Dear Parrots magazine,
Correction
I would like to make a correction to my Letter in Postbag about Spix’s Macaw in the December issue (323). I stated that the Sao Paulo Zoo has never previously exhibited this species. David Waugh knows better! He told me:
“In 1987 I was in Brazil to give a lecture at a Brazilian Primates Congress in Juiz de Fora. As part of the trip I visited the Sao Paulo Zoo, which did indeed have a single Spix’s Macaw on public exhibition together with a Lear’s Macaw. The exhibit itself was somewhat gloomy and most of the time the Spix’s Macaw disappeared into the rear inside area. The Spix’s and the Lear’s behaved as though they were bonded. I suspect that very soon afterwards the Spix’s Macaw (and maybe also the Lear’s Macaw?) was removed from exhibition, because 1987 was the year when the spotlight moved onto the species.”
Thank you, David, for this piece of history! David was right again. Maria Somenzari of Sao Paulo Zoo looked at the records and told us that the Spix’s Macaw was on exhibit for three weeks only!
Rosemary Low, by email