A large circular stone tomb filled with the skeletons of 24 men and children who died in battle has recently been unearthed in the Atico River Valley in southern Peru They were interred in various stone enclosures and all appeared to have died from traumatic injuries Researchers from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Wroclaw in Poland discovered the burials last fall on the El Curaca archaeological site located near Peru’s Pacific coast Artifacts found in the graves indicate that they are from the Chuquibamba culture It is believed that the individuals were buried with honor as part of a funerary ritual since they were interred with such valuable grave goods They were most likely killed during a battle that the Chuquibamba won It was interesting that even children took part in the armed conflict The Chuquibamba inhabited the region between about 1000 and 1450 C.E Their society came before and later coexisted with the Inca Empire which was in control of the Peruvian highlands during the 15th and 16th centuries Not much is known about the Chuquibamba beyond the petroglyphs they left on cave walls in the area It was only in recent years that their culture was determined to be different from the Inca The researchers created 3D models of the skulls and preserved the textiles found at the El Curaca site El Curaca is located north of the Chuquibamba’s center in the Majes River Basin Several examples of their work have survived today including tunics and a fringed bag that once carried coca leaves which many South American Indigenous groups chewed as a narcotic Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. Many of the fabrics were made of camelid fiber They were intricately patterned with multiple colors and repeating motifs a Polish and Peruvian archaeological expedition surveyed the Atico basin The team came across caves filled with paintings and remnants of hunter-gatherer settlements the ceramics that were uncovered closely resembled pottery found in the Tambo and Quilca valleys in Peru Chuquibamba pottery is usually dark red with black linear patterns The research team is continuing their work in Peru until the end of April The ongoing research project is funded by the National Science Centre of Poland ancient DNA will be analyzed to learn more about the pre-Inca archaeological cultures of the Atico River Valley region More About: In the rugged Atico River Valley of coastal Peru a gripping tale of ancient conflict has been uncovered Archaeologists have unearthed a mass burial offering a rare glimpse into the lives – and deaths – of a little-known pre-Inca people They have found the “battle-scarred skeletons” of 24 individuals in a circular stone tomb at the site of El Curaca in the Atico River Valley in southern coastal Peru Live Science reported that the skeletons belong to the Chuquibamba or Aruni people and show injuries consistent with battle wounds The analysis suggests that “they were likely all killed in some sort of interpersonal conflict between their group and another,” stated a Facebook post from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Wrocław COMMENTABOUT THE AUTHORMrigakshi Dixit By clicking sign up, you confirm that you accept this site's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Premium This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Sign In Register Brazil (AP) — All Spix’s macaws are majestically blue in the blazing sun of Brazil's Northeast but each bird is distinct to Candice and Cromwell Purchase As the parrots soar squawking past their home which has two beads attached to its radio collar This familiarity offers a glimpse of the South African couple’s commitment to saving one of the world's most critically endangered species The parrot — endemic to a small fraction of the Sao Francisco River basin and already rare in the 19th century — was declared extinct in the wild in 2000 when a lonely surviving male disappeared following decades of poaching and habitat destruction from livestock overgrazing The few remaining birds were scattered in private collections around the world immortalized in the popular animated “Rio” films the road back from the edge of extinction has been a long Threats that had devastated the Spix’s macaws still loom and the birds now face another menace: climate change The species’ original territory overlaps what has recently been officially designated Brazil’s first arid climate region The drier conditions worry Cromwell Purchase because of their potential impact on habitat for the few surviving Spix’s macaws “A dry area only gets rain for a very short period of the year A drought in that period might go an entire year before you’re going to get your next rain,” said Purchase “The animals are adapted to harsh environments Any small increment of change will decimate populations.” two federal research institutes released a study of rainfall water loss in plants and soil between 1960 and 2020 where the Spix’s macaws are trying to survive It also identified the expansion of semi-arid climate in the Northeast the water leaves the environment and generates aridity,” the director of Brazil’s anti-desertification efforts semi-arid area in Brazil has expanded by 300,00 square kilometers (116,000 square miles) and is now roughly the size of three Californias The government is set to announce measures to avoid desertification by promoting better management of soil and other natural resources in the region In the face of the changing climate and numerous challenges at every turn the Purchases have dedicated the better part of their adult lives to breeding Spix's macaws and reintroducing them into nature The journey first took the biologists to work with a private collection on an oasis in Qatar When the birds were transferred to a nonprofit organization their efforts have been centered in the rural area of Curaca Under an agreement between the Brazilian government and the German nonprofit Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots, 52 Spix’s macaws were sent in 2020 to Brazil on two charter flights Federal police escorted them to breeding and reintroduction facilities accessible by a 1-hour drive on a rough dirt road where the Purchases live and work for the nonprofit 20 Spix’s macaws were released in the wild along with 15 wild-sourced Blue-Winged macaws whose purpose was to “teach” them how to fly two Spix’s macaw chicks were born in freedom — the first ones in decades— but they didn't survive All released birds were equipped with radio collars designed to resist macaws’ strong bills The Purchases and their assistant check the birds' locations three times a day the remaining ones live within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the facilities a compound that includes the couple’s house and a U-shaped flight-and-release cage that's 47 meters (51 yards) long three more of the light pale blue chicks were born in the wild but one of them also flew for the first time last week “This event is so important as it shows how comfortable the parents are in their wild environment,” Candice Purchase said in a text message "A remarkable achievement for the birds and an incredible success for the release." To mitigate the impacts of desertification the German parrot nonprofit partnered with a private company to promote reforestation of 24,000 hectares (59,300 acres) in the territory of Spix’s macaw This initiative involves engaging small farmers who heavily depend on goat raising Unlike depictions in the animated films “Rio” and “Rio 2,” which brought attention to the Spix’s macaw extinction threat the parrot’s natural habitat is far from Brazil’s most famous city low caatinga vegetation that often loses greenery during dry periods a towering evergreen tree that grows near small intermittent creeks the trees allow the pairs to conserve energy and avoid flying long distances to feed When the macaws first arrived from Germany they were offered various foods from the wild “We found that it took a while for the birds to recognize them as food," Purchase said "But the Caraibeira tree produces a seed pod The Spix’s had never seen anything like it before We put those in the cages and some picked them up and immediately knew how to open them and eat the kernel inside which was totally remarkable and took us by surprise.” The project also faces challenges outside the natural world the federal government informed the nonprofit that it would terminate the agreement Brazil's federal environmental agency said it discovered that the nonprofit transferred Spix’s macaws from its center in Germany to other countries without its consent The agreement will not be renewed until the situation is clarified but the government said the nonprofit can continue its reintroduction work The project's funding comes from international donors The strained relations have put a pause on plans to release 20 parrots per year over 20 years “No release in 2023 and now looking like a 2024 release is unlikely It would be a shame for the project to fail because of government politics,” Purchase said There are approximately 360 Spix’s macaws in captivity worldwide even if they never have never seen a Spix's macaw expect them to soon return to flying over the region and not just be seen in countless paintings that made the parrot part of the city's identity They are free,” said Maria de Lourdes Oliveira whose family leased part of their land for reforestation “The most difficult thing was to arrive in Brazil I cried when I saw them going to freedom and flapping their wings.” This story has been corrected to state that the birds were moved and language was changed to indicate the first release into the wild was in 2022 The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org LBV Magazine English Edition the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Wrocław (UWr) began a new season of archaeological excavations in southern Peru in a project that has yielded surprising findings that shed light on little-known aspects of the pre-Inca cultures of the region The epicenter of these investigations has been the Atico River Valley and the adjacent Pacific coastal area where an international team of archaeologists has documented stone structures and collective burials of an exceptional nature One of the most striking discoveries was made at the archaeological site of El Curaca consisting of collective tombs arranged in circular pits with stone-lined walls archaeologists found the remains of 24 individuals—men and children—accompanied by an impressive collection of funerary offerings as well as delicate textiles that have required extensive conservation work Anthropological analysis of the skeletal remains revealed a disturbing detail: all individuals had traumatic injuries that were the direct cause of death This has led researchers to propose the hypothesis that they were victims of armed conflict what is most striking is that the bodies were buried with great care and with significant funerary offerings which suggests that the surviving community honored their dead as heroes perhaps after having emerged victorious from the confrontation The ceramic elements recovered from these tombs display typical features of the Chuquibamba (Aruni) culture whose main center is located in the Majes River basin This geographic and cultural link reinforces the theory that the buried individuals belonged to a well-organized community with defined funerary rituals and a rich material tradition Archaeologists emphasize that the funerary offerings were not only of ceremonial value but also demonstrate a high degree of artisanal specialization Excavations in the Atico Valley have also included laboratory studies and conservation work on the various objects found Work on ancient textiles has been especially arduous due to the fragility of the materials and the need to document every detail before any physical intervention 3D models of the skulls found have been created—a technique that allows for more precise study of the morphological characteristics and injuries present in the human remains The Atico Project is funded by the National Science Center of Poland and is directed by Professor Józef Szykulski from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Wrocław He is joined by a multidisciplinary team that includes researchers The project also benefits from the collaboration of specialists from the Archaeological Museum of Gdańsk as well as international experts from Peru Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email Why did some animals from ancient eras become fossils while others simply disappeared without a trace A recent study on the cave paintings of the Altamira Cave in Santillana del Mar Cantabria (Spain) has concluded that some of the artworks it contains could be much older… A team of paleontologists from the University of Leicester has managed to decipher one of the many enigmas of the dinosaur era—the exact moment when pterosaurs Rome achieved numerous military victories that allowed it to grow and dominate nearly the entire known world in Antiquity In a city doomed to eternity by the fury of Vesuvius The most recent comes from the House of Helle… The fascination with figuring out the part that the Milky Way may have played in the culture and religion of ancient Egypt has led astrophysicist Dr A recent study published in Nature Astronomy has revealed that the dwarf galaxies orbiting around Andromeda are distributed in such an uneven way that it calls into… A team of researchers has analyzed more than 165 gold objects found in four monumental tombs in the Bay of Volos led by Professor Karen Hardy from the University of Glasgow has discovered evidence of what may be one of the earliest known human populations… The Chapel of Corpus Christi in the Toledo Cathedral is also known as the Mozarabic Chapel because Cardinal Cisneros decreed in 1504 that it be used to celebrate worship according… Receive our news and articles in your email for free You can also support us with a monthly subscription and receive exclusive content This is the first in a two-part report about the reintroduction of the Spix’s macaw, a bird declared extinct in the wild, and the uncertain future of its return. Read Part Two here Ugo Vercillo woke up to a piece of amazing news: two parrot fledglings These weren’t just any parrots; they were Spix’s macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii) one of the world’s most threatened species with its few living individuals all confined to captive facilities around the world 11 of these stunning blue birds are flying free again in the semiarid Caatinga biome of northern Bahia and hatching a new generation of wild macaws a testament to an intensive conservation effort that some consider — at least as far as parrots are concerned — the most successful ever attempted the technical director of Blue Sky Caatinga a conservation organization focused on restoring Caatinga ecosystems and closely involved in the Spix’s macaw reintroduction says the young birds that left the nest in May weren’t the first wild hatchlings born from the program So when Vercillo and other conservationists discovered a new clutch of eggs earlier this year “We had to intervene,” Vercillo tells Mongabay We took one of the chicks because it was already weaker which is natural because they usually lay three eggs So we took the smallest one to take care of it in captivity to save it “But the two that stayed are strong and flying,” he goes on “This morning I woke up to a photo of the chicks already on top of a catingueira tree playing with their mother and being fed by her.” The story of how the Spix’s macaw went from being extinct in the wild to once again flying the skies of the Caatinga is a stormy one And even the successful reintroduction hasn’t quieted the squalls; the same week that Vercillo received news about the chicks flying the administrative bond that held the project together was broken threatening the future of this promising program For all their power as a national conservation symbol for the most biodiverse country on Earth wild Spix’s macaws coexisted very briefly with conservation efforts to save them Though Indigenous inhabitants of the Caatinga had probably long known about them the species was only described by science in 1832 from a specimen collected in 1819 by German biologist Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix But no one was really sure about where the species occurred until its rediscovery in the late 1980s and by then only three known individuals survived in the wild some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro the global wildlife conservation authority Spix’s macaws have always been on the brink of disappearing Conservation efforts have been in place since the 1990s to try to save the species but these were hindered by a lack of resources and basic behavioral and ecological knowledge about the parrots Driving the extinction were the threats of habitat degradation as farms and livestock pasture expanded across the Caatinga which picked up speed in the 1960s and 1970s Yet it was captive birds that eventually fueled the species’ revival The biggest captive flock of Spix’s macaws today is held in Germany by the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP) as part of an agreement with the Brazilian government the ACTP sent 52 birds back to their home country for the reintroduction program a surprising success — one that would be thrown into uncertainty over a series of controversies between the Brazilian conservation agency and the German institution working alongside it Cromwell Purchase is the scientific and field projects coordinator at the ACTP, having previously served as research director at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar. The latter facility once held most of the Spix’s macaws left on Earth “the best option — and in fact only option — that secured the release project [in Curaçá] was to send all the birds to the ACTP in Germany.” The ACTP’s main partner in Brazil was the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) the federal agency responsible for managing protected areas and biodiversity the same year the species was declared extinct by the IUCN ICMBio forged a technical cooperation agreement with the ACTP regarding the Spix’s macaw reintroduction This agreement formalized the responsibilities of each part for technical support in monitoring the birds and bureaucratic support for the project while the ACTP would build and manage the facilities to breed train and release the birds within the species’ historical range ACTP transferred 52 macaws to this breeding facility from Germany; in 2022 decades after they disappeared from the wild 20 Spix’s macaws were finally released back into the Caatinga “The project has been amazingly successful beyond anything we could have dreamed of,” Purchase says “We had a wishlist and all [the items] have been ticked.” That’s also the assessment of Thomas White, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a co-author with Purchase, Vercillo and others of a study published this January in the journal Diversity describing the results of the first year of reintroduction “The Spix’s macaw reintroduction has been the most carefully planned and the most successful reintroduction of any parrot I have ever seen anywhere,” White tells Mongabay He also worked on the conservation of parrot species in the Bahamas and was invited to advise on the reintroduction of the Spix’s macaw in 2012 the team placed them in a training and release facility so they could properly develop their flying The researchers selected macaws for release based on their genetic makeup and age (3-7 years) to maximize genetic diversity and avoid maladaptive behaviors that come from too many years spent in captivity And even after all this careful preparation the parrots weren’t cast into the wild alone “The Spix’s macaw reintroduction is the first parrot reintroduction that used the surrogate species concept and what’s called the mixed species flock concept to maximize the probability of success,” White says What this means is that the researchers released the first batch of 20 Spix’s macaws along with blue-winged macaws — the same species that formed a couple with the last wild male Spix’s in the 1990s — so that the birds could form unified groups the blue-winged macaws were taken from the wild for the specific purpose of teaching the Spix’s how to behave as free parrots the Spix’s would develop a better grasp for finding food and avoiding predators the Spix’s macaws were indeed good learners By the end of the first year of the reintroduction the reintroduced population showed a cumulative survival rate — accounting for the uncertain fate of some individuals — of 58.3% but based on the other parrot reintroductions the researchers were ready to consider anything above 30% a success with 17 of the 20 staying together as a group the released birds formed at least six heterosexual couples and one pair successfully bred in their very first year in the wild a sign that the project was on the right track “We were pretty sure we’d have good survival but we were surprised that they started breeding so soon,” White says we estimated that in order for the population to remain stable and to avoid the risk of extinction in the next 100 years it would need to grow to around 700 or 800 animals,” Vercillo tells Mongabay was simple: to keep reintroducing 20 Spix’s macaws into the Caatinga every year for the next 20 years so that this somewhat safe threshold could eventually be reached The goal would demand constant caring for and monitoring of the birds and continual investment in its breeding and training facilities noting that “the importance of regular population supplementation and continued support of this nascent wild population cannot be overemphasized.” So it came as a shock to many of those involved in the reintroduction program when ICMBio announced, in May 2024 that it would not renew the cooperation agreement with the ACTP a conflict of narratives has broken out between the two sides throwing into uncertainty the future of the reintroduction of one of the rarest most threatened species of parrot on Earth Mongabay looks at the administrative turmoil that led to the end of the agreement what it means for future Spix’s macaw reintroduction efforts and the potential for what Purchase warns could be “the second extinction of the species in the wild.” Banner image: Spix’s macaws in a specially built enclosure at São Paulo Zoo in Brazil But this on its own wouldn’t be enough to supply the rewilding target of 20 birds per year Institutional conflict puts successful Spix’s macaw reintroduction at risk Juniper, T., & Yamashita, C. (1990). The conservation of Spix’s macaw. Oryx, 24(4), 224-228. doi:10.1017/s0030605300034943 Purchase, C., Lugarini, C., Purchase, C., Ferreira, A., Vercillo, U. E., Stafford, M. L., & White, T. H. (2024). Reintroduction of the extinct-in-the-wild Spix’s macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) in the Caatinga forest domain of Brazil. Diversity, 16(2), 80. doi:10.3390/d16020080 Vercillo, U., Oliveira-Santos, L. G., Novaes, M., Purchase, C., Purchase, C., Lugarini, C., … Franco, J. L. (2023). Spix’s macaw Cyanopsitta spixii (Wagler, 1832) population viability analysis. Bird Conservation International, 33. doi:10.1017/s0959270923000217 The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] Home → Science Battle-wounded skeletons and ancient textiles offer new clues about the lesser-known Chuquibamba sunburned valley along Peru’s southern coast archaeologists have unearthed the remains of 24 people—men and children—whose bones bear the unmistakable signs of war their final resting place was a carefully arranged tomb where each body was wrapped in cloth and laid to rest with offerings recently uncovered in the Atico River Valley by a Polish-led expedition is forcing researchers to reconsider the story of a little-known South American civilization called the Chuquibamba—or Aruni The burial site lies within the El Curaca archaeological zone It is here that Professor Józef Szykulski and his team from the University of Wrocław began excavations in October 2024 What they found stunned even seasoned researchers circular stone tomb were the skeletons of 24 individuals Scattered among them were grave goods: corn cobs “All of the people died due to injuries consistent with battle wounds,” the team wrote in a translated statement posted on Facebook The presence of such rich burial offerings—especially in a collective tomb—suggests these were not just casualties Szykulski believes they died in a battle that their people won The Chuquibamba culture thrived between 1000 and 1450 C.E. straddling the rise of the better-known Inca Empire Yet while the Inca left behind cities and chronicles Archaeologists had previously enigmatic petroglyphs etched into caves across the region but details about the people who made them remained scarce Many of the ceramics mirror styles found in Peru’s Tambo and Quilca valleys which are thought to be the Chuquibamba cultural heartland painted with black lines and stylized figures—birds Described by scholars as “intensely patterned,” Chuquibamba fabrics were woven with camelid fibers Some featured interwoven motifs and layered colors carried such intricate designs that it was once mistaken for an Inca artifact Researchers are now using 3D scanning to preserve the delicate skulls and document trauma patterns Conservationists are also stabilizing the ancient textiles hoping to glean more about how the Chuquibamba saw—and dressed—their world much of their history remains cloaked in mystery may have overshadowed them in the highlands the mass grave raises tantalizing questions hope to find more answers as they continue their work the grave at El Curaca serves as a powerful reminder Civilizations do not need to be vast or famous to be profound it is in their absences—and in the care they took for their dead—that their stories speak loudest The research project is still ongoing © 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science © 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science This is the second in a two-part report about the reintroduction of the Spix’s macaw, a bird declared extinct in the wild, and the uncertain future of its return. Read Part One here one of the world’s most threatened parrots started being reintroduced into Brazil’s semiarid Caatinga biome disappeared from its native habitat in 2000 The reintroduction project in Curaçá municipality was coordinated by two institutions: the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP) a German breeding facility that currently houses most of the Spix’s macaws left on Earth; and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) the Brazilian government agency responsible for managing protected areas and biodiversity ICMBio announced that it would not be renewing its technical cooperation agreement The move came as a shock to the conservationists involved in the reintroduction and threw the future of the promising program into doubt “[I’m] really perplexed by the decision of Brazilian authorities to no longer renew the agreement with ACTP There is no biological reason for that decision,” says Thomas White from the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Project and a member of the advisory group for the reintroduction of the Spix’s macaw since 2012 “You have a reintroduction that is in the critical first stages It is showing phenomenal historic unprecedented success and to completely change the management of it at this point is very counterintuitive and very counterproductive.” the key factor was “the commercial transactions involving Spix’s macaws carried out by the ACTP.” especially in regard to two imperial amazons (Amazona imperialis) and 10 red-necked amazons (Amazona arausiaca) obtained from Dominica in 2018 the “commercial transactions” cited by ICMBio center on the transfer in 2023 of 26 Spix’s macaws and four Lear’s macaws (Anodorhynchus leari) — another Brazil-endemic species and listed as endangered — to a private zoo in India Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (GZRRC) Spix’s are listed as Appendix I species in CITES the global convention on the international wildlife trade which means its trade is allowed only under special circumstances the “German breeding facility apparently received significant amounts of money for transferring captive-bred birds to private persons and zoos.” ICMBio told Mongabay that Brazil stands “firmly against the trade of this species even with justifications of funding conservation actions The trade of Spix’s macaws is detrimental to the conservation of the species and favors private interests to the detriment of the protection of the public good.” The ACTP has denied it sold the birds to the Indian facility. In a statement issued ahead of last November’s CITES meeting it said that “this operation is not a commercial transaction and no Spix’s Macaw or any other bird was sold.” The transfer was necessary to expand the space to manage the birds promote the project to other parts of the world “There was no transfer of ownership of the animals to any other organization and the birds and their offspring remain under the ownership of ACTP,” it added ACTP’s scientific and field projects coordinator who is overseeing the Spix’s macaw reintroduction in the Caatinga “Martin is slowly but surely moving his facility to India,” Purchase tells Mongabay “He’s got a leased piece of land — a 99-year lease with Greens Greens has built state-of-the-art facilities even better than the facilities he has in Germany “The move is basically just ACTP to ACTP,” he adds Cromwell says the CITES permits under which the birds were transferred “are extremely strict On the permits it is written that the birds are specifically not for commercial trade They are specifically for the Spix’s macaw program So it’s not like the place in India can do anything with those birds other than [use them] for the program.” He adds that while the German facility houses specimens that legally belong to the Brazilian government all of the birds moved to India are owned by the ACTP “ACTP does not need ICMBio’s permission to move their birds,” he says Purchase accuses ICMBio of using the claim that the transfer was commercial to go after the ACTP at the CITES meeting He says the agency is guilty of stalling the project neglecting to act in a timely manner in key moments of the reintroduction — delaying the transfer of more Spix’s macaws to Brazil from Europe He alleges ulterior motives among some officials toward the central role played in the reintroduction by the ACTP which to date has paid for most of the program and says ICMBio’s National Center for Wild Bird Research and Conservation (CEMAVE) in particular has “only made trouble and created politics.” a company involved in the program by restoring the ecosystems in which the birds are released adds that a total of 120 Spix’s macaws should have been imported at this point — more than double the 52 brought over from Germany so far — and that 60 should already have been released saying “there is no animosity on the part of ICMBio towards foreign and private institutions participating in the project.” What it does have are “reservations regarding certain actions of the ACTP.” The agency also denies undermining the reintroduction program saying it has always supported it: “We have fulfilled the terms of the Technical Cooperation Agreement to the best of our institutional capabilities We have never hindered the entry of Spix’s macaws into Brazil.” ICMBio also says it recently approved the transfer of 42 Spix’s macaws from the ACTP to Brazil the approval came too late for a reintroduction to be carried out this year As things stand, however, the arrival of these macaws in the Caatinga has become a hazy matter. In a statement to the Brazilian news site ((o))eco the ACTP’s Martin Guth said that “given the uncertain future of the [Spix’s macaw conservation] project we will not risk the lives of more birds without a clear understanding of the Brazilian government’s position on their reintroduction.” The end of the agreement doesn’t prevent the ACTP from continuing with the reintroduction ICMBio was responsible for technical support in monitoring the birds and for bureaucratic support for the project as a whole while the ACTP was tasked with building and managing the facilities to breed the ACTP still has other Brazilian partners willing to provide support Blue Sky Caatinga was recently put in charge of managing the facilities in Curaçá the ordinance transferring the management of the center from ICMBio to Blue Sky was published,” Vercillo tells Mongabay “So Blue Sky will start to have veterinarians ICMBio is also not stepping away from conservation action; it will continue managing two protected areas established in 2018 specifically to safeguard future wild populations of Spix’s macaws It will also monitor the birds outside of the grounds where the ACTP still conducts its operations There are about 80 Spix’s macaws currently in Brazil split between the population reintroduced to the Caatinga The latter currently holds 27 of the birds recently transferred from another institution at CEMAVE’s request and held in a newly built conservation center just for the species “We fully intend to participate in the reintroduction program,” Fernanda Vaz Guida the biologist responsible for SPZ’s bird sector The zoo has seen three couples form among its Spix’s macaws and Guida says she hopes they’ll start breeding very soon The zoo’s goal is to eventually reach 10 breeding pairs to keep growing the Spix’s population But that’s not enough to supply the reintroduction program — whose managers have a goal of reintroducing 20 birds a year into the wild — if the ACTP decides to abandon the project ICMBio denies officially agreeing to the goal of releasing 20 birds per year and even if the ACTP continues to fully cooperate with the project it says drawing this many birds out of the captive population each year could jeopardize the species’ stock Taking less than 50% of the birds born in captivity and less than 10% of the captive population for the reintroduction program every year shouldn’t compromise the captive flock Asked about its plans for the future of the Spix’s macaw reintroduction in light of the nonrenewal of the TCA ICMBio says it will “seek to include all existing Spix’s macaws [in captivity] in the official management program for the species relying on the continuation of the work developed by the ACTP If the ACTP decides to withdraw from the reintroduction project the Brazilian government will continue the project as soon as it is safe to release appropriately sized groups into the wild continuously in accordance with the best existing knowledge about the species.” the agency’s decision to give up on the TCA was working for the benefit of the Spix’s macaw has left many concerned about the future of the species “We hope there will be more releases,” Purchase says “[A]s long as we can stick to the algorithm and release 20 birds per year considering the amazing success of the first year’s birds released we can assume great chances for a sustainable population within 20 years.” Banner image: A Spix’s macaw at São Paulo Zoo in Brazil has been bittersweet: the rewilding program has been a technical success but bureaucratic wrangling threatens to stall future releases EU’s legal loophole feeds gray market for world’s rarest parrot The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa, as protected areas become battlegrounds over history, human rights, and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss. Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins, and trying to forge a path forward […] It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem It looks like nothing was found at this location 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English Since listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange in October 2017 shares of Ero Copper (TSX: ERO; US-OTC: ERRPF) have soared from their initial public offering price of $4.75 to $12.30 The company has nearly 85 million shares outstanding for a.. You've reached your limit of free weekly articles Keep reading The Northern Miner with a TNM NEWS+MARKETS Membership TNM Memberships is your key to unlocking access to the best news * Credit card required to begin free trial Your card will be charged 14 days from signup You will receive an email notification seven (7) days before the free trial period ends Enjoy unlimited News Stories and Specialty Digests along with Mining and Metal Market insights as part of your NEWS+MARKETS Membership Or go even deeper with our Global Mining Data platform Policies & Terms Subscription options Republishing License Advertise By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. To learn more, click more information Accept Close Some 200m below the Vermelhos mine the company intersected 13.8m grading 2.62% copper highlights included 25m grading 1.02% copper in the Terra do Sal system and 13.6m grading 1.24% copper in the C4 system The company said the high-grade lens discovered 200m beneath current infrastructure of the Vermelhos mine gave a line of site towards being able to extend the high-grade production profile Exploration is focused on developing multiple targets in parallel within the company's exploration portfolio with potential to meaningfully augment each phase of its life-of-mine production plans "Our teams have identified and developed a comprehensive portfolio of ongoing projects with positive implications throughout our life of mine plans that are beginning to crystallise the real potential and inherent optionality of the Curaca Valley," said president and CEO David Strang Ero Copper has 23 drill rigs working in the Curaca Valley Shares in Ero Copper are trading at C$24.65 each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector brought to you by the Mining Journal Intelligence team priorities and preferences of 130+ mining investors and top factors influencing investment decisions in 2025 A detailed analysis of mining investment risks across 117 jurisdictions globally assessed across six risk categories and an industrywide survey The ESG Mining Company Index report provides an in-depth evaluation of ESG performance of 61 of the world's largest mining companies it assesses each company across 9 meticulously weighted indicators within 6 essential pillars Gain insights into decarbonisation trends and strategies from interviews with 20+ top mining executives and experts plus an industrywide survey Aspermont Media is a company registered in England and Wales