The beautiful blue macaw parrot, which was the one that was highlighted in the movie Rio, is officially extinct in the wild.
The Spix’s macaw got its unusual fame after being highlighted in Rio, a movie by 20th Century Fox.
The main character of that movie was a charming parrot named Blu, who wants to travel thousands of miles with hopes of saving his species.
But a study that was published recently suggests that the bird, which is found in Brazil, is now officially extinct in the wild.
The Spix’s macaw is one of the 8 bird species that were confirmed to be extinct or suspected extinct.
The sad news was heard in a report from BirdLife International.
Experts believe that deforestation and hunting are the 2 leading causes of the Spix’s macaw’s disappearance from their natural habitat, the wild.
The study also said that it is for the first time ever that extinctions on the mainland are outpacing those that are on islands.
Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s chief scientist, and the paper’s lead author, released a statement about the sad news.
Butchart said:
Ninety percent of bird extinctions in recent centuries have been of species on islands. However, our results confirm that there is a growing wave of extinctions sweeping across the continents, driven mainly by habitat loss and degradation from unsustainable agriculture and logging.
In the year 2011, Rio was released and in the movie, Blu, a blue macaw, was highlighted being raised in captivity. In the movie, it was seen that he traveled from Minnesota to Brazil with his owner to repopulate his species with the last wild female of their Kind, Jewel.
However, the movie itself was too late
The study found out that the last female blue macaw probably passed away in 2000.
That’s 11 years late.
The good news is that it’s not the end of the birds. According to official numbers, there are around 80 Spix’s Macaws left in captivity.