First steps towards reintroducing the Green and Red Macaw (Ara chloropterus) to Argentina

BERKUNSKY, IGOR; DI GIACOMO, ADRIAN; VOLPE, NOELIA LAURA

Congreso; North American Ornithological Conference; 2016

The Greenand Red Macaw, Ara chloropterus,became extinct from Argentina in the 19th century. In order torestore its ecological role as consumer and disperser of large fruits and seedswe developed a project to reintroduce this species in the Ibera Wetlands,northeast Argentina. In September 2015 we started training a group of sevenmacaws, promoting fruit search behavior, consumption of native fruits andflight. After one-month stay in a pre-release cage, the group was set free inlate October 2015. In our first release attempt, we flushed the group and sixof the macaws flew out of the cage. A week later, and after re-capturing thesix previously released macaws, we tried a different approach, letting themexit at their own pace. Of the seven released birds, 2 were predated by awildcat on days 4 and 5 after the second release, one macaw was found dead andwe were not able to determine the cause, three macaws flew outside of ourtelemetry equipment?s detection range and one macaw was recaptured. We show detailsof this first release experience, discuss the causes that lead to a high numberof losses and present the new pre-release protocol being currently used, whichaddresses these issues.