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The Spix's macaw Cyanopsitta spixii is one of the most endangered animal species in the world. It is endemic to a small area in the north-eastern corner of Brazil, characterised by a dry bush savanna known as the "caatinga", interspersed with seasonal streams and gallery forests.
The species declined due to habitat destruction and the removal of birds from the wild for trade. TFor many years the recovery programme iwas coordinated and implemented through the Permanent Committee for the Recovery of the Spix' Macaw (CPRAA), which comprisesd the Brazilian government (the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis – IBAMA – the Brazilian Environment Institute), scientific advisors from inside and outside Brazil, as well as holders of Spix's macaws. Since 2002 this has been superceded by the Spix’s Macaw Working Group formed by IBAMA, and again with advisors and the three remaining holders of birds, the Loro Parque fundación, Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation (AWWP) and the Sao Paulo Zoo. There are at least two other holders, one of which does not declare to have them.
The Spix's macaw ihas beenconsidered extinct in the wild since December 2000, when the last wild male was declared lost. The species' future therefore depends entirely on the release of offspring from the internationally co-ordinated captive population, which increased from an initial 11 founder birds in the late 1980's to aboutmore than 60 individuals nowin 2002. In addition to the LPF, which iwas one of the CPRAA's founding members and keeps a single pair plus two young birdson its behalf, four morethe other holders of Spix's macaws are AWWP which has birds in Qatar (28) and Switzerland (15), and the Sao Paulo zoo which has 7 birds. form part of the CPRAA: Sao Paulo Zoo and Mauricio dos Santos in Brazil, Roland Messer in Switzerland and Antonio de Dios in the Philippines. Only the two latter retain private ownership of their birds, all other birds are The Loro Parque Fundación and Sao Paulo Zoo birds are property of the Brazilian government. At least one further private owner of Spix's macaws, Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar, is not member in the CPRAA. However, continuing suspicions exist that additional birds exist in captivity elsewhere, including in Switzerland.
The LPF has for many years been the principal supporter of the field recovery effort, which has included research, habitat restoration, re-introduction and community-based outreach programmes in the natural area of distribution of the macaw. Over the past years, many insights could be gained into the ecology and breeding biology of the species, through the study of the last Spix's macaw, which was paired with a female Illigers' macaw Propyrrhura maracana. Two pilot experiments conducted between 1998 and 2000 provided particularly valuable information. On the one hand, the successful introduction of wild Illigers' macaw nestlings into the nest of the hybrid C. spixii x P. maracana pair; although the loss of the wild male was a tragic blow in this context, the technique could still be adopted in the future to cross-foster Spix's macaw young into the wild using wild pairs of Illigers' macaws.
On the other hand, the pilot release in December 1998 of nine captive-bred (hand-reared and parent-reared) Illiger's macaws, donated to the project by LPF, into their natural habitat in the Caatinga; by 2002, at least 5 of these birds were still alive. Thus, despite the recent loss of the wild male, several avenues remain to re-establish a stable wild population of Spix's macaws, under the condition that the political and moral implications ofto the recovery programme allow the start of a scientifically sound and comprehensive re-introduction programme.
However, since the CPRAA in 1999 for the first time informed the private owners in Switzerland and the Philippines that they will soon need to provide birds for a re-introduction programme in Brazil, the CPRAA has witnessed an intense period of conflict and disintregration, that peaked in the unauthorised transfer of two pairs of Spix's macaw from the Philippines to the state of Qatar in 2000.
At an extraordinary meeting in Brazil in February 2001, the private owners informed the CPRAA of their plans to make their captive management efforts more independent. The situation led the Brazilian government to suspend the existing CPRAA, and to propose a new structure for the future, a process that by mid 2002 was not yet concluded and the outcome of which can not be anticipated. The LPF at the same time decided to suspend its long-term funding of the field programme, to avoid waisting financial resources in a conservation programme whose future by mid 2002 appears uncertain.