Conservation Project Goes Green

A genetic survey of a group of captive great green macaws is playing an important part in their eventual release into their natural habitat in Costa Rica, explains DR DAVID WAUGH.

PARROTS

AGAINST a multi-green background of lush vegetation, a splash of yet another shade of intense green commands attention as a flock of great green macaws (Ara ambiguus) flies across the clearing. However, the sighting is not in the forest home of these majestic macaws, but in the controlled environment of the NATUWA Macaw Conservation Sanctuary in Puntarenas in western Costa Rica. The 65 great green macaws in the sanctuary (all of the nominate subspecies ambiguus) are integral to the Ara ambiguus Conservation Project, a key step of which is to apply molecular biological techniques to survey the genetic variability of these captive individuals.