By Sandra Chouthi

Express

Section 2

October 29, 1997

Page 1

Two environmental groups and the Emperor Valley Zoo are working together on releasing into the wild specimens of the blue and gold macaw, which has not been sighted in its habitat at Nariva for the last 30 years.

Nadra Nathai-Gyan, head of the Wildlife Section at the Forestry Division, said the macaws (Ara ararauna) were extirpated through rapacious hunting to supply the pet trade.

"We've been able to pair and mark them. We hope by the end of the year to release two young macaws," Nathai-Gyan said. "Their only habitat is at Nariva because of its forests."

The six-year project involves the Centre for Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW), the Centre for the Rescue of Endangered Species of Trinidad and Tobago (CRESTT), the Emperor Valley Zoo and the Aviculture Department of the Cincinnati Zoo.

The wait to release the birds is deliberate.

"We now have two people from the (Nariva) community who we will be paying on a part-time basis to monitor the macaws," Nathai-Gyan said.

Zoo curator Ken Caesar said the zoo had provided the Wildlife Section with five macaws for breeding purposes. The zoo has about 15 macaws.

"There is a flight cage built at Nariva where we will take the birds and have them get accustomed to the area before release," Caesar said. "The cage is big enough for them to exercise their flight muscles. The flora of the area will be in the cage for them to get accustomed to."

Caesar said the birds would be kept in the cage for about four months.

The people charged with caring for them will be observing their ability to adapt to their new environment.

The blue and gold macaw eats a variety of things, from fruit to dog chow.

The challenge for the environmentalists is to dissuade them from their diet in captivity and to entice them to eat instead fruits and seeds from the palm and sandbox trees that abound in their new home range.

"Nariva has the royal palm trees which would provide them with suitable habitat for making nests," Caesar said. "The moriche palms will provide natural food."

Wildlife photographer Roger Neckles, who has never seen the blue and gold macaw in the wild in his 13-year career, said the birds used to fetch between US $3,000 and $7,000 in the 1960s when they were common.

Richard ffrench's A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago states that small numbers of the macaws, which are not rare globally, were seen up to 1970. Ffrench had written at the time: "The precarious status of this beautiful macaw in Trinidad was due in no small measure to the illegal taking of young birds from their nests."

He knew enough to warn that unless the government adequately enforced the law relating to the caging of parrots and finches, they are all likely to become extinct in Trinidad within a very short time.

Time has proved him right.

Outside of Trinidad, the species ranges from Panama south through South America to Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. They breed mainly in the dry season (January to May) and are almost invariably found in small flocks or pairs.

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