Endangered macaw back in Brazil after smuggled to Argentina

A male lear's macaw—Anodorhynchus leari, a species threatened with extinction—was returned to Brazil after being smuggled to Argentina. The specimen arrived Wednesday (Apr. 5) at 10 am at the International Airport of Guarulhos, in São Paulo, and is set to be quarantined in the city before being taken to a breeding ground in Minas Gerais.

The bird was found by Argentine law enforcement agents with a smuggler in 2007, reported Murilo Reple Rocha, superintendent at the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), in São Paulo. After being seized, the specimen was kept at a zoo in Buenos Aires until the case was tried by an Argentine court.

Reple explains that the animal will not be able to return to the wilderness, but will serve to breed. “The Ministry of Environment has a program for the preservation of this species. The life of a specimen is important, as the idea is to increase the population [of the species].”

The lear's macaw occurs in the caatinga, in the Raso da Catarina region, northeast Bahia state, and lives for an average of 50 years. Apart from illegal wildlife trafficking, the main threat facing the species is the destruction of its habitat, the licuri palm, or Syagrus coronata, which provides its nourishment.

Brazil and Argentina managed to forge a deal, as the two nations have both joined the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which regulates the traffic of wild fauna and flora.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira