Pedro specifically mentions the support for the project of Ana Maria’s brother. “In the workshop,” he says, “one of the participants was Francisco Barretto, the son of the owner of the farm, who is an enthusiast, and enjoys the wildlife, mainly the Blue Macaws – a great concern of his father, who established and protected this area.”

Following the workshop, Pedro wrote a project for WWF- Brazil, outlining the plan which had been agreed – that the main activity of the group would be centered on monitoring the population of macaws, by quarterly seasonal surveys, to give members a better understanding of the migration and reproduction characteristics of the birds.

The census, which was funded by WWF-Brazil, started in 2000, with a methodology based on the count of each macaw arriving to roost in the bocaiuva palm trees.  A team of four researchers had to be flown from Curitiba, Brasilia or Campo Grande to the city of Cuiabá, capital of the state of Mato Grosso. Ground transportation was then arranged from Cuiabá to Poconé, a small and old city in the Pantanal, from where the team had to rent a small plane to reach São Francisco farm.

Access is difficult, since there are no roads, and the area can be reached only by plane or by river, a trip which can take five to six hours in total. The farm has, however, been visited 21 times since the start of the census.

The actual census involved monitoring the macaws over four-day periods, with samples being taken morning and evening by team members and local people on the farm. The morning counts started at 4.00 am, and the evening ones at 4.00 pm, continuing until sunset, or until the last macaw could be seen arriving at the overnight roosting point. Each macaw was recorded when arriving, from any direction, to the bocaiuva, and a preliminary evaluation was done whilst many of them were foraging or roosting on surrounding fences or in big trees near the farm buildings.

The average population of Blue Macaws at São Francisco do Perigara is around 300 birds, according to the census, which recorded both the lowest and the highest numbers.  The highest number recorded was of 435 macaws arriving at the end of an afternoon at the farm.

The macaws feed on the ground or in the trees. One group lives in the area around the farm buildings, whilst another follows the cattle in order to extract from the cattle faeces the undigested nuts of the acuri palm and bocaiuval palm. The advantage to the macaws is that when the acuri and bocaiuva palm fruit passes through the cattle’s digestive tract, all of the outer fibrous layer is removed and the nut passes out of the cattle unchanged. Therefore the macaws do not have to expend their energies or time removing the tough fibrous layer from the outside of the nut … they let the cattle do this for them.

According to Neiva Guedes, this is possibly the largest flock known in Brazil.  Certainly no flock larger than this has ever been recorded or documented.

Funding this project hasn’t always been easy.  After 2003, the support of WWF-Brazil was no longer available, but the research continued, thanks to Pedro’s personal financial contribution, to São Francisco de Perigara – which supplied meals for the team – and to the help of friends like Mr Gil Alencar owner of a wildlife colection in the state of Maranhão, and Mrs Anna Croukamp, the owner of Parque das Aves Foz Tropicana in Foz de Iguaçu (featured in another article in this issue). WWF-Brazil offered another round of funding for 2007, and in 2008, one of the surveys was funded by Dr Luciano Sabóia, owner of another wild animal collection in Paraná.

What’s behind Pedro Scherer’s passion for this Blue Macaw project?

He’s been a lover of macaws since childhood.  In 1971 he started his professional life as an agronomist in the city of Curitiba, and in 1973 he became the head of Curitiba Zoo. In 1976, he became a field researcher for the Museum of Natural History of Curitiba, a post which he held until earlier this year.

Pedro’s love of parrots in general took him to many places, even zoos, around the world, and he’s been involved with many conservation projects, the main one being that of the Red-tailed Amazon (Amazona brasiliensis). Until the beginning  of the São Francisco do Perigara Project, the only other important project involving the conservation and scientific study of Hyacinth Macaws was the project directed by Neiva Guedes’ Projeto Arara Azul, in the South Pantanal.

“The Blue Macaw is an emblematic bird,” he says, “with many problems affecting its population around its distribution area, so I decided to start this small research program at the São Francisco farm, to which I am completely addicted.”

Pedro is keen to give credit to all those who have helped with the census.  They are: Neiva Guedes;  Dr Yara Melo Barros PhD, co-ordinator of the  Spix’s Macaw Project, as well as many other activities;  Carlos Abs da Cruz Bianchi, at the time of the census working in IBAMA with different endangered species;  Eduardo Carrano, Cassiano Ribas, Douglas Kajiwara, Eduardo Patrial, Arthur Bispo de Oliveira and Raphael Eduardo Santos – field ornithologists from Paraná state, and many other volunteers who participated or volunteered for single census counts.

Pedro also thanks the people who work on The São Francisco do Perigara farm, including the administrator Joacir, and “Pixico” (the nickname of Gonçalo, who has worked on the farm for about 27 years). He stresses that they have been very important to the project, providing information about the distribution and numbers of the macaws in the area. Another important person for the project is Grace Ferreira, the biologist who has studied the nests for several years.

Dr Guedes’ involvement has answered many questions beyond the census work and survey. A great concern with the Blue Macaw population in this farm was the reproductive status of the population: What is the reproduction/recruitment rate? Where are the nests? What is the nest availability? How many breeding pairs are in the population? How many young fledglings are produced each season? So Neiva Guedes has put her team to work on answers to these important questions.

We can all thank Ana Maria Barretto for her commitment to help save this amazing concentration of Hyacinth Macaws, but the conservation effort does, however, face some concerns and problems, says Pedro:

“The main problem for the conservation of the Blue Macaws is the decline of the ‘dormitório’, the evening dormitory, as over the years the macaws kill the palm trees where they roost. And they didn’t let others grow due to their behavior of destroying the branches with their beaks. Actually the macaws didn’t use only the ‘dormitório’, but the big trees around the houses of the farm as well.

“Another one is that only part of the population comes to the overnight roosting point.  Many groups spend the night near the ‘retiros’ – that is a place where the cattle get salt and minerals, and therefore another count is done during the day and added to the final evening’s count.

“Fire is a concern! A big one destroyed the vegetation three years ago on the farm and resulted in killing the main tree they use for nesting.

“The costs of each trip to São Francisco farm are very high – a trip for three people costs around US$ 2000.00.  Therefore the project team relies on donations to help cover the transportation costs to and from the farm.”

Pedro recently visited the farm in the company of Ana Maria Barretto and Inez Barretto.  “The São Francisco farm is an incredible and peaceful place that offers well being at each visit,” he says.

For her part, Ana Maria says:  “It is important to stress another effect of the presence of these wonderful people on the farm – the ecological education of the people that work and live here.  Pedro and Neiva have been invaluable and coherent advisers.

“My dream is that we should be able to effectively protect this eco-system, with this particular fauna and flora, and develop an economical activity in a sustainable way. I know that we have a lot of obstacles to overcome, but the main issue is to be able to dedicate more time to the project.”