For the project in S\u00e3o Sim\u00e3o, two males and four females were selected, all chicks, bought from breeders authorized by Brazil\u2019s federal environmental agency, Ibama. During their training, they were accompanied by three other adult birds of the same species, familiar with the free-flight technique, so they could learn to fly and behave in flocks.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, in psittacine reintroduction projects, chicks born in captivity are released into the wild when they reach a certain age, around 2 or 3 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you raise an animal in a cage until it\u2019s 2 or 3 years old, it will hardly know how to defend itself from predators or look for food because it\u2019s being provided. It won\u2019t have any navigational skills. And then you open the door to the enclosure and they have to find their way around in an environment they don\u2019t know. And that\u2019s the biggest problem conservation programs face when releasing birds into the wild,\u201d Biro says. \u201cIt\u2019s as if you raised a teenager all his life in a closed room and then suddenly released him into a crowded shopping mall,\u201d he compares.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they are raised in captivity, in a closed environment, these animals are even afraid of the sun. They\u2019re afraid of the wind, of butterflies flying, of falling leaves. There are lots of things we can\u2019t imagine, but they can cause a phobia and these animals can fly off in desperation,\u201d Mendes adds.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s where the big difference lies with free flight. Not that the technique is new; on the contrary. It is very similar to falconry, which has been used for millennia to train birds of prey through what is known as \u201coperant conditioning,\u201d a process that involves offering a reward (food) for each task performed. In recent decades, however, it has become popular among domestic psittacine breeders.<\/p>\n For the method to be successful, however, the birds need to be trained at a very young age, between 90 days and 120 days old.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use a mobile cage, and as soon as the chicks have the slightest ability to fly, we encourage them to jump between two points to be fed. Little by little, we increase the distance. Then we fly them out of the aviary and back again,\u201d Biro explains.<\/p>\n As well as encouraging longer flights, the training gradually includes an increasingly scarce food supply and a change in the time of day, forcing the macaws to look for food in the wild. And also, the breaking of ties with humans.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin two weeks, the canind\u00e9s were already flying normally, like free-living individuals. Their instincts were being developed for the natural environment and not that of a cage,\u201d the trainer says.<\/p>\n Brightsmith, Mendes and Biro say they believe the success of the study carried out with the canind\u00e9 macaw in Brazil could signal a new method to be used in parrot and macaw reintroduction programs. They report the results of the experiment in a scientific article in the journal Birds.<\/p>\n By comparison, for example, a reintroduction project for blue macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii) being carried out in Cura\u00e7\u00e1, Bahia, Brazil, in which 20 birds were released in 2022, only 10 remained in the wild. Among the others, some disappeared, others were killed by predators and one had to return to the aviary because of its behavior. This represents a 50% success rate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at a couple of decades of scientific parrot release projects where, in most cases, when you open the cage, the release is final,\u201d Brightsmith says. \u201cOften they fly for miles and end up getting lost, there are problems with predators or a whole host of other issues with traditional methods. With this technique, you\u2019re putting them in the right environment, socially and physically, at the right time in their development. And by doing this, the natural tendency to develop appropriate behaviors works.\u201d<\/p>\n He explains that, at 3 months old, canind\u00e9 macaw chicks are already beginning to explore the world beyond the nest, making their first flights, still accompanied and under the protection of their parents. However, in the traditional release method, they will only be released much later.<\/p>\n For him, the way psittacines are usually released has a problem at its core: They are taught to be caged birds and then there is an expectation that they will become wild animals.<\/p>\n Another advantage of the free-flight technique is the much lower cost, the study\u2019s authors argue. \u201cSome programs spend thousands, even millions, of dollars raising parrots in captivity, only to discover that these birds can\u2019t survive in the wild because they don\u2019t have enough experience in the real world,\u201d the Texas A&M professor says.<\/p>\n The same method was also used in Colombia in 2023. Around 20 true parrots (Amazona aestiva) were confiscated by the police and handed over to a local organization, Fundaci\u00f3n Loros. Biro went there, trained them and after two weeks, they were released into the wild.<\/p>\n Those involved in the Brazilian project say they believe that free flight could be a new conservation option for the reintroduction of birds in cases such as the one above, for seized chicks or for those born in captivity, whether in zoos, research institutions or breeding grounds.<\/p>\n Mendes reveals that there are now plans for a new study with smaller birds that are more vulnerable to predation, such as the maracan\u00e3-nobre (Diopsittaca nobilis). \u201cOur aim is to prove the efficiency of the technique with different sizes and species of psittaciformes.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers\u2019 hope is that the use of the technique and its wider dissemination among conservation specialists will enable more birds to fly freely in the skies, especially in places where certain species have become extinct, as is currently the case in S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s countryside, with the return of the canind\u00e9 macaw.<\/p>\nA new reintroduction alternative<\/h2>\n