The Macaw Society (formerly known as the Tambopata Macaw Project) is a long-term research project on the ecology and conservation of macaws and parrots under the direction of Donald Brightsmith and Gabriela Vigo of the Schubot Center for Avian Health at the Texas A&M University. The project has been working with wildlife and local communities since 1989. The long-term research and monitoring have provided many insights into various aspects of parrot and wildlife of south-eastern Peru. Macaws are among the most effective flagship species for ecosystem conservation in the Amazonian rainforest.
Location The main operation of The Macaw Society focuses on a large uninhabited track of primary tropical lowland forest surrounding the Colorado Clay Lick, which is situated in the Tambopata National Reserve on the upper Tambopata River, very near to the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, in the Madre de Dios Region of Peru. From 1989 until March 2020 the project was headquartered in the Tambopata Research Center (TRC), a tourist lodge operated by the company Rainforest Expeditions. The Madre de Dios Region hosts a unique forest environment, with the highest concentrations of avian clay licks in the world. A range of animals comes to satisfy their need for salt along the river banks of the region. Sometimes hundreds of macaws can be seen at the Colorado and Chuncho clay licks near to the Tambopata National Reserve.
History The project, which was established by Peruvian Eduardo Nycander, grew out of and was based on previous research by Charles A. Munn III done in the nearby Manu National Park. In 1991 and 1992, the researchers accelerated the formation of natural dead palm cavities by cutting off the crowns of 23 live maurita palms (Mauritia flexuosa) in a natural monoculture of thousands of these palms in a 0.5 km2 swamp near the Tambopata Research Center (TRC), as blue-and-yellow macaws in the region almost exclusively nest in dead mauritia palms. Decapitating these palms began the process of rotting the interior of the trunks, which eventually provides nesting sites for these macaws. With the aim of providing nesting sites for large macaws in 1990, nest boxes made of palm (Iriartea ventricosa) were hung on branches of Dipteryx micrantha trees. Between 1992 and 1993, a total of eight wooden boxes made of tropical cedar (Cedrela odorata) and 21 artificial nests made from large PVC pipes were built and hung around TRC. Based on field experience working with wild macaw chicks, researchers were able to determine which nestlings would die. These nestlings were removed, handfed for months and released, thereby increasing the reproductive output of the wild population. Between 1992 and 1994, breeding seasons a variety of methods of rescuing and hand-raising of otherwise doomed nestlings were tested. In the period of 1992–1995, six blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna), 5 red-and-green macaws (Ara chloropterus), and 21 scarlet macaws (Ara macao) were hand-raised and released into the wild population. These individuals later were called "Chicos" (the kids). These birds fledged and gradually integrated themselves into the wild macaw population. In November 1999, Donald Brightsmith became the director of the research project. Under his leadership, a broad spectra of scientific research has been carried out by the project. Since 2006, the project's leading patron is the Schubot Center for Avian Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University. Gabriela Vigo joined the project's leadership team in 2005. In 2020, the name of the project was changed to The Macaw Society (Sociedad Pro Guacamayos in Spanish).
Research objectives
The principal aim of The Macaw Society is to study the various aspects of the ecology of large macaws and parrots in the Neotropics to help better understand the interactions among clay lick use, food supply, breeding season, breeding success, abundance, and movements. This information can aid conservation-focused projects on parrots worldwide. A great interest to the project was that clay lick use by large macaws at the Colorado Clay Lick was very low in 2009 due to the changes in vegetation and soil conditions. However, in early 2010 the Peruvian government, together with the members of the research project managed the clay lick to help restore the large macaw usage. As a result, there was a unique opportunity to study the same populations of macaws both with and without clay lick use.
Another important aim of the project is to help train new generations of conservation scientists. As a result, the project works closely with young Peruvian and foreign assistants and helps them gain the skills they need for conducting research. Students interested in conducting their own independent studies as parts of independent study classes, or theses at the undergrad, M.Sc. or Ph.D. levels are encouraged to apply to study one of the many aspects of macaw and parrot biology at the sites.
Studies
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