There was a young artist of yore
Who painted a bright blue macaw鈥�
THE artist was Edward Lear, best known today for his nonsense verse and limericks (the lines above are not among them), but celebrated during his lifetime for his zoological illustrations. Employed as a draughtsman by the Zoological Society of London in the early 1830s, among his many studies are paintings of several dozen parrots, all from life and in astonishing detail. He was so accurate that 30 years after they were painted, , Napoleon鈥檚 nephew and an ornithologist, realised the blue parrot Lear had labelled a hyacinth macaw was in fact a new and undescribed species. Bonaparte called it Anodorhynchus leari 鈥� Lear鈥檚 macaw.
鈥淣apoleon鈥檚 nephew 鈥� an ornithologist 鈥� realised the parrot was a new species鈥�
Advertisement
In the days when Lear was painting parrots, ornithologists knew of two blue macaws: the hyacinth macaw and the glaucous macaw. Then Bonaparte made it three, but while Lear鈥檚 macaw occasionally turned up in shipments from Brazil, no one knew exactly where it lived. This mystery persisted until 1978 when German ornithologist Helmut Sick discovered a colony of around 20 birds in a little-known corner of the north-eastern state of Bahia 鈥� an arid, inhospitable place marked by spectacular sandstone canyons.
Sick had gone to Brazil on an expedition in 1939 and stayed until his death in 1991. He spent decades searching for Lear鈥檚 macaw. By the time he found it the species was almost extinct, hunted for food and sold to collectors prepared to pay huge sums for rare and beautiful parrots. To make matters worse, the macaw鈥檚 favourite food 鈥� the nuts of the licuri palm 鈥� was fast disappearing. Grazing goats were preventing the growth of licuri saplings.
A ban on trade in the birds and the creation of a nature reserve around the canyons where they nest on cliff ledges have led to a remarkable comeback, though the macaw is still classed as critically endangered. By 1987, the colony had grown to 70 birds and by 2003 there were 455. This year, conservationists from Brazil鈥檚 Biodiversity Foundation, which runs the reserve, counted 751 birds. 鈥淭here might possibly be a few more,鈥� says Michael Parr of the American Bird Conservancy, which provides support.
So what are the prospects for Lear鈥檚 macaw? 鈥淲e are hopeful that they are safe,鈥� says Parr. 鈥淲e are concentrating on making sure their food supply is secure, by planting more palms, and on making sure no more birds are poached. Trying to capture chicks from these cliffs is very dangerous. It鈥檚 not a great way to make a living.鈥�
Just hope would-be collectors never come across . Fewer than 100 species survive out of the original 175 illustrated, and they are all worth a fortune.
