No macaw chick left behind

This past month we have had some exciting developments at the Tambopata Macaw Project. Last time we wrote a lab note we had eight chicks in our nursery waiting for the right time to go to their new foster nests. Parker, the fourth chick from Mandy Lu, had just that morning been placed in his new nest to become the second chick at nest Pukakuro.

That day, we were all waiting for the afternoon to come when we could climb the nest and check to see if Parker had been fed or not by his new mum. Well, he didn't have anything in his crop that afternoon, or the next....however, by day three the veterinarian could see his crop was full of seeds and clay and all that good nutritional food from the wild! Below is a picture of how Parker looks today...as you can see he was accepted by his new parents and is looking beautiful and healthy like a wild Scarlet macaw should.

 

Parker, chick IV from Mandy Lu at 57 days old. Relocated into nest Pukakuro at he is doing very well.

Sadly there were a few deaths, as there always is. Some chicks are born with problems that cannot be fixed, no matter how hard we try. Sometimes its because the egg has not been rotated enough, or hasn't been kept at the right temperature during brooding, causing abnormal development. Sometimes the chicks are predated or as you know, starve to death in the nest.

This season we wanted to save every single chick that was at risk of starvation, leaving no chick behind. In every accessible nest that had 3 or 4 hatchlings, we intervened by bringing one or two of the chicks back to our nursery. However, some chicks were just too weak to save. The third chick from nest Hugo for instance, died after only a few hours of hatching, even with help from our expert breeder.

On a much brighter note, in December eight chicks at the Research centre were still being fed by our veterinarian and specialty breeder. We were able to make one chicks Christmas by finding him a home on the 25th December, and two other chicks went to another nest the day after. We want to minimise the time the chicks spend with us as much as possible so that they do not get used to humans. Ideally we want them in their new nests the first day that their eyes open.  Three days later two more chicks were relocated and in January the remaining chicks also went to their new nests. After a few days of supplemental feeding in the field, these chicks had big crops in the afternoon, showing that they were being fed by their new parents! All was well. We still check on these little guys everyday until they are 40 days old, making sure they are looking healthy and growing as they should. After this we visit them every other day until they are almost ready to fledge from the nest.

 

James Bond, one of the relocated chicks from nest Tigres

So far this season we have a total of 33 chicks growing up happy in their wild nests. This is the most chicks that we have ever had in one season in our 20 years working in Tambopata! Eleven of these have been given the chance to survive and fledge thanks to the relocation program. We have reduced the working hours in the field, trialed triple broods for the first time, and given the first (possibly ever) fourth chick a chance to fledge, making this work more accessible and useful for other projects.

Thank you so much for your help and support to make the survival of these chicks possible.

Keep an eye out for more updates about how the season finishes up.