It’s been 20 years since the last Spix’s Macaw has been seen in the wild, but the near-extinct species could be set to make a comeback.
In a few days, the bird will be reinstated in a reserve, located in Caatinga in northeastern Brazil, thanks to a breeding and rehabilitation program.
The Spix’s macaw, one of the rarest birds in the world, is a small parrot with blue feathers. Illegal trade, hunting and the destruction of its natural habitat by agriculture and other animals have left their mark and led to the disappearance of the species in the wild.
However, this could be about to change thanks to ACTP, a German NGO dedicated to the protection and conservation of threatened parrots and their habitats, which has teamed up with the Pairi Daiza Foundation and the government of Brazil for the re-introduction programme for the Spix’s Macaw.
For years, ACTP and Pairi Daiza Foundation have worked relentlessly to breed a new population of Spix’s Macaws bringing their number up to 180 healthy birds.
In the Pairi Daiza zoo in Belgium, 8 Spix macaws are kept in aviaries not accessible to the public.
“In two weeks, normally, we will release the first eight Spix in the wild after 22 years of absence in their habitat,“ said zoological and veterinary director at Pairi Daiza zoo Tim Bouts.
The earth is not just our environment, the earth is our mother.
As our planet hurls around the sun into another year, the need for an ecological revolution, in conjunction with this technological one, grows with urgent momentum.
Can we start holding the largest, most profitable corporations accountable for their environmental destruction yet?
Or are we just going to keep ascribing responsibility to consumers, telling them to vote with their sparse dollars?
If corporations have human rights, shouldn’t the rivers, the ocean, and the mountains be granted personhood too?
One of the treasures of discovering a new species is that you get to name it. Well, in this case, that could be you.
I’ve heard of organizations auctioning off new species, such as the new dracula orchid species Leonardo DiCaprio named after his mother, but this is the first time I’ve heard of one being left up to chance… in the form of a raffle.
Each $1 gets you a shot at naming this new species of frog, found in the cloud forests of western Colombia.
This tiny amphibian, the length of a paper clip, depends on horizontal rain for survival in the cloud forest habitat. Females lay eggs in bromeliads or forest litter where water accumulates. Unlike other frog species, this one bypasses the tadpole stage to emerge as fully formed miniature froglets.
The raffle will close at the stroke of midnight Dec 31st, along with this bizarre year. The winner will be called January 1st, where they will get to choose the new name, for the new frog, in the new year.
All of the money raised will go to preserving the cloud forest this frog and many other rare and endangered species call home.
The photo shoot would have been a lot more enjoyable if I didn’t know they were going to kill the model at the end of it.
He looked so handsome against the white, well-lit backdrop. The glowing box he was inside illuminated his long, elegant tail as he tilted his head inquisitively for his close-up.
It’s for a good cause, “for science,” Luis Mazariegos PhD, reassured me.
Earlier during lunch, the three park guards excitedly rushed back through the muck, disembarking from their fully swamped rubber boots at the entrance to the main lodge, placing an assortment of plastic containers on the table in front of us. They had found the lizards they were looking for: 6 specimens to be the representatives of a new species. I peered into the container to see their darkly colored scales, punctuated by a flashy racing stripe down the middle of their backs, extending all the way to the tip of their tapered, whip-like tails, fading from vibrant orange to sage green. Except, that is, for the fatter, older male who appeared to be in the process of growing his tail back. He clearly narrowly escaped death at least once already and what re-emerged as his tail looked more like a stubby wizard’s hat extending out behind him.
Meet the olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina, the newest and smallest documented member of the family Procyonidae, which it shares with raccoons, coatis, kinkajous and olingos.
“Neblina,” the species name, comes from the spanish word for mist, due to the misty cloud forests the animal inhabits.
This one is a baby, and therefore offensively cute. The photo was taken within The Hummingbird Conservancy’s Messina-Paramillo Reserve in Colombia by Juan Rendon.
Olinguitos had been around for a while, but we didn’t realize they were a different species. I particularly enjoy this excerpt from the wikipedia page detailing our ignorance:
“Olinguitos were regularly seen and even publicly exhibited decades before they were recognized as members of a new species. The animal had previously been confused with its taxonomic cousins, the olingos. One such example was Ringerl, an olinguito who lived in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for a year and also toured many other zoos. Researchers unsuccessfully tried to breed her with olingos, not realizing she was a different species. Ringerl died in 1976.”
When it was announced that this was,indeed, a new species in 2013, scientists had no clue what the life of this creature in the wild was like: what it ate, how big it’s home range was, whether they were social, how many offspring it had and how often, etc.
But Uriel, the ex-hunter knew. He knew all about them and could spot them better than anyone.
Meet the olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina, the newest and smallest documented member of the family Procyonidae, which it shares with raccoons, coatis, kinkajous and olingos.
“Neblina,” the species name, comes from the spanish word for mist, due to the misty cloud forests the animal inhabits.
This one is a baby, and therefore offensively cute. The photo was taken within The Hummingbird Conservancy’s Messina-Paramillo Reserve in Colombia by Juan Rendon.
Olinguitos had been around for a while, but we didn’t realize they were a different species. I particularly enjoy this excerpt from the wikipedia page detailing our ignorance:
“Olinguitos were regularly seen and even publicly exhibited decades before they were recognized as members of a new species. The animal had previously been confused with its taxonomic cousins, the olingos. One such example was Ringerl, an olinguito who lived in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for a year and also toured many other zoos. Researchers unsuccessfully tried to breed her with olingos, not realizing she was a different species. Ringerl died in 1976.”
When it was announced that this was,indeed, a new species in 2013, scientists had no clue what the life of this creature in the wild was like: what it ate, how big it’s home range was, whether they were social, how many offspring it had and how often, etc.
But Uriel, the ex-hunter knew. He knew all about them and could spot them better than anyone.
For World Reef Day, William Saville Kent’s stunning 19th-century illustrations from the world’s first pictorial encyclopedia about the Great Barrier Reef.
most damaging idea of the 21st century: the conviction of vast numbers of people that human history will end within our lifetimes
climate change represents world-altering tragedy if unchecked, but not even in the worst-case scenario does it mean “literally everyone dies”
yet so many people have jumped already to “it’s over, the world is going to end, we can do nothing about it” and are just paralyzingly cynical. How do I explain that the power to imagine a future is essential for creating it
you know the thing where trauma can cause you to just. not expect to live much longer so when you get to 30 you don’t know what to do because you thought you’d be dead by 25
That is happening to all of us right now on a society-wide scale
A lot of people are like. REALLY angry at me for suggesting that “be depressed and do nothing” isn’t necessarily the only response to climate change.
this,this,this,this,this,this, and like, 700 other sources will tell you that most of the effects of climate change will be reversible even if we pass the ‘threshold’ of a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperature
BUT. Even if the worst happens, it will be important to be doing things other than wallowing in misery???
I’m not trying to be callous but for people living today it’s wildly unlikely for the results to be “literally immediate death.”
People will get displaced from their homes by rising sea levels. We have like, years, probably decades, before that happens. It seems so fucked up to decide that we should do nothing, because we’ve already decided they’re going to die anyway????
If a bunch of us are going to die, why not die trying to help each other? Why not try to make sure fewer people die? Why not do something that might reduce someone’s suffering or give them food or clean water or a place to sleep?
I don’t know how to explain to you that people need socks during the apocalypse
Important.
Literally even in the most severe, cynical, and immediate predictions made by scientists rapid climate change is far away from now. If it does happen it’ll take effect over the span of a decade or so, no a day.
And there’s still hope! Did you know the hole in the ozone layer is closing? It was actually caused by one specific chemical that’s been banned. A lot of endangered wildlife populations are growing because of so many efforts to protect them. Many mining companies are being prevented from mining in our remaining clean waters and forests. We have all the technology we need to reverse this crisis, it’s just a matter of implementing it.
It will be ok. Things are improving. People are getting on board. Don’t lose hope while we still have a chance to use it.
My mom was just reminding me earlier about Copper Hill, Tennessee, which I encourage y'all to look up
In the 1980’s, the area was absolutely devastated by copper mining, to the point that the land had a “Martian” appearance. It was utterly devoid of vegetation and wildlife. No trees, no grass, no frogs, nothing.
I own a historical fiction book, A Bird on Water Street, about how the area was restored. The astonishing thing about this place is that people were able to fix the damage.
In a lot of ways in the 80’s and 90’s, many species and environments were successfully saved from the brink of disaster.
Does anyone remember DDT? As the above poster said above, CFC’s contributing to the ozone hole? Do y'all remember how saturated the 1970’s were with lead and asbestos and all sorts of toxic shit? Getting specific chemicals banned or working to save specific species DOES HELP.
I’m begging everyone to research conservation projects going on near them, like, in or near their hometown. The state of Kentucky very successfully reintroduced elk to the mountains after they went extinct there. There are examples like this everywhere.
Things look bad and they’re scary but they would be a lot worse if the people before us hadn’t worked their asses off trying to preserve the world for us. People are out there working hard to save the world right now.
There is still time.
Conservation success stories of 2021. Last year, several species believed to be extinct were rediscovered, long-dead preserved specimens of endangered ferrets were cloned, and several species that nearly went extinct had population explosions.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Monday published graphic photos showing a dead great white shark and the carcasses of an endangered vaquita porpoise and an endangered totoaba fish found this week in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.
The grim discoveries were in the northern portion of the gulf, designated as a refuge for vaquitas, whose population is fewer than 100. Illegal fishing gear is “presumed to have killed” the animals, Sea Shepherd stated in a news release.
The group has had two vessels in the Vaquita Refuge since last November as part of Operation Milagro II, on a mission to remove gillnets and other harmful fishing gear and to expose illegal fishing practices.
Gillnetting was outlawed in the 13,000-square-kilometer refuge last April, amid pleas from conservation groups hoping to spare vaquitas, the world’s smallest cetaceans, from rapid extinction. The two-year gillnet ban was imposed by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto when it became apparent that vaquitas could become extinct as early as 2018.
But enforcement is problematic because of the size of the refuge and because organized crime is behind poaching efforts.
The poachers target totoaba — an endangered species endemic to the northern gulf — because their swim bladders can fetch upward of $10,000 per bladder in Asian markets. Vaquitas, which also are found only in the Sea of Cortez, are caught indiscriminately by poachers fishing for totoaba.
Prince William’s passion for the environment may have been inspired by his grandfather and father but it has been empowered by his son.
When doing a podcast with Australian actress Cate Blanchett called Climate of Change with Cate Blanchett and Danny Kennedy, The Duke of Cambridge shared: “I think my grandfather and my father both kind of having a deep passion and interest in this area for many…
it’s an absolute crime that you didn’t include the cover image
In case anyone was curious, it’s because insects aren’t listed under the endangered species act, so they looked at the list of species that are to see what category they could fit them into and they chose fish. Because sometimes fish are invertebrates and so are bees, therefore bees are fish.
