Inspiring Animals - Scarlet Macaws

The scarlet macaw is one of the world's largest parrots, and one of the most beautiful animals of the Central American rainforests. During our visits to the Belize Zoo the macaws are one of our favorite stops due to their curiosity and intelligence.

In this episode Kayla and Michael take a look at some of the challenges facing scarlet macaw populations and how you can get involved in learning more about this inspiring species.

This is part of our Inspiring Animals series - a look at some of the amazing animals we have come in contact with during our work in Belize. For more on this series, see bit.ly/inspiring-animals

For more information on macaws, visit us at www.inspire-edventures.com/blog/science-of-scarlet-macaws/

If you have a favorite animal that you would like for us to talk about, email michael@inspire-edventures.com and we will be glad to 

IE is an organization formed by teachers and scientists with a passion for developing inspirational stories about people and organizations involved in wildlife conservation and education.

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Transcript

everyone welcome back to inspiring animals This month we're going to be talking to you about Scarlet Macaws so I'm Kayla Windelspecht and I'm here with my dad Michael Windelspecht. And we're really excited to talk to you about the Scarlet Macaws and what makes these birds so special. And some of the challenges and complications that are faced when it comes to the conservation and protection of these birds in the wild. So first of all what is a Scarlett macaw Now most of you have probably at least heard of a Scarlet Macaws before These are these very large bright red and yellow and blue parrots. That are found in Central America and South America.
And in this series so far we've actually talked a lot about more solitary animals We've talked about jaguars We've talked about harpy eagles. but scarlet macaws are like most parrots, they're actually very very social animals So scarlet macaws will live in these very large group these flocks of of, up to a couple dozen individuals actually. And the role that Scarlet Macauz play in the rainforest is that they eat a lot of primarily
fruits and seeds. They have these really powerful beaks that can actually crack open these seeds and nuts that they find. And so they're very important for spreading these seeds in the rainforest and contributing to the ecology. Of the rainforest…And so like we've previously mentioned Scarlet Macauz do have a very very large range So they're found primarily in, the tropics and tropical rain forests, and they're found through Central America and into a lot of South America, or at least they used to be found throughout Central America And this does get into what I think we are going to be talking about a lot today which is the really interesting story of Scarlet Macaws conservation…And so just to kind of paint a picture of…why Scarlet Macaws conservation is so…complicated, to start off Scarlet Macaws, as a species are not actually listed as endangered. They're not listed as endangered and they're not listed as threatened.
Their population is currently declining as are the populations of many many rainforest species, but Scarlet Macauz are actually listed as least concern at the moment And this is primarily because they have such a lar a large range
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There are Scarlet Macaws found in many many countries in many many areas, and over a a very very large, tractive of land And so their population, especially in South America is actually doing pretty well. But this is the South American population. and in Central America it's actually a bit of a different story. so in South America it's estimated that there could be tens of thousands…
of Scarlet macaws there are possibly hundreds of thousands of Scarlet macaws as a broad range for their population. And in Central America it's estimated that the population of Scarlet macaws is under one thousand. So this is something that we're going to be talking about today And I think to start it off we might talk a little bit about, some of our own experiences with Scarlet Macaws and…working with Scarlet Macaws with our partners down in Belize and the chances we might have had or might have missed as it might be to see some Scarlet Macaws in the wild and Central America. Yeah Okay Well we've had a great experience with Scarlet Macawss. Mostly through our partnership with the Belize Zoo initially.
I remember one of my first experiences or any experienced first experiences they come to the inside the zoo is at this giant Scarlet Macaws Habitat. And they're very animated, birds being very you know parrots. they're very talkative Yes. Very talkative Yes they, and very very food motivated Let's do it that way. And the big bright beautiful birds.
So it's hard to miss them as you first come in.
and so it's very interesting when you first see you with Scarlet macaws first of all of their size. I'm sure you're gonna talk about this They are very very large. they have a massive wingspan for a parrot. Yeah Kayla We've had some great experiences with our partners in Belize talking about scarlet macaws and one of those of course is our partners at the Belize Zoo. Which has a fantastic exhibit The Scarlet will cause you just as you enter inside the zoo which is really really great because they're this big beautiful bird.
They're they have a massive wingspan I'm sure we're gonna talk about and they are very very animated. One of the things I like best about these birds is the fact that they're they're they're very interactive with humans and with other people So they're always up against the fence They're chattering at you They are having you know they're trying to get your attention obviously for food their food mother They're very social They're very social birds They're very social they're not so social with each other sometimes in a in a habitat
some of these They have to have separate several separate habitats there because some of them don't get a little ornery around each other But it you're right when you mentioned before that in the wild and I'll come back to that a little bit later on some of our experiences in the wild with them They are very they they move more on these big flocks. in the zoo they're they get a little bit more territorial with each other And that's probably also a little bit of food motivation, okay or attention motivation. one of the things I like best about macaws or which it's unfortunate in some ways that the fact that they do have the ability to use human words…to get attention. Okay Yes When they want to when I I do know there have been a couple of times when we've sat there trying to get them to speak on camera and they just refuse to do it They can They just And then you're walking down the path and they yell something at you and you're ready Of course Of course. As soon as the cameras go off.
And
there's all sorts of stories about Macawss and and and that you know imprinting and and interaction with humans. One of my favorite experiences that got me involved with the Macaws was we went down to Red Bank which is in the southern part of Belize, to go photograph, the Scarlet McCaws population down there. and…red bags are very interesting plates because it is a very is a mayan community And then we often think that the mayans is you know being…gone like the Incas but the mayans are very much a population of people in Belize in Guatemala, and Red Bank is one of these places and they have a giant red Scarlet macaws, viewing area there You can go and see these big blocks of Scarlet macaws move back and forth between their roosting areas and then back to their feeding areas because they do migrate. And the time we went there there had been a tropical wave coming through And we saw no Scarlet macaws. Anyways, we saw none There was no Scarlet macaws.
We saw pictures of what it they have seen the day before which was fifty and sixty of these birds at a time inside of these trees. But we have did did not see any in the in the wild except for a few flying overhead.
we've also had a little bit of experience though which has been fun in different parts of the country running into more isolated pairs of macaws or three or four of them at a time. A tree one of them was on sleeping giant resort where there's a there's a group of them which come through there to feed, a smaller group and then move through So they they are moving through these areas and they are absolutely majestic to see…very very large parrots in white, and their beautiful coloration, is something that's pretty amazing. Yeah They really are very beautiful very very beautiful birds. So all of our interactions with Scarlet Macaws have been in Central America And all of my, particular interactions with Scarlet macaws as Dad has mentioned, have been at the blue zoo I've actually never never seen Scarlet macaws in the wild. Seen plenty of other birds I've seen many many toucans in Belize There are toucans everywhere in Belize, but scarlett macaw is not not so much And this does tie back a bit to what we were talking about earlier with the challenges facing the Scarlet Macaws population in Central America So Belize is actually one of the strongholds of the Scarlet Macaws population in Central America
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And this is due in large part to the actions of organizations such as the Belize Zoo and especially including the Belize Zoo founder Sharon Matola had a lot of
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interactions and conservation work specifically towards the Scarlet Macaws And if you'd like to learn more about that particular story there is actually a a book about this called the last flight of the Scarlet Macaws And I'm sure that we will have a link to where you can find this book in the description for this podcast. Oh I got I got it I just gotta say that The last slide of the Scarlet macaws really not only talks to you a little bit about the challenges facing the cause in the lease but the historical basis of it with what Sharon Matola
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the founder of the zoo and her early conservation efforts And what's interesting about that was…even Scarlet macaws nested near Rivers I'm sure Kayla will tell you about it in a few moments And there was a dam project coming in and they were worried about you know eliminating these macaws. They end up losing this, unfortunately, over over time this fight. But the results of it is that Sharon matola becomes very very motivated to be to increase animal conservation and to expand her work with with wildlife conservation and beliefs. And indirectly or directly as a result of that that actually becomes part of what pounds the police do. This is an amazing book It's a great story left by the Scarlet Macaws by Bruce Barcott.
you can almost find it anywhere. I highly recommend it as as you understand what the conservation issues and beliefs are This is the way to this is the one to read. And one of the things that's talked about in this book is the issue in distinguishing between the South American population and the Central American population when it comes not only to conservation efforts but to
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legal issues surrounding the protection of endangered and threatened species So as we've mentioned Scarlet Macau's overall the Scarlet macau population is
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doing okay They're decreasing a little bit but because they exist over such a large range and because there's estimated to be so many of them in South America they are currently listed as least concern. Unfortunately, while the South American population is doing okay the Central American population broadly is doing very very badly. In Central America Scarlet macaws are actually believed to be locally stinct through most of their former range This is a big reason why Belize is such a stronghold for them right now. And so what is the reason for that Kayla? Why is the things different in Central America than it is in South America?
Yeah one of the biggest reasons that we see is actually habitat fragmentation. So habitat fragmentation is pretty much what it sounds like It's when habitats in this case it would be the rainforest get broken up into these small pieces This is usually by, human impact This is usually by construction of roads or towns or clear cutting rainforest in order for agricultural use or what have you And it breaks up these areas of rainforest into these smaller and smaller pieces. And the problem with that is that many animals cannot cross through these
through these barriers They can't…cross through these open spaces these roads these agricultural fields, these towns that people live in. And so it traps, these animals in these consistently decreasing areas of rainforest that may not be large enough to support their population
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So as the habitat fragments and as the available habitat gets smaller and smaller it gets much harder for species such as the Scarlet Macaws to be able to find
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the habitat they need to find the food that they need and to be able to support a healthy population So this habitat fragmentation is seen a lot in Central America and is
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negatively impacting a lot of rain forest species including the Scarlet Macaws and is driving Scarlet Macaws in many places to localize extinction which is again exactly what it sounds like It's when a
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animal that used to be found in a certain place is just not there anymore So the species itself is not extinct, but it's just not in that area anymore And unfortunately this has been seen And we have seen that a little bit ourselves. In the short period of time we have been in belize over the past well not even short period of time or the ten or fifteen years we've been there there are places where we could go see Scarlet Macawss, and now we don't even see them come through anymore. and mostly because there has been development, human development, not that so it won't cause a void humans but normally when humans come in I think they destroy the food trees and things like that that what they need to survive And the habitats but it's very difficult now to see them except for certain areas of the country and then during specific times. Yeah Yeah Just moving back and forth Right So Yeah Exactly and another way that humans really badly impact the…
scarlet Macau population is actually through poaching There's a lot of poaching especially for the pet trade There's poaching where people will go and actually take eggs out of the Scarlet Macau nest to get the hatchlings to sell into the pet trade because these birds are Again just so so pretty and so beautiful And this is really badly impacting their population If you have a very small population to begin with then you have someone going and taking eggs out of nest you can you can understand why
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This would really hurt the scarlet macaws. So these are all I think the part of the problem too is that these people say it was that when they get scarlet macaws they don't understand how big they're going to get. Yes They are they are rather large birds. Small parrots. Yes Oh large animals Yes For food, and can be their talons in in other parts They're they're they can be fairly aggressive Or so Yes I I believe several of the scarlet because at the Belize zoo were actually rescued from the pet trade which is illegal in Belize it is considered poaching in Belize to take these birds.
But even these animals who are very habituated to humans you know were always told you know don't stick your fingers in the bars because if these birds their beaks are so powerful they can they can break your finger if they want to If they if they think that you're giving them a treat or something they can they're very large very very powerful birds. but yes these are the issues being faced by the Scarlet Macaws in Central America. But
adding to that is also the issue that again scarlet macaws are not listed as an endangered species. They're listed as a species of least concern. So all of the…
legal protections that endangered and threatened species tend to have are not really applied to Garlica So a lot of the legal protections that endangered species tend to have
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are not applied to Scarlet Macaws even in these areas where Scarlet Macawss really need these protections. and one of the kind of interesting ways and I don't think that we'll get too much into this because it's kind of a, a very interesting can of worms but…
one of the ways that…this has kind of been circumvented a little bit is that the Central American Scarlet Macaw…is actually currently recognized as a separate subspecies…and again we won't get too much into this as a bit of science jargon a little bit of what exactly where exactly you draw the line with species and subspecies but there is a subspecies of Scarlet Macau Now that's the Central American Scarlet McCau It's the era or ara Macau signoptera. and it's legal it's recognized as legally distinct, from the South American Scarlet Macaws which does allow there to be some legal protections for this subspecies separate from the broader species So you can say well the Scarlet McCos are doing okay but the Central American Scarlet macaws needs some help here. and that has allowed there to be some some more legal protections and also just some more…focus on specifically these Scarlet Macaws and their troubles and conservation of them in Central America specifically…
And I think that's an important thing that the reason I think one of the reasons why we're seeing this distinction between you know Central American and, you know South American Scarlet macaw is you know it's a good thing There's a distinction but it's a bad thing because their habitats becoming so fragmented that they are becoming separate populations, you know separate and subspecies as you mentioned And I think that that's really been a challenge That's been the challenge is how to protect you know localized populations and this is one of the roles that many organizations in Central America not just in Belize but other places as well which are trying to fight is how to protect these…
species which are increasingly having smaller and smaller population area population sizes I'm sorry and areas to support their populations. and if you assign something as big and powerful as the Scarlet macaw imagine what's happening with some of the the smaller parrots which are also out there. Yeah And scarlet macaws especially this does tie into a little bit of what's sometimes called umbrella species. I think we we talked about this a bit with Harpy Eagles. in conservation what happens a lot is that there ends up being a lot of focus on what's called charismatic species which are kind of what it sounds like It's a species that are very color full very well known, people really want to help these species.
And though it may kind of take some some attention away from other species that may not be quite as, quite as charismatic you know you're going to get some more support for the Scarlet Macaws than you might get for an endangered frog for example. people don't always give a lot of money for frog conservation
which is a shame in my opinion I I very much like frogs. But…
but Scarlet macaws because their conservation does focus so much also on preserving areas of land for them and
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keeping these habitats connected We've talked before about the Maya rainforest corridor as a conservation initiative in trying to combat this habitat fragmentation as much as possible. because all of these things that benefit Scarlet Macaws also benefit all the other species in the rainforest Scarlet Macaws conservation is important not only for this species, but for the rainforest as a whole And then of course getting back into the ecological functions that Scarlet Macaws play they are seed spreaders. they do spread all of these plant seeds all over the rainforest they're very important for…they're very important for maintaining the biodiversity of the rainforest and the ranges of these plants. You know plant seeds can't really just grow legs and spread on their own so they really depend on animals a lot of times to be able to spread them throughout their range. so you can see how the conservation of one animal in one place not even the animal across its whole
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or range but even in just these with this one specific place will really benefit the rainforest as a whole. And again if you want more information about…
the Scarlet Macawss in Central America and and Belize specifically and the…problems that are faced by Scarlet Macawss in Belize and what a lot of people are really putting a lot of time and a lot of work into trying to help, first of all visit the belize Zoo visit the Belize Zoo website visit the Belize Zoo in person, and all of the people there are really experts in all of this and then also Again the last flight of the Scarlet Macaw is, I think a really really good resource for starting to understand these kind of very complicated problems, especially in rainforest ecology…through the lens of this one species. I would also encourage you to go to our website for more information, especially our YouTube channel We'll be posting some of the videos we've made okay of our interactions with Scott McClaus at the Belize Zoo and especially our our friend Ranger, who is an ambassador for their species at the izoo very animated, very very very intelligent. Okay And a little bit of troublesome guy. Okay
as you'll see in some of the videos but there's there's really an interest to learn about them and they're an amazing species, and it is is definitely an inspiring animal When you see one of them you really want to try to make a difference in protecting their habitat. Absolutely Absolutely i think Scarlet Macaws like you said, not only are they beautiful animals but they're very smart very charismatic, very funny animals honestly They're just it's it's really amazing to be able to see to see them in person. Okay Kayla Is there anything else you'd like to go over tonight? I think that's a good overview of, this month's inspiring animals And again, if you have any further questions please don't hesitate to reach out to us Please check out, the information we have on Scarlet Macawss on our webs site and the Belize Zoo website as well talking about their animal ambassadors. And as always we hope to see you back next time for some orange firing animals.
And if you have any animals you would like for us to to cover on a future episode, please just drop me an email at michael at inspired edventures dot com And Kayla and I will look into talking about that in one of our future episodes. Thank you. Absolutely Thank you all for listening…
Hey there This is Ashley from Inspire Adventures. Thanks for tuning into our podcast all about Scarlet McCall's. Since I know you're into these vibrant talking of birds, I've got exciting news to share. Coming this summer, this birdie told me my brand new children's book and the third in our animal series. So get ready for color, curiosity, and a whole lot of squawk
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