Dear Ara Supporter ,
This morning I watched excitedly as a released Scarlet Macaw bobbed his head and fed his partner. On the second go he seemed to be more into it than she was, but they worked it out. They were perched in our giant Guanacaste tree with the hills as a backdrop. It was a beautiful thing and it meant several things:
- I had escaped from my office, though all too briefly.
- Love is in the air and nesting will be happening soon, fingers crossed!
- We need to wrap up our months of preparations for the breeding season.
It’s a super exciting time. The year has been a busy one and it’s all been made possible thanks to the incredible support we’ve received from institutions and generous individuals. With the exception of a few oddballs our young (parrot) couples have chosen partners, and your support has given them private quarters and a love shack (nest box) they can call their own. There are boxes up in trees around our release sites for both our Great Green and Scarlet Macaws, and we’ve got the vulnerable nests under surveillance.
Of course being ambitious folk we’re still trying to put final, final touches on stuff but clearly it’s time to sit back and let the birds do their thing. I have to admit I’m anxious but more than that I’m thankful. Our donors have enabled us, and our team have worked hard to get us to this point, thank you!
Sam WilliamsSeasons greetings and best wishes!
Sam Williams, PhD
Executive Director,
The Ara Project
News
We are delighted to introduce our new Costa Rican partner ChocoFrutas. 50% of the profit from these delicious chocolates will go to conservation, and one of the supported projects is The Ara Project. This means eating chocolate helps parrots! The chocolate covered fruits are so good that we are sure they will soon be available worldwide. We would love to receive photos if you find them!
The Ara Project is proud to have developed a professional on-the-job training program at the breeding center Punta Islita. This year we will be training Katie, Elliot and Jody and giving them the skills to be parrot conservationists. They will gain experience in general parrot husbandry, running a breeding program, wild population monitoring and non-profit management. We are very grateful for their dedication. If you are interested in following them in their journey, make sure to stay tuned for updates on our website and Facebook page to see their videos and blogs. For interested volunteers with a relevant background, application opens in May 2017 for the 2018 breeding season!
Cob BuildingCob Building
Funded by Indianapolis Zoo we are currently in full development of a new much needed vet clinic. We’re building with cob which is a mixture of clay, stones and rice straw. We have clay on site and the other materials come from the surrounding area. We love cob because it is beautiful and by using natural materials the vet room will have a low environmental impact. We even made the foundation with recycled pavement from the village, and the first bit of wall is made with rocks from around the site.
This type of building has a cultural history in the area and so the local community are very interested and involved in the development. This way we hope to increase the impact of our work by inspiring a form of housing which is environmentally friendly and cheap.
Behind the Scenes
The Punta Islita team are really excited about the imminent high-speed fibre-optic internet installation that is due to be completed this month. A lot goes on behind the scenes to make saving parrots possible and of course much of our office work requires the internet. It’s also nice for team members to be able to connect with family and friends back home. But we work in a remote area with patchy connection over a phone network that for whatever reason seldom works if it rains! So we are extremely grateful to Rob and Nathalie McCarthy for this generous donation.
Want to have breakfast with the parrots?! Once we get the aforementioned Internet hooked up, we will be streaming live feeds from the bird table (and hopefully from nest boxes!)
You Helped Parrots Find Love!
Thanks to your amazing donations we’ve been building breeding aviaries and generally re-organizing our Punta Islita site into what we hope will be a productive captive breeding centre. Over the past year we’ve also been mixing unpaired individuals and paying close attention to their behavior. We were looking for who was spending time with who and if any preening was going on. To do this we marked individuals so everyone on the team could tell them apart. Once these young birds found their true love they were moved into their own aviary and now we wait eagerly for their romance to blossom!
Protecting Wild Nests
We are at the start of another breeding season! The wild young pairs are very busy practicing feeding each other and warming their homes to lay eggs. As you know, these magnificent birds face extinction due to poaching. And thanks to the support of loyal supporters like you, we can give these young families a chance for success! You have made it possible for us to buy and install covert and overt cameras that will help us protect these vulnerable nests.
With these cameras and increased in person surveillance we hope to protect wild chicks from illegal parrot poachers. Just like you, we are looking forward to watching these birds fledge young in this year’s breeding season. We will keep you posted when there’s news!
