty of the experts is another: the list of species in extinction grows more and more due to the deforestation in South America and beyond. Then there is illegal hunting.
“Our analyzes show that the extinction continues. Historically 90% of these occurred on remote islands, but today the data shows that there is a growing tide on all continents due to habitat loss from agriculture, land drainage and unsustainable logging, ”says Stuart Butchart. Chief Scientist of BirdLife International.
However, in the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the endangered animal species are many more, or 26 thousand. And Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta Spixii) is only the latest in chronological order. This beautiful parrot has always been an object of trade and forced to live in a cage, it is no coincidence that the results are seen.
Three specimens had been found in the Brazilian forest in 1985, but two had been illegally captured for the pet trade and all breeding attempts were unsuccessful. A last sighting in the wild was in 2016, but it is thought it was a Spix macaw that escaped captivity, while the last specimen in the wild dates back to 2000. Now even the IUCN site officially classifies it as extinct with 0 specimens of its species
Foto: Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation
We also said the same fate for the poo-uli, last sighted in 2004 on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Attempts to breed the bird in captivity have failed. Of the eight species to be reclassified as extinct, four are "critically endangered (possibly extinct)".
Including the glaucous macaw, once found in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, and the Pernambuco pygmy owl, a 15 cm tall owl that eats insects and never seen since 2002.
“It's obviously too late to help some of these species, but because we know birds better than any other taxonomic class, we know which other species are most at risk. We hope this study will inspire a doubling of efforts to prevent further extinctions, ”concludes Butchart.
Read also:
- The Barn Owl at risk of extinction
- 10 endangered animals that could disappear in 2016
Dominella Trunfio
