Reintroducing the Spix's Macaw, a bird species that has gone extinct in the wild

Known for the animated film “Rio” and the iconic character “Blu,” the Spix’s Macaw is one of the rarest birds in the world. Its habitat is limited to just one region in the world, the Brazilian Caatinga. Victim of poaching and habitat destruction due to agricultural development, the population of wild Spix’s Macaws gradually declined to extinction in 2000.

Breeding, the last chance 

A dream the became reality

In 2022, one of the dreams of the Pairi Daiza Foundation came true with the reintroduction of 20 Spix’s Macaws into their natural habitat in Brazil. This was a world first successfully accomplished with the assistance of the Foundation and the zookeeping team of the park, in collaboration with organizations such as ACTP and the Brazilian government… In November 2023, the ambitious conservation efforts undertaken for many years in Germany, Pairi Daiza, and Brazil bore their first fruits. The representatives of this extinct species in the wild, reintroduced in Brazil in 2022 thanks to the Pairi Daiza Foundation and its partners, are starting to reproduce in their original region. This significant event shows that nothing is impossible. That together, if we want it, we can achieve great things and protect or even restore what has been severely damaged by humanity.