Each day at noon the sky above Xcaret turns red and the air is filled with sound of raucous squawks and cries as hundreds of scarlet macaws (Ara macao) take flight above the forest. These beautiful and sadly endangered birds have been raised in the Riviera Maya’s famous park as part of a conservation and breeding program that has been so successful that it has found its way into the Guinness Book of Records. On June 1, Kimberly Patrick, the representative of Guinness World Records presented an award to the President of the Xcaret Group Miguel Quintana Pali in recognition of the record birth of 105 scarlet and green macaws in 2009. This is the first time that Guinness has given one of its prestigious certificates to a program to raise a species threatened with extinction.

Members of the parrot family, macaws are among the most beautiful birds in the Americas. Once widespread in Mexico, the scarlet macaw and its smaller green cousin, also known as the military macaw (Ara militaris), are now on the brink of extinction. Deforestation, loss of nesting sites, habitat fragmentation and the poaching of eggs, chicks and adult birds for the exotic bird trade have decimated the populations of both species. The Mexican Government passed legislation in 2001 to outlaw the trade in macaws.

An inhabitant of the rain forest, the scarlet macaw (guacamaya roja or papagayo in Spanish and mo’ in Maya) is now found in the Lacandón Jungle in southern Chiapas – along the banks of the Usumacinta River – and in Las Chimalapas, a reserve on the border between Oaxaca and Veracruz. It is estimated that there may only be about 500 left in the wild in Mexico.

The green macaw can sometimes be spotted on the plains bordering the Gulf of Mexico and in forests clothing the valleys and mountains of the central and southern Pacific region. Both species feed on palm nuts, a variety of seeds and soft fruits such as the zapote, and will fly great distances to forage.

A Labor of Love
Founded in 1992 with four breeding pairs of macaws, the Xcaret Macaw Breeding Center now has 772 macaws, 90 percent of which were born in the park. Breeding these beautiful birds is extremely challenging and it has become a labor of love for the team of four people in charge of the program. The birds need constant attention to ensure that they mate and nest. Sterility rates tend to be high and macaws mate for life so if one of the pair dies, it is virtually impossible that the surviving bird will nest again. And when the chicks are born they have to be hand-fed for the first four months of their lives. The hard work and care has paid off with more birds being born each year and lower chick mortality rates: of the 125 chicks born in 2009 105 survived. In 2010, 136 chicks hatched and it is hoped that the number will reach 150 this year.

The goal of Xcaret is to eventually release macaws into the wild and it is working with several communities in southeast Mexico to this end. Hopefully, one day in the not too distant future, it will be successful and macaws will once again grace the skies.

An Emblem Species
A flash of red against a sea of green, the scarlet macaw was a symbolic creature for ancient Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya and the Aztecs. In Mayan mythology, macaws and parrots were associated with the sun god and kingship, and feature in ancient ceramics and the bas-reliefs and friezes adorning temple walls at a number of archaeological sites in the Maya World. By far the most famous representations of this bird are in the ancient city of Copán in Honduras where the birds can still be seen.

Their impressive tail feathers were traded and used in the headdresses of Mayan leaders or rendered to the gods as offerings. The Aztecs also prized the feathers and demanded them as tribute from vassal tribes in Chiapas. The red garments worn by the Papantla Flyers, Totonac Indians from northern Veracruz, are said to represent the plumage of the sacred macaw, and their death-defying leap from a 30-meter pole and the spiraling descent they make around it with their arms outstretched as if they were birds reenacts an ancient ritual to honor the sun god.

Photos courtesy of Xcaret Park