The Blue Macaw Is The Next Animal To Reach “Extinction In The Wild”

Animals 4 Minutes

Extinction can claim some of the most amazing animals in the world purely to human greed. People point to the signs that an animal is endangered, give steps for improvement but humanity just gets in the way most of the time.

There would be no better article title than “Animal Population Miraculously Recovers And Is Thriving In It’s Habitat,” but sadly this is the opposite. Now the Spix Blue Macaw Parrot isn’t totally extinct, but you won’t be able to find them in the wild.

The bird was widely known as “The bird from the movie Rio,” but they’ve been dazzling us with their beauty long before the movie came out.

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Recently eight species were added to the list of confirmed extinctions or extremely close to extinction. Along with the blue macaw, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl was added and both are due to deforestation in South America.

Stuart Butchart who co-wrote the report said that:

“The last known individual [Spix’s macaw] in the wild disappeared in 2001, but searches have been ongoing since then and it is only now that we feel confident enough to classify it as extinct in the wild.”

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Birds have been going extinct due to human’s and their growth since 1500. According to researchers, 187 species of birds have gone extinct or likely to be extinct since that year. The study was made by BirdLife International who is the go-to source of info for the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

It’s a hard task to really determine if the bird is extinct or at least “extinct in the wild” but the team did exhaustive research within the South American region to come to this conclusion.

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Butchart also said:

“People think of extinctions and think of the dodo but our analysis shows that extinctions are continuing and accelerating today. Historically 90% of bird extinctions have been small populations on remote islands.

Our evidence shows there is a growing wave of extinctions on continents, resulting from habitat loss and degradation driven by unsustainable agriculture and logging in particular.”

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Out of the eight birds, five of the extinctions were found in South America and four were within the boarders of Brazil. Deforestation is happening at such an alarming rate there, and this is just one of the consequences.

Another animal that has recently reached almost extinction is this funky green turtle, read more below!

Sadly, these Mary River turtles have been on the endangered species list aka the IUCN Red List since the 90’s.

Now you might be asking, what makes these animals so dang cool? Well yes their green algae like hair helps but they have another hidden talent.

These turtles can stay under water for three days in a row thanks to an..interesting feature of the turtle. They have glands that are the Mary River turtle’s butt and genitals. Sadly, they have gotten the not so pretty nickname of “butt breather” and kids on the playground are really mean to them I guess.

People online are really loving them now they know about them.

You can find these turtles in the, you guessed it (if you know about Australian geography), Mary River in Queensland, Australia. The species decline is due to building of a dam nearby as well as people poaching the turtle’s eggs for pets. Despicable!



Another reason why the turtle’s population is in decline is because the creatures wait so long to reproduce. They don’t reach sexual maturity till they are 25 years old, and many males wait till they are 30 to actual do the deed.

(This isn’t them but seemed relevant)

With the combo of damn dams being built and the mature decision to wait till marriage is why they have been placed into the Zoological Society of London’s new list of the world’s most vulnerable reptiles. They are clocking in at the 29th spot. Does that mean we have 28 other animals we need to save too?

Safe to say Twitter users freaked out when they found such an awesome looking animal on the list…

I’m just wondering how long it takes for a punk band to be named after the Mary River Turtle. I’d go rage to them for sure.

Dr. James Liu, who is the director of communications for the Turtle Conservancy told The Dodo:

“The most important thing that we like to convey to the public is that people need to realize that turtles and tortoises are one of the most threatened groups of animals, especially vertebrates, on the planet — but no one’s talking about them.

While whales and ‘great apes’ get a lot of press, turtles and tortoises have been here 250 million years, and now over 50 percent of all species are threatened with extinction.”

Liu concluded:

It’s a shame to lose these animals, and no one’s aware that it’s happening but it’s not too late to save these animals, and a lot can be done!

You can donate to the Australian Geographic Society here if you want punk, I mean the Mary River Turtle to never die!

Published by Josh Benson

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