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Post by Melly on Feb 23, 2005 20:33:13 GMT
This is the closest relative of the Lear's Macaw. It was one of the most popular macaws in the pet trade in the first half of the 20th century. This is the reason why this bird species is possibly extinct.
This species was last recorded in the 1960s and it is likely to have declined severely as result of hunting and trapping, plus habitat degradation and destruction. However, it may well remain extant, because not all of its formerly large range has been adequately surveyed, and there have been persistent and convincing local reports. Any remaining population is likely to be tiny, and for these reasons it is treated as Critically Endangered.
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Post by Peter on May 13, 2005 14:20:11 GMT
Glaucous Macaw Only rumours remain In 1989, the Brazilian ornithologist Antonio Silva published a monograph on endangered parrots in which he argued that some Glaucous Macaws Anodorhynchus glaucus( Vieillot, 1816) still survived. His evidence, however, was not very convincing. Several birds were supposed to be in stock with traders, but their whereabouts were unknown. Therefore the identity could not be checked. A sighting by a trapper in southern Brazil was unconfirmed. Still, Silva claimed he knew a site where a small population lived. The location, of course, was kept secret.  No more sightings despite the price In spite of these claims, the Glaucous Macaw is generally considered extinct. The last reliable sightings date from 1955. The species occurred in the border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and probably also in northwestern Uruguay. It was mainly recorded along river banks, but this is probably due to the fact that most naturalists travelled through the interior by boat. Most likely the species also inhabited wooded savannas. It seemed to have declined in the course of the 19th century, even before its habitat was affected by settlers. Some believe that natural causes rather than human influence brought about the extinction. Others, however, point out that the area has changed dramatically over the last century as a result of land reclamation, and that these changes must have had a detrimental effect on the macaws. Extensive searches by ornithologists in Paraguay in the late 1970's remained without result. Also, there were no further reports by traders, even though they were well aware of the tremendous amount of money they could receive for a live glaucous macaw.  Photograph by Rosamond Purcell from Swift as a Shadow. © 1999. The museum collection The National Museum of Natural History (Leiden, the Netherlands) possesses one skin of this beautiful parrot, which was collected on the Rio de la Plata. A skeleton from Brazil was collected in 1865 by Hermanus Hendrikus ter Meer, who, like his father before him, was senior taxidermist at the museum. Written by Dr. L.W. van den Hoek Ostende. Source: www.naturalis.nl/300pearls/. |
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Post by Melanie on May 13, 2005 14:34:39 GMT
As far as i know this bird was very popular between 1900 and 1950 in stocks and captivity but where can i find photographs of living specimens? Are there any books where they have published a photo?
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Post by Peter on May 13, 2005 14:41:55 GMT
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Post by sebbe67 on Jun 7, 2005 14:03:36 GMT
possibly sight record in Paraguay 1997
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Post by another specialist on Jun 7, 2005 15:32:55 GMT
  Tony squinting in bright winter sunshine of Buenos Aires with the skin of a Glaucous Macaw held at the Natural History Museum there  Illustration of Spix's Macaw with a blue macaw, possibly Lear's Macaw, although described as Glaucous Macaw at a German dealer's in 1895 www.bluemacaws.org/imagens2.htm |
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Post by another specialist on Jun 7, 2005 15:34:48 GMT
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Post by another specialist on Jun 7, 2005 15:36:27 GMT
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Post by sebbe67 on Oct 25, 2005 22:08:01 GMT
The Glaucous Macaw, Anodorhynchus glaucus, is a South American parrot which may now be extinct in the wild. It is closely related to the Lear's Macaw A. leari and the Hyacinth Macaw A. hyacinthinus. This is a large (70cm) blue macaw. It is a pale turquoise-blue colour with a large greyish head. It has a proportionally long tail and a massive bill. It has a yellow, bare eye-ring and half-moon-shaped lappets bordering the mandible. This bird was formerly resident in north Argentina, south Paraguay, north-east Uruguay and Brazil. It became rare during the 19th century due to trapping and loss of habitat, and only two acceptable records of wild birds were received in the 20th century. It is probably extinct, but regular rumours of sightings suggest that a few birds may still survive.
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Post by another specialist on Oct 26, 2005 20:06:34 GMT
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Post by sebbe67 on Dec 17, 2005 23:40:59 GMT
Critically endangered or Extinct This close relative of A. leari once was locally widespread in woodland savanne in NE Argentina, Paraguay, NE Uruguay, and S Brazil, where it also was largely dependant on the fruit of one or a few palm species for food. Due to conversion of savanne into cattle ranches, the palm groves have largely disappeared, together with the macaw that depended on them. It was reported to be rare already by the 1850s, and only 2 reliable reports are available of birds seen in the 20th century, one in 1951 and one in the early 1960s. Yet, it may not be extinct, because rumours of local existence persist and some illegally obtained birds appear to survive in captivity, giving hope that a tiny remnant population is still present. Items in the ZMA - 1 bird: ZMA 941 Adult male, undated [1868-1880], 'Rio de la Plata', died in the Amsterdam Zoo, old former mount. [Wing 354 mm, clearly smaller than A. leari and A. hyacinthinus.] Remarks Finsch (1863, 1867-1868) does not mention a specimen in Amsterdam, thus our bird had not yet arrived then. The RMNH/NNM has an undated specimen, also from 'Rio de la Plata', but this bird had already arrived before Aug 1864. photo on stuffed bird ip30.eti.uva.nl/zma3d/detail.php?id=251&sort=taxon&type=family |
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Post by sebbe67 on Dec 17, 2005 23:42:45 GMT
Justification This species was last recorded in the 1960s and it is likely to have declined severely as result of hunting and trapping, plus habitat degradation and destruction. However, it may well remain extant, because not all of its formerly large range has been adequately surveyed, and there have been persistent and convincing local reports. Any remaining population is likely to be tiny, and for these reasons it is treated as Critically Endangered. Family/Sub-family PSITTACIDAE Species name author (Vieillot, 1816) Taxonomic source(s) Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993), Stotz et al. (1996) Identification 70 cm. Large blue macaw. Pale turquoise-blue with large greyish head. Proportionally long tail and massive bill. Yellow, bare eye-ring and half-moon-shaped lappets bordering mandible. Similar spp. Lear's Macaw A. leari has a bluer head and is not sympatric, but specimens in trade could be confused. Hyacinth Macaw A. hyacinthinus is considerably larger and bulkier, more violet-blue in coloration and yellow lappets extend along the base of the mandible. Also not sympatric. Voice Unknown. Population estimate Population trend Range estimate (breeding/resident) Country endemic? <50 unknown - No Range & population Anodorhychus glaucus was formerly widespread but clearly very local in north Argentina, south Paraguay, north-east Uruguay and Brazil from Paraná state southwards. It was endemic to the middle reaches of the major rivers (Uruguay, Paraná and Paraguay) and adjacent areas, with most records coming from Corrientes, Argentina. It became rare before or early in the second half of the 19th century and there were only two acceptable records in the 20th century, one direct observation (in Uruguay in 1951) and one based on local reports (in Paraná in the early 1960s). A recent, thorough survey of Corrientes Province (Argentina) and Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) examining suitable palm groves and nesting/roosting cliffs found no evidence of its presence and concluded that it had become extinct in the first half of the 20th century2. Whilst it has been generally treated as extinct, persistent rumours of recent sightings, local reports and birds in trade indicate that a few birds may still survive. Ecology It was reported mostly along major rivers, but this may reflect travellers' dependence on river transport rather than the species's true habitat requirements. It appears to have been adapted to consume palm nuts as its staple, and therefore presumably wandered into palm-savannas and potentially lightly wooded areas. The only palm in its range with the appropriate size and type of nut is the Yatay (or Chatay) palm Butia yatay1. It nested on cliffs and the average clutch-size was probably two eggs. Threats Settlement of the major river basins within its range was presumably accompanied by the widespread loss of palm-groves, either through direct clearance for agriculture or the suppression of regeneration by colonists' cattle. The size and appearance of the bird probably made it a significant target for hunters, and even the taking of young as pets could have been important. There is some evidence that it was traded, but little to support various claims that there has been recent trade in live specimens. Any current trade in eggs, skins or live specimens would obviously be extremely harmful. Conservation measures underway CITES Appendix I and II and protected under Brazilian law. There have been various attempts to rediscover the species. Conservation measures proposed Conduct interviews with local people, especially former and active parrot trappers, to assess the likelihood that any populations remain. Prepare to follow-up on any positive data from these interviews. www.birdlife.org/datazone/search/species_search.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=1545&m=0 |
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Post by sebbe67 on Dec 17, 2005 23:43:29 GMT
Anodorhynchus glaucus (Vieillot 1816) Glaucous Macaw German: Meerblauer Ara Description: general plumage greenish-blue; head and nape bluish-grey; throat and upper breast grey-brownish; bare area to base of bill pale yellowish; wings slightly brighter blue; underside of tail and wings blackish; powerful bill blackish; periophthalmic ring yellow; iris dark brown; feet dark grey. Immatures undescribed. Length: 72 cm (28.5 ins) Distribution: northeast Argentina in provinces of Corrientes and Misiones; Artigas Province in northwest Uruguay and Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Habitat: open and partially open areas with yatay palms; forest along rivers; marshland with trees and palms. Status: almost certainly extinct; main causes destruction of yatay palms as well as deforestation; as population not very great in recent historical times trapping for trade and hunting also contributedÿto extirpation. Habits: virtually unknown; usually seen in pairs, family groups or small bands; found often in yatay palms, whose bluish-green fronds provided excellent camouflage. Natural diet: specialised feeder of palm fruits, especially those of yatay palm (Butia yatay); in addition probably also ripe and unripe fruits, nuts, berries and vegetable matter. Breeding behaviour: breeding season unknown; nested in living and dead trees and palms as well as crevices and hollows in cliffs along great rivers such as Rio Parana; no further information available; egg measurements unknown. Aviculture: little information available; only very few knwon to have been kept in zoos; last believed specimen probably died in Buenos Aires Zoo in 1938. Breeding in aviculture: unknown. www.arndt-verlag.com/projekt/birds_3.cgi?Desc=E203.htm&Pic=203_1.JPG |
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Post by another specialist on Dec 24, 2005 9:29:58 GMT
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Post by sebbe67 on Jun 10, 2006 10:50:50 GMT
ZMA 941 Click image for a larger version Critically endangered or Extinct This close relative of A. leari once was locally widespread in woodland savanne in NE Argentina, Paraguay, NE Uruguay, and S Brazil, where it also was largely dependant on the fruit of one or a few palm species for food. Due to conversion of savanne into cattle ranches, the palm groves have largely disappeared, together with the macaw that depended on them. It was reported to be rare already by the 1850s, and only 2 reliable reports are available of birds seen in the 20th century, one in 1951 and one in the early 1960s. Yet, it may not be extinct, because rumours of local existence persist and some illegally obtained birds appear to survive in captivity, giving hope that a tiny remnant population is still present.  ip30.eti.uva.nl/zma3d/detail.php?id=251&sort=taxon&type=family |
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Post by sebbe67 on Jun 10, 2006 10:52:44 GMT
The Glaucous macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus) and the question of its continued existence exerts considerable fascination for many people both within and outside aviculture. This is why the Mail on Sunday originally devoted a centre-fold article to the macaw and was prepared to publish follow-up articles. The possibility of the female Lear's macaw from Mulhouse Zoo on loan to Harry Sisson being a Glaucous macaw not only attracted the attention of HM Customs and Excise, but also TV and radio presenters as well as representatives of the national and regional press.
When looking at the literature on the Glaucous macaw, particularly that most recent, it is obvious that much of the mystery is due to the nature of the information published on the bird. Many latter-day writers appear to have borrowed indiscriminately from earlier authors and there is a disturbing and regrettable tendency for one or two to spice up the subject matter with rumour as well as unsubstantiated and highly speculative assertions. This has contributed to the spread of misconceptions and perhaps illusory ideas about the continued existence of the macaw.
Joe Cuddy had seen most of the skins of the Glaucous and Lear's macaws in museums in Europe and the United States, but had, however, no photographic records. We decided that following the furore about the Mulhouse Zoo macaw, we would spend our annual leave this year in Argentina and the surrounding areas. We set ourselves several main objectives. The first was to inspect and photograph the skin of the last known Glaucous macaw, which died in Buenos Aires Zoo (1) in 1938 after having been there allegedly for more than 20 years (2). Secondly to make contact with local ornithologists and conservation bodies to verify and supplement the information we had gleaned from the established body of literature. Thirdly we intended to visit as many of the reported localities for the Glaucous macaw as we could in the limited time at our disposal. The local information was absolutely essential for this purpose. Finally a fourth objective arose because we discovered that some of the earliest records had become corrupted with interpolations and mis-translations by later writers. We had to research the original texts thoroughly if we were to avoid wasting time and effort in our investigations.
Before leaving we read again all the available literature and perused the early drafts of an as yet unpublished report by Nigel Collar of the ICBP, which gave a summary of reported sightings with map references. We plotted these out on a travel map of southern South America with a scale of 1:4,000,000 and discovered that they formed an almost perfect circle covering Corrientes and Misiones Provinces in northeast Argentina, Artigas Province in northwest Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul as well as Santa Caterina Provinces in southwest Brazil(3).
We left London on 30th June, arriving in Buenos Aires just after dawn on Wednesday, 1st July. After finding a hotel we started work immediately visiting the national tourist office and the important local ornithological society called the Asociacion Ornithologica del Plata. The latter had a good library as well as experts in local birdlife and we were very fortunate to locate a Spanish language version of D'Orbigny's Voyage dans l'Amerique Meridionale (1827-35).
D'Orbigny, a prolific writer and seasoned traveller, had visited the area between 1827 and 1835. He had written a detailed record of his travels, which included several references to a blue macaw, which could only be the Glaucous macaw. This account also contained numerous references to the yatay palm, which we believed could have been the main food source for the Glaucous macaw, the clearing of which probably contributed most to its extirpation.
The following day we visited the Botanical Gardens to see if we could view a yatay palm for identification purposes during our travels and then the Zoo. At neither location could we obtain any information about the tree or the macaw. In the afternoon we visited the Museo Argentino de Ciencas Naturales, where we were allowed to measure the specimen of Anodorhynchus glaucus there as well as inspect, photograph and film it in the basement room with artificial lighting and some indirect daylight as well as outside the building in somewhat overcast conditions.
The skin had been mounted at some time and given eyes, which gave it a fairly lifelike appearance. Its overall length was 640 mm, the tail 360 mm and the primaries 395 mm. The bill had been varnished. The upper mandible measured 88 mm and the lower 44 mm (4). The plumage colour was quite distinctive, being greenish blue with a greyish-brown hindneck, throat and upper breast. The head was bluish-grey.
We videoed the skin from different angles in the basement room with indirect daylight and perceived an astonishing change in colouration from almost aquamarine to blue. I subsequently discovered that Azara, an early naturalist, had commented on this effect (5). The back plumage close-up almost seemed to have a brownish edging to the feathers. In any event the skin could not possible be confused with the Lear's macaw (Anodorhynchus leari). Like the Lear's, however, it had a short tail and the bare facial skin did not extend to below the lower mandible as it does in the Hyacinthine macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus).
After our return from South America we had the opportunity to study the Glaucous skin at the Museum der Naturkunde in Berlin and make direct comparison with the skin of the Lear's macaw there. Again under normal light conditions there could be no possibility of confusing the two species. The skins in Berlin, which have only been generally accessible since the reunification of Germany, are kept in drawers with glass lids and are in excellent condition. The greyness of the neck in the Glaucous specimen there, which was reported to be in Berlin Zoo in 1892, was even more noticeable than in the skin in Buenos Aires. Initially we believed the Glaucous skin to be larger than the Lear's Macaw, but on measuring the skins we discovered the Lear's to be marginally larger, thus underlining the fallibility of visual assessment.
On Friday, 3rd July I went to negotiate the rental of a car and visit the Argentinian AA to buy road-maps for Entre Rios, Corrientes and Misiones Provinces. In the afternoon I spent several fruitful hours with the forest conservation organisation, the Fundacion Vida Silvestre Argentina. They informed me that the yatay palm had been mostly cleared as it indicated good farming land and had become so endangered that the Argentine government had set up the Parque Nacional El Palmar near Colon in Entre Rios Province in 1965 to save it. The staff at the Fundacion also had a small sample of fruit, which I examined.
The yatay palm belongs to the Butia family of palms, which is closely allied to the Arecastrum and Syagrus palms. The family is hardy and grows under a wide range of conditions from high rainfall tropical to fairly dry subtropical. It will even survive moderate frost. The mean daytime temperature during our trip - July could be described as mid-winter in Argentina - was 10-15 C as far north as Eldorado (27.5 S) in Misiones Province. There was however a dramatic temperature change in the 100 km between Eldorado and Iguazu, where the daytime temperature rose to 25 C.
The fruit of the yatay palm is egg-shaped, 5 cm long with persistent petals attached to the base giving it an appearance like an acorn. The fruit has a hard shell with a very fleshy, finely fibrous outer mesocarp layer and a thick stone endocarp. The flesh is very juicy and edible. It is used for food by human beings and the juice can apparently be fermented to make a wine.
At the Parque Nacional El Palmar we discovered the palm to be tall with bluish-grey fronds and recalled a passage in D'Orbigny's Voyage dans l'Amerique Meridionale, where he refers to the vast forests of yatay palms stretching along the Rio Parana creating a bluish expanse (6).It occurred to us that this may have provided the Glaucous macaw with some measure of protective camouflage from its most likely natural predator, the Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja), which still occurs in the most northerly provinces of Misiones and Formosa.
These palm forests no longer exist in Entre Rios and Corrientes. One can glean some small impression of how they must have looked to D'Orbigny for small distances along the Rio Paraguay between the cities of Resistencia and Formosa. Interestingly D'Orbigny in his entry for 29.6.1827 had foreseen that the palm forests would disappear as soon as the local people realised how fertile the soil was.(7) Corrientes Province has been progressively settled since the 16th Century - the city of Corrientes was founded in 1588 - and the river systems bordering the northern, eastern and western boundaries of the province have been used to transport people and livestock in and natural resources out. This development was dramatically accelerated with the application of the steam engine in shipping.
Soon after D'Orbigny's departure for Europe in 1835 the first steam ships started to ply the rivers. A sailing boat took nearly eight months to sail the 2,000 miles from Montevideo in Uruguay to the city of Corrientes and back again. HMS Alecto, an 800 ton British ironclad, took under 6 weeks for the same journey in 1851. I recently found a detailed entry on Corrientes Province in a Geography Cyclopaedia published in 1866, which made clear the extent of settlement, although it did mention there was 1,000 sq. miles of palm forest still existing. The population was estimated at 41,000 in 1847 by Parish and 32,000 in 1848 by McCann, the difference being due to difficulties caused by depopulation in the civil war then raging. The 1914 edition of Baedeker gives a population according to the 1913 census of nearly 350,000, a density of over 4 inhabitants per sq. km(8). Thus between 1848 and 1913 the population had increased at least tenfold.
We spent much time on the possible food sources of the Glaucous macaw. Although T.Silva (1989) curiously claims the feeding habits of the Glaucous are undescribed and suggests without evidence that it probably fed off the fruit of the Atalea phalerata, earlier writers have speculated about the subject. Azara was the first naturalist (1802) to refer to the Glaucous Macaw and its feeding habits when he suggested its diet may be limited to fruits, seeds and dates because he thought the bill and the roof of the mouth too weak. (9) Goeldi (1894) suggested, again without evidence, it fed off the fruits of the tucum and mucuja palms.(10) Sick alludes to this in his habitat description in his great work Ornitologia Brasileira published in 1984(11).
I have not yet found any reference to the feeding habits of the Glaucous in D'Orbigny's work although Collar mentions that D'Orbigny wrote a note to Bourjot Saint-Hilaire in which he says the macaw ate the kernels of various palms (12). However we were convinced the yatay palm was the most likely main food source. After our return from South America we were pleased to discover that Martin de Moussy had in 1860 reported the presence in the province of Corrientes of a small violet macaw, which lived in the yatay palm trees feeding off its fruits (13). We have also heard that Carlos Yamashita is investigating the relationship between the Glaucous macaw and the yatay palm and await his findings with great interest.
The glaucous macaw does not seem to have been very numerous. The Jesuit priest Sanchez Labrador had reported in 1767 that it was rare in the forests of the Rio Paraguay, although it was apparently abundant (muchisimas) on the left bank of the Rio Uruguay(14). It is difficult to assess from this report how relative the comment was. Azara (1802) merely says he saw several airs.(15) D'Orbigny only refers to the macaw in a few passing remarks. He did try the meat and found it unpalatable (16), although he certainly did not eat it exclusively during his travels on the Rio Parana as claimed by Goeldi (1894) (17).
Joe Cuddy and I then spent the next 10 days driving through the provinces of Entre Rios, Corrientes and Misiones. We also spent a day driving north from the city of Corrientes to Clorinda, the border town with Paraguay, some 40 km from Asuncion, which we visited by taxi. In Asuncion Zoo we discovered 10 hyacinthine macaws, which have been confiscated recently by the Paraguayan authorities. We are hoping that with the assistance of Traffic South America, the ICBP and diplomatic channels that these birds and any others confiscated can be considered for re-release.
We were able to study the topography and assess the condition of the habitat. Nowhere did we find sufficient habitat for a bird like the Glaucous macaw. Much of Entre Rios and Corrientes is naturally treeless savannah. Any forest was concentrated along the rivers and water courses. The northeast of Corrientes was a huge swamp and although large tracts have been drained for farming, there is still much left. This does not however offer suitable habitat for a macaw. The Batel swamps in western Corrientes, where D'Orbigny reported shooting a blue macaw in 1827 (18), also no longer offers suitable habitat.
The disturbance for wildlife in the region has been considerable and as mentioned already above is not just recent. Apart from forestry, farming and ranching, there is also the gigantic hydroelectric complex at Salto Grande on the River Uruguay, which has resulted in the flooding of lowland areas and the construction of a bypass canal for river traffic. There are other similar projects on the Rio Parana. We spoke to the local people and questioned them about the possibility of a blue macaw still existing or having existed in living memory. All were amazed at the idea.
We had hoped that in Misiones, which still has large tracts of forest in the northern part, we would be more fortunate. However the forest is largely dry sub-tropical vegetation dominated by the parana pine (Araucaria angustifolia) and with few palms. We saw no yatay palms at all. Interestingly western Misiones was settled in the twenties by German immigrants. Eldorado was very clean with neat little houses. Our hotel had framed photographs of the German Alps and Rhine castles on the walls. I spoke more German in Misiones than English or Spanish.
I spoke to several old settlers, including a bus company operator, who owned a zoo near Eldorado and had been there since 1923. He told me that the original German settlers had been " lazy " and had spent their lives fishing and hunting instead of logging and farming. None of these people, who knew the province, which measures roughly 300 km by 100 km, exceedingly well, had seen or heard of a bird like the Glaucous macaw. In the eastern part of the province we spoke to squatters and settlers from Brazil. Again we encountered genuine astonishment that such a bird could possibly still exist.
We returned from Iguazu through southern Brazil to Sao Paulo and were shocked by the deforestation. Virtually all the dry sub-tropical forest, which once stretched from Paraguay to the Atlantic coast has disappeared. Most of the trees we saw were stands of foreign trees such as the Caribbean pine or eucalyptus. Some years ago I was told by a Brazilian diplomat in London that his government had attempted to encourage reforestation projects by offering an inducement grant. The result was that landowners cleared the little natural primary forest left and planted foreign trees to qualify for the grant.
A similar situation is developing in Misiones, where more and more primary forest is being replaced by plantations of foreign trees. Apart from this replacement with alien trees, the saplings are apparently planted 2,000 to the hectar to obtain grant, when 1,100 according to the Forestry Research Station in Surrey should be the maximum per hectar for the climate and soil conditions.
We had thus travelled several thousands miles through the reported habitat of the Glaucous macaw and realised there was no chance of it still existing. I believe that the Glaucous macaw has been extinct since the early years of this century, the main cause being the clearance of its main food source, the yatay palm. I do not believe there were large populations in recent historical times.
The Glaucous macaws reported in the last century probably belonged to a relict population supplanted by the more successful Hyacinthine macaw to the north, which was or became a specialist feeder.
There has been some speculation that there could be a small population still existing somewhere and the existence of a small population of Lear's macaws in a remote part of Brazil, which was unknown until discovered by Sick in 1978, has been cited as an example. However I would argue that the accepted distribution area of the Glaucous macaw is not remote and has not been so for at least 150 years. Apart from the settlement of the area and all the disturbance this has brought, the entire region has been subject to military incursions and actions since the days of the Jesuit settlements in the 18th century.
Throughout the 19th century there were devastating wars including the civil war, which involved Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay as well as British and French naval intervention, from 1835 to 1851. The war of the Triple Alliance from 1865-70 between Paraguay on the one hand and Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay on the other resulted in Paraguay losing most of its adult male population (19). Paraguay also had a serious border dispute for decades with Bolivia, which errupted into war from 1932 to 1935. Even today access to the River Parana on both the Argentinian and Paraguayan sides is very restricted and often impossible because of the military presence.
I discovered this when I went to view the nesting sites in the river banks near Ita Ibate in northern Corrientes reported by D'Orbigny in 1827 (20) and was arrested by the Argentine navy. Fortunately I was able to convince an initially incredulous naval officer that this tall Englishman in green fatigues, binoculars, camera and note book really was looking for the reported nesting site of an extinct blue macaw and he eventually escorted me to take photographs of what turned out to be sheer cliffs some 7-8 metres high with a small shingle beach on the Rio Paraná.
We returned to London on 17th July. The trip was very demanding physically and was disappointing in that we realised that the Glaucous macaw was long gone. We decided the reported sighting by Vaz-Ferreira in 1951 of a single bird on a fence post near Bella Union in Uruguay was on the basis of our findings erroneous and heard from Nelson Kawall that Rossi dalla Riva's claim to Bertagnolio to have had a Glaucous macaw in his collection in 1975, which he said died in January 1976 of food poisoning, was total invention (21). It seems most likely that his claim to have located nesting sites in Sao Paulo state is also fantasy. However we learnt much and got to know some really friendly and co-operative people whilst we were there, whose help and advise was indispensable and contributed greatly to our expedition.
Much of the research into original reports was completed after our return and continues. This has been a real labour of love. I have discovered that when many early writers and naturalists refer to a blue macaw, they are often referring to the blue and gold macaw (Ara ararauna). This started with the great French naturalist Buffon. Azara however refers to the blue and gold macaw as caninde and this is still its local name in Brazil today. The local Indian name for the hyacinthine macaw is araruna, meaning black macaw, which must not be confused with the Latin for the blue and gold macaw (22). Apart from the library at the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, I have been fortunate to have access to the library at the Latin American Institute in London.
Finally I should like to express thanks to Diego Gallieno, Claudio Bertonatti, Dr. Navas and his assistant Juanna in Buenos Aires as well as Daphne Colombet in Misiones Province, Nelson and Marianne Kawall in Sao Paulo, Dr. Mauersberger in Berlin as well as Nigel Collar of the ICBP for their enthusiastic help and support. I should not forget Senor Abal at Pinalito Reserve in Misiones nor the couple in the forest hamlet of Deseado, who supplied me with water, soap, towels and beer when I arrived exhausted and covered from head to foot with red mud after having dug the car out with my bare hands when it got stuck in the Urugua-i Provincial Park.
I am also appreciative of the forebearance of the librarians at the Natural History Museum and Canning House, who have had to deal with an often harassed businessman rushing in between appointments to search for entries and have them photocopied for later collection and study.
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Post by sebbe67 on Jun 10, 2006 10:53:14 GMT
Glaucous Macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus)
Range: The Glaucous Macaw has not been recorded in the wild since the l9th century, and it is probably now safe to assume that the species is extinct. It was recorded from only a small area in southeastern South America, evidently centered on the lower Paraguay and Parana Rivers, from whence come most of the few specimens with data (none of it precise). It is known to have occurred in southeastern Paraguay, northeastern Argentina (at least in Corrientes, from which there are several extant specimens), and Rio Grande do Sul in extreme southeastern Brazil (no specimens, but Belton (ms.) notes that a traveler in the 1820's wrote convincingly of seeing this species). A. glaucus probably also once occurred in northern Uruguay (Artigas), but again there are no extant specimens (Cuello and Gerzenstein 1962).
Habitat: The Glaucous Macaw evidently occurred in the sub-tropical forests found along the region's larger rivers. It probably also occurred away from them, the concentration of reports from riverbanks simply being due to these being where travelers could see them, there being little or no access into the interior.
Status: The Glaucous Macaw seemingly used to be not uncommon within its relatively limited range. Specimens were taken up to at least 1860 (in Corrientes, in USNM). The last known specimen to have been seen alive was one, thought to be from Brazil, exhibited in the Buenos Aire's Zoological Gardens in 1936 (Orfila 1936); a photo of this bird cannot be definitely identified, but is certainly either this species or A. leari. If it was in fact the latter, then the last known live specimen was another captive seen at the Jardin d'Acclimation in Paris from 1895 to 1905 by Jean Delacour (Sick and Teixeras 1980).
I conducted surveys through much of the Glaucous Macaw's range in Paraguay in July-Aug. 1977, and could find no evidence that the species still exists. Not only did I myself not see it, but local residents did not know it. Many were familiar with Ara chloroptera, though that macaw was far from common locally. The active bird dealers in Asuncion told me that they had never been able to obtain a specimen of this species; some had tried to, being fully aware how rare (and valuable) such a specimen would be.
Exactly what happened to the Glaucous Macaw is a mystery. Early observers, among them Azara (1805) found them quite common along the Parana River in the late l8th century; here he saw "a number of pairs" and noted that "it nested not only in hollows of trunks, but also, and with greater frequency, in ones made in the vertical banks of the Parana and Uruguay Rivers." It would appear that neither deforestation nor any other form of habitat disturbance can have caused its decline, for extensive forest remains over much of the species former range, especially in Paraguay. Furthermore only in the last few decades, long after the Glaucous Macaw had declined, did any serious habitat disturbance begin to take place.
Hunting seems unlikely to have been the major cause of such a rapid decline, though the species could have been unusually vulnerable, especially if in fact it was found mostly along the larger rivers. Several much favored gamebirds, among them the curassow Crax fasciolata, however, are still found in good numbers in the very same forests. Conceivably, a natural catastrophe played a role (perhaps some pathogenic factor, or an unusually cold spell, which greatly reduced available food), or possibly the species simply declined on its own. We are unlikely ever to know what happened, for much as with the Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis), the species slipped away before anyone realized it was going.
Summary: Almost certainly extinct, perhaps the first South American bird to become so since western colonization. The reasons for its decline remain obscure, as discussed above. Conceivably a small population yet persists in some small pocket of unexplored forest, but I consider it decidedly unlikely.
Parrot Society members may recall that Joe Cuddy and I undertook an almost epic journey to Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in July 1992 to search for the Glaucous Macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus), which resulted in a detailed report in the November 1992 issue of the magazine. At the end of this report I concluded that the macaw was extinct and had probably been so since the early years of this century.
Despite the arguments I put forward, rumours and speculation within aviculture have persisted about the continued existence of the Glaucous Macaw with various locations being suggested for its occurrence in Paraguay and Argentina. Then earlier this year I heard that two Japanese ornithologists had reported hearing a macaw in the eastern part of Corrientes province. I contacted Judy Hutton, who has lived for 30 years on a ranch near Mburucuya, some 150 km southwest of the city of Corrientes, and whom I met at a convention in Asuncion, Paraguay in August 1995. She faxed me that she believed the report to be without foundation.
As I wished to renew contacts in the southern cone of South America, I decided to revisit the area covered in 1992 in early July. I flew to Buenos Aires in Argentina, visited friends there involved in wildlife conservation as well as visiting the Natural History Museum to arrange photographing the skin of the Glaucous Macaw outside in sunlight rather than in the basement rooms where it is kept. I then caught the overnight bus to Corrientes, where I stayed for two days. I then caught another bus to Asuncion in Paraguay to investigate reports in the southwest of that country near the small city of Pilar.
In Asuncion I unexpectedly became a member of an impromptu expedition team with two researchers from a government agency and Jorge Escobar, an well-known Paraguayan ornithologist. We travelled south on the main highway to Encarnacion, a major city in southeastern Paraguay, through the town of Paraguari to San Juan Bautista, where we left the paved road to travel 144 km (90 miles) southwest along a rutted dirt road to Pilar. During the wet season this road becomes impassable and Pilar is cut off from the rest of the country for months with its only contacts with the outside world being by water with the Argentinian cities of Corrientes and Resistencia nearly 150 km further south along the Rio Paraguay.
In Pilar we met up with Gustavo Granada, a lecturer at the small university there, who accompanied us to a research station on a ranch he owned in the area between the Paraguay and Parana rivers. He knew this area well and was keen to show us forests of " yatay " palms (Butia yatay), which I believed to be the main food source of the Glaucous Macaw and the disappearance of which led to its extinction.
However I was surprised to find short palms - 3 to 4 metres high - compared to the very tall specimens I had seen in Argentina. Jorge suggested they might be stunted because of the very poor soil there. They also fruited for a very short period, which was puzzling at the time. However since my return I have discovered they were of a palm species closely related to the yatay called Butia paraguayensis.
As I felt we were travelling around the area without achieving much, I asked if there were any really old inhabitants locally I could talk to. We then drove to the village of Lomas, where I was introduced to Ceferino Santa Cruz, a 95 year old cotton farmer. He only spoke the local Indian language of Guarani, so Jorge and Gustavo interviewed him in that language and translated his replies into Spanish.
He related that he was born in the village in 1902 and that his father had moved to the area in 1875 after the devastating war of the Triple Alliance, in which 90% of the Paraguayan adult male population were killed. He had never seen the blue macaw ( " Guaa hovy " in Guarani ), although he had seen the red one (Ara chloroptera). However his father had told him about it. He claimed that his father told him that it fed off the fresh green fruits of the cocos palm (Acrocomia totai) on the tree. It did not feed on fruits fallen on the ground as these were too hard.
After hearing this fascinating anecdotal evidence we returned to Pilar, where we were to have dinner with Andres Contreras, who has received funding from the European Union to set up a study centre in Pilar dedicated to " Man and nature in Paraguay ". His parents were to join us and as his father, Professor Julio Contreras, who lives in Corrientes in Argentina, is one of that country's leading ornithologists, I was really looking forward to the dinner party.
He told me that he had travelled extensively in the province for 15 years compiling an atlas of the birds of Corrientes and could therefore agree with my conclusion that the Glaucous Macaw no longer existed there. In addition he was able to tell me about the last three sightings of the macaw in the wild he knew of. These were as follows:-
1. His uncle had last seen one near the city of Corrientes in 1919, the year of his marriage.
2. An employee of the uncle, who died recently at the age of 90 years, said he saw Glaucous Macaws in the forest of Riachuelo, south of the city of Corrientes until around 1930.
3. A neighbour told him that a pair of Glaucous macaws nested in a huge, ancient Enterolobium contortisiliquum tree just north of the city of Corrientes until 1932. They then disappeared.
Professor Contreras concluded by relating that the local people hunted and shot the macaws much as country people in the U.K shoot rooks. I was amazed that this admittedly anecdotal information based on first hand reports appeared to indicate that the Glaucous Macaws managed to survive into the early 1930s and close to the main city of Corrientes.
The Jesuit father, Sanchez Labrador, had reported in 1767 that the Glaucous Macaw was not common even then. Very little has appeared in literature of any kind about the macaw since then, although both local people and visitors to the area must surely have been aware of its presence.
On my return to Asuncion I was able to obtain a copy of the 1968 reprint of Sanchez Labrador's famous work " Peces y aves del Paraguay Natural " (Fishes and birds of Paraguay) originally published in 1767. In this work he relates a very interesting story about a tame macaw on a mission station and I conclude with a translation of this account.
" They tame very well and do surprising things. There was a very tame blue macaw in a village called la Concepcion de Nuestra Senora inhabited by Guarani Indians. Whenever a missionary arrived from another mission, the macaw would go to his lodging. If it found the door shut, it would climb up between the lintel and the door with the help of its bill and feet until it reached the latch. It then made a noise as if knocking and often opened the door before it could be opened from inside. It would climb on the chair in which the missionary was sitting, utter " guaa " three or four times, make alluring movements with its head until it was spoken to as if thanking him for the visit and attention. Then it would climb down and go into the courtyard very contented. If it did anything untoward to other tame birds, the missionary would call it. It would then approach submissively and listen attentively to his accusation, the punishment for which was supposed to be a beating. When it heard this, it lay on its back and positioned its feet as if making the sign of the cross and the missionary pretended to beat it with a belt. It lay there quietly until it heard the words " once en doce " (eleven of twelve), which meant the twelfth, then it turned over, stood up and climbed up the robe to the hand of the missionary, who had pronounced the punishment, to be stroked and spoken to kindly before leaving very satisfied. "
This account shows how similar the behaviour of the Glaucous Macaw must have been in captivity to its larger relative, the Hyacinthine Macaw.
Finally I should like to thank Claudio Bertonatti, Dr. Navas and his assistant Joanna in Buenos Aires, Judy Hutton in Mburucuya, Lucy Acquino-Shuster for the loan of the vehicle in Paraguay, Margarita Mieres, Cristina Morales and Jorge Escobar for their excellent company on the expedition, Gustavo Granada, Andres Contreras and his parents, Julio and Amalia Contreras in Pilar, Ceferino Santa Cruz in Lomas as well as Dietlind Kubein Nentwig, my colleague in Madrid, who advised on aspects of the Sanchez Labrador text.
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Post by sebbe67 on Dec 7, 2006 19:28:49 GMT
 A Gap in nature |
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Post by RSN on Dec 9, 2006 19:29:37 GMT
This is a original image of the Gap in Nature with a dodo cover or is another edition?
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Post by Carlos on Dec 9, 2006 21:59:29 GMT
This is a original image of the Gap in Nature with a dodo cover or is another edition? Certainly not in Flannery & Schouten (2001), A Gap in Nature, Atlantic Monthly Press. New York. So far, the only edition. It is "a" gap in Nature, nevertheless (and a beautiful image, too) |
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