Blue-fronted Amazon Project

Category: Education | Date: Nov 19 2009 | By: Blue-fronted Amazon

Between Nov 12th and 15th, I participated on the XXVII Annual Ethology Meeting and I Latin-American Symposium of Ethology (http://www.xxviieae.com.br/), at Bonito - Mato Grosso do Sul. The theme of the meeting was “Animal evolution and behavior” and many well known scientists from all over Brazil and also from other countries were present. Dr. Neiva Guedes (Instituto Arara Azul - http://www.projetoararaazul.org.br/) presented her results and gave a talk to the attendees.  I presented two posters: 1) ‘Parental behavior of repopulated Blue-fronted Amazon’, with the collaboration of the biologist Alessandra Mara Sá Firmino, and 2) ‘Reproductive behavior of Blue-fronted Amazon monitored by a in nest microcamera’ with the collaboration of the undergraduates Verónica Ramirez Martinez (UFMS) e Thyago Sabino Morais (UCDB). 

Poster about parental behavior.

Poster about reproductive behavior.

These studies had the financial support of the Bird Park (Parque das Aves) - Foz Tropicana (http://www.parquedasaves.com.br/) and Caiman Ecological Refuge (http://www.caiman.com.br/), besides the operational support of the Fazenda San Francisco Agro Ecotourism Tours and Lodje (http://www.fazendasanfrancisco.tur.br/).

Many people were very interested in the results of our Project, including students and professionals from other states. The event was a success and I congratulate the event coordinator Dr. José Sabino, from UNIDERP/Anhanguera (http://www.uniderp.br/), for this great event!

Presenting the results, and posing in front of the posters with my son Rafael. ^{Images: João Augusto.}

Tags: Conference, Education, Ethology Meeting

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Category: Education, Partners | Date: Nov 18 2009 | By: Blue-fronted Amazon

On Dec 12th and 13th I had a chance to meet with the artisans, children, and teens from the Instituto Família Legal (http://www.familialegal.org.br/), at Bonito (http://www.portalpublicobonitoms.com.br/), Mato Grosso do Sul, and lecture about the Blue-fronted Amazon Project.

Walkiria, the coordinator of the institute, introduced me to the kids and artisans. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

Lecture to the artisans - Instituto Família Legal. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

Lecture to the kids and teens - Instituto Família Legal. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

This meeting is the result of a partnership established earlier this year, with the coordinator of one of the projects in this institute, the Fibra Viva Project. This project, coordinated by Sinéia Milano, has as objective to generate income to women in need assisted by the Instituto Família Legal, through the manufacturing of items made of reused and recycled materials.These products are sold directly by our team on our lectures/seminars, and also by the Ecoloja, one of our great partners (http://www.ecoloja.art.br/) – some of their products follow a ‘parrot’ trend, check it out!

Large Parrot Bag, and neoprene Shoulder Bag - Fibra Viva Project. ^{Images: Glaucia Seixas} 

Detail on Parrot Bag - Fibra Viva Project.  ^{Image: Glaucia Seixas.}

During the two afternoons that we spend at the Instituto Familía Legal, Lucia and Giana, from the Fundação Neotropica do Brasil (http://www.fundacaoneotropica.org.br/), and I learnt about the importance of this great job done by the institute. The 11 artisans and 30 children/teens showed a strong interest on the issues related to the illegal animal trade and on the activities of the Blue-fronted Amazon Project.We also gave away a T-shirt of our Project to one of the artisans, and gave prizes to the best drawings and sentences made by the kids and teens. We hope this was just the start of a long term relationship. We truly appreciate this opportunity and we congratulate the wonderful job made by Walkiria, Sinéia, the teachers, and the staff of the Instituto Família Legal.

Kids painting and receiving prizes - Instituto Família Legal. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

Tags: Instituto Família Legal

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Category: Education | Date: Jun 01 2009 | By: Blue-fronted Amazon

On May 31st, I presented the Blue-fronted Amazon Project at the 5th Parrot International Symposium (www.parrotsinternational.org), held in Las Vegas, from May 29-31st (Video - Parrots International Symposium 2009). The Symposium program featured 20 speakers from across the globe, a very full schedule. Presentation topics ranged from parrot conservation, aviculture, behavior, and veterinary medicine. I am thankful for Dr. Mark and Marie Stafford’s invitation - Founders of the Parrots International, Dr. Anna Cronkap’s financial support - Parque das Aves Foz Tropicana, and the translation provided by Dr. Yara Barros - Technical Director of the Parque das Aves. Several other Brazilian Projects were presented besides the Blue-fronted Amazon Project:

Carlos Bianchi - “How we can improve our knowledge about endangered species: a contribution from the Pfrimer’s Parakeet project”, Brazil.

Dr. Mathias Dislich - “Development of a Macaw Reintroduction Project: A case study”, Blue and Gold Macaw and Green-winged Macaw
Reintroduction Project - Igaucu Falls, Brazil.

Dr. Neiva Guedes - “Factors that influence the reproductive success of Hyacinth Macaw in Pantanal, Brazil”,The Hyacinth Macaw Project - The Pantanal, Brazil.

Dr. Yara Barros - “Spix’s Macaw Recovery Program: Retrospective and Perspectives”, Brazil.

The meeting was great, and it was definitely helpful to to divulge the Blue-fronted Amazon Project and to raise awareness for their conservation. Keep tunned! More news coming soon!

Glaucia

Dr. Anna Cronkap - Parque das Aves Foz Tropicana

Dr. Mark and Marie Stafford - Parrots International

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Category: Education, Nestlings, Pantanal, illegal wildlife trade | Date: Oct 01 2008 | By: Blue-fronted Amazon

On Sept 19^th, after receiving an anonymous call, the Environmental Military Police made the seizure of 377 offspring of parrots - the largest ever held in Mato Grosso do Sul. Fifty-three, out of the 377 nestlings, died. Fifteen were yellow-faced parrots (Amazona xanthops), and the rest were blue-fronted parrots (A. aestiva). The parrots were being transported in boxes of vegetables and came from Ivinhema (approximately 290 km from Campo Grande) and the smugglers were using kids to collect the nestlings and eggs from the nests. The animals were brought to the Center for Rehabilitation of Wild Animals (CRAS) in Campo Grande, where they are receiving health care from the CRAS personnel, under the coordination of Vinicius Andrade Lopes. Sadly, the blue-fronted amazon parrot is still illegally collected in Brazil. It is a very popular parrot, due its ability to mimic sounds – being able to imitate words and phrases. This illegal capture directly decreases the recruitment of this species, and compromises its ability for further reproduction, as most of the nest-cavities are destroyed by the smugglers in order to gain access to the nests. These animals will stay at least for one year at CRAS and might be released after that. I met with Vinicius to discuss the necessary strategies in order to prevent the illegal wildlife trade, as raise public awareness and monitoring. It is very sad for us to see all these animals, knowing that they are only a small fraction of all the animals captured every year. But we will keep fighting for them and their environment. We will use all our efforts to fight against the illegal wildlife trade, and aware public about the importance of this and all the other wildlife species in Pantanal. We won’t give up. We will never give up.

Tags: Illegal Animal Trade, Nestlings, Pantanal

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Category: Education, Nestlings, Pantanal | Date: Sep 22 2008 | By: Blue-fronted Amazon

We are still at the field, working with the activities of the thematic month. The guests who are visiting the Refugio Ecologico Caiman (www.caiman.com.br) are having so much fun! Our externs (Lorena, Diana and Veronica) lecture to the guests, with the help of Caiman guides (Fábio, Helder, Leonardo, Vitinho and Daiana).      When checking the nests, the guest had the chance to see 3 little cute nestlings, with about 10-15 days old!!Besides visiting the collective roosting site of the parrots, they could enjoy a wonderful sunset, characteristic of the Pantanal.     When not with the guest, we monitor nests, eggs, and offspring of this reproductive season.And, on the spare times… Vandir teaches rappel to the externs – technique used to gain access to unreachable nests on the top of trees.Please stay connected! More news coming soon!   

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Category: Education, Nestlings, Pantanal, Partners | Date: Sep 11 2008 | By: Blue-fronted Amazon

During September 2008, we presented our research activities to the guests at the Refúgio Ecológico Caiman (www.caiman.com.br). This activity is called “Mês temático do Projeto Papagaio-verdadeiro” [Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot thematic month] and has as objective to provide the guests a better interactivity with the Project, the environment, and the local culture. After being introduced to the Project by a presentation, the guests of the Refúgio Ecológico Caiman have the opportunity to visit nests of blue-fronted Amazon parrots (with eggs and/or nestlings) and one roosting site. At the first week of this month, the guests had a chance to visit two parrot’s nests with 2 and 4 eggs, and a roosting site, with about 500 parrots!!!  Being able to have this unique experience will certainly approximate the guests with nature conservation, the parrots, and its environment. For us, this is a great opportunity to aware people about the importance of conservation and to divulge the Project.Our sincere thanks to Dr. Roberto Klabin and the Caiman team for this opportunity and great results! :0) 

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Category: Education, Partners, Support, Team | Date: Aug 12 2008 | By: Blue-fronted Amazon

On 1993, a group of friends, concerned about the conservation of natural resources, gathered to create a non-governmental organization called Fundacao Netropica do Brasil. During these 15 year of work, Neotropica promoted and practiced nature conservation at Mato Grosso do Sul state through countless projects. There were many challenges, conquests and results (http://www.fundacaoneotropica.org.br/). The Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot Project is among the many ongoing projects. We are glad to be part of this story! Our sincere thanks to the team members, council, partners, collaborators, patrons, and encouragers for the success thus far!!!  

Tags: Education, Partner, Support, Team

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Category: Education | Date: Mar 03 2008 | By: admin

Between February 17th and 21st, the externs Veronica and Thayane, which are biology college students, participate at the XXVII Brazilian Congress of Zoology at Curitiba, PR – Brazil. The subject ‘Zoology in the next 30 years’ promoted a huge and polemic debate about the future ways of this area. The event congregated 4,500 people, including professional zoologists and students from Brazil and abroad.

Veronica presented a poster entitled ‘Associated arthopods at the Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot’s (Amazona aestiva) nest at Pantanal’. This study had the participation of another extern (Lelis) and was oriented by Dr. Gustavo Graciolli, a professor at the Biological Sciences Department, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul.

This study revealed the presence of adult acari and insects at the Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot’s nests. The most frequent group were adult Coleoptera (46,7%), Dermestidae larvae (20%), adult Formicidae (26,7%) and Calliphoridae (Diptera) larvae (26,7%).
Other groups found with less frequency (<20%) were Acari, Blattodea, Stratyomiidae, Muscidae (Diptera), and Mordellidae (Coleoptera). The high prevalence of the order Coleoptera was expected, once this is the biggest order of insect, with more that 250,000 known species.

The poster was very popular and several people were interested on the Project. Congratulations Veronica!

Tags: Education, Pantanal

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Category: Education, Nestlings, Pantanal | Date: Oct 06 2007 | By: admin

These are some of the 186 nestlings arrested by the environmental inspection, in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. They were caught from their nests just after hatching by illegal animal dealers, without any criteria. After that, they would be illegally sold for other countries. Here in Brazil, is crime to capture a wild animal from its natural environment. Now these nestlings are at the Wild Animals Rehabilitation Center (CRAS – Centro de Reabilitacao de Animais Silvestres), linked with the State Government.

Captured nestlings with less than a week old.

Here the captured nestlings are 2 weeks old.

They receive all the necessary care from specialists, until they became fully feathered and eat by themselves. Their final destination depends on which condition they will reach the adulthood, and will be defined by the CRAS staff. Usually they do not come back to the nature after being hand-raising and hand-feeding, and we almost never discover from where they were caught.

The nestlings receive an identification ring.

The nestlings receiving the ring.

The keeper Genivaldo is responsible for preparing food for the nestlings.

The Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot Project is very worried, because this illegal capture occurs every single year. In our region more then 4500 nestlings have been captured from their natural environment, and we know that the real number is twice to three times higher. Many nestlings do not resist and die and others are not arrested. We estimate that for each 10 parrots caught from the wild, only one arrives to its final buyer. This capture without criteria can bring the specie to risk of extinction. For this reason the Project intends to intensify the environmental education activities for the next year, and try to aware people of the environmental damage due the illegal capture of the parrots.

Here Glaucia is giving a lecture about the Project.

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