Hi, conservation supporters!
My name is Sofia Bolcato, a master’s student in Evolutionary Biology, from the University of Padova, Italy. I’ve spent two full seasons conducting my studies at the Macaw Recovery Network Field Station in northern Costa Rica, where researchers and 
volunteers work non-stop to monitor and protect the wild population of Great Green Macaws while learning more about their biology and ecology. That’s the main reason I came here to do my master’s internship and thesis.
As an Evolutionary Biologist, I’m particularly interested in the evolution in behavior of social species, in understanding genetic and cognitive components of animal behavior, in life-history traits, adaptive responses to environmental changes, and in organisms’ interactions and co-evolution. During my stay with MRN, I studied temporal variations in spaces used by Great Green Macaws.
In other words, I study the dispersive movement of the species. I’m working on this because, despite all the biological knowns about this species, we still don’t have a clear idea of the number of Great Green Macaws living in the area, their distribution and the ecological elements that influence it. Insights on this could make a great parting point to build up conservation strategies for these charismatic parrots and their environment.
My internship started in the non-breeding season of 2019, where I collected data for three months before going back to Italy to start analyzing the data. In January 2020, I returned to Costa Rica and resumed my data collection, this time during the breeding season.
I conducted my fieldwork mainly by observations in critical sites around all north-eastern Costa Rica, from the northern border with Nicaragua, a humid lowland with patches of forest and rural areas, all the way up to the Cordillera Central, from Juan Castro Blanco National Park to Braulio Carrillo National Park.
I had the chance to learn so much about the species itself, the proper way to build a research project and collect data, the in-situ conservation of an endangered species, and much, much more! But for sure, what I didn’t expect to learn before arriving, is how to drive a cross motorbike off roads, to fix a chain, to use a generator and a solar panel system, to change a tire and use a winch, to climb a huge mountain almond tree to monitor nest cavities and activity and to properly manipulate a Macaw chick. And so, my experience definitely went beyond my expectations.
Working on my project hasn’t always been fun and easy. Rainy season in a tropical rainforest requires a lot of energy and motivation from you, especially if you are driving a motorbike all day. Working by yourself most of the time can also be challenging, even more, if you are living under remote and isolated conditions.
During the non-breeding season seeing macaws was a rare event. This just increased my interest in knowing where the population moves. From what I found out, after the breeding season the population basically spreads all over northern Costa Rica, potentially with a big group moving to Nicaragua. Right now, Nicaragua is outside of our research area, so dispersion in this country still constitutes an open question. After this initial spread, huge flocks gather on the highland of the Cordillera Central (central mountain range, dividing the oceans), before going back to the breeding area for the nest exploration period.
This movement to the highlands is limited to a really short time slot and occurs around September. Hopefully, some of my data and future studies will shed some light on which factors determine this movement. Some of the hypotheses that I’m working on include themes such as foraging behavior and resource availability, competition with Scarlet Macaws, cultural transmission, and social roles.
Being able to track birds would, potentially, be extremely useful to collect this information and much more about their behavior. I also would like to better understand how social dynamics and cultural transmission affect the use of space.
It’s known that this is a highly intelligent species and that social learning has a big importance, but how far does this go? How would this influence the capability of this species to get adapted to habitat changes? And how could this information help us to build an effective conservation strategy? These are all relevant, valuable questions.
I feel really grateful for the people who have given me the chance to contribute to this project and to grow professionally and personally. And, of course, for all of you who support MRN and make this incredible conservation work possible. I hope that I’ll be able to continue this work, with new technologies, new knowledge, and the same passion.
Wish you all well during these uncertain times and stay safe,
Sofía Bolcato