Brazil's endangered macaws struggle to survive in the wild. So, conservationists give them flying lessons.

Brazil's endangered macaws struggle to survive in the wild. So, conservationists give them flying lessons.

Brazil's endangered macaws struggle to survive in the wild. So, conservationists give them flying lessons. In an unprecedented project in the municipality of São Simão, blue-and-yellow macaws born in captivity were trained in free-flight techniques before being introduced into the wild. Traditionally, in psittacine reintroduction projects, captive chicks are only released into the wild at 2 or 3 years of age; with no experience in finding food or defending themselves against predators, many end up dying. According to the project’s coordinators, the initiative could signal a new method to be used in parrot and macaw reintroduction programs, offering lower costs and higher chances of success. “I remember my grandfather telling me about the macaws in this region. So, it’s impossible not to smile seeing them back. We know where they sleep and feed, so every time we want to find them, we know where they are,” says biologist Humberto Mendes, a professor at the Federal University of Alfenas …