SA man helps a long flight to freedom
Macaws flown across world to re-establish species in homeland
● Cromwell Purchase is a long way from his home town, hunkered down on a scrubby farm called Concordia in Brazil’s semi-arid Caatinga region, 1,600km north of Rio de Janeiro.
“I’ve quarantined myself,” said Durbanborn Purchase who, as scientific and zoological director at the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP), is in charge of a project started by a rich Qatari sheikh to reintroduce an almost extinct species of parrot to the country where its ancestors once flew free.
Under his care are 52 rare Spix’s macaws — a medium-sized macaw with brilliant blue plumage — which in March were flown by private jets from the ACTP’s sanctuary in Germany to Brazil.
Purchase’s new home is a far cry from the private wildlife refuge he came from near Doha, where he was in charge of co-ordinating the macaw project for Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani.
Over the next 20 years, the Spix’s will be “taught” by Illiger’s macaws — a species they have been known to flock with — where and when to find food and how to avoid predators such as hawks, and then slowly reintroduced to the wild in stages.
“Basically, we’re making this project a success for the next 20 years,” said Purchase. “[But] the whole world is watching. There’s a lot of pressure for us to get it right.”
If it seems an unlikely tale, it is no less strange than the story of the bird itself.
Named after German naturalist Johan Baptist von Spix, the first person ever to capture a specimen for science, Spix’s macaws never spread beyond the Caatinga, an area which, said Purchase, bears a striking resemblance to the Karoo.
After centuries of slash-and-burn agriculture and habitat loss to grazing goats, by 2000 the Spix’s macaw was extinct in the wild.
The last known member of this rare blue parrot was alone in the wild for 10 years before he died.
A captive-bred female had been released for him as a mate. But he had already bonded with an Illiger’s macaw.
While the two Spix’s bonded, they never produced any chicks and one day the female was gone — probably caught by a local wildlife trafficker.
With the macaw extinct in the wild, its only hope lay with the captive populations, the two biggest of which were in Switzerland and the Philippines.
The Philippines collection found a home at the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar, Sheikh Saud’s wildlife refuge outside Doha.
In 2010, with a CV that included a master’s degree in veterinary science specialising in avian diseases, Purchase went to work at Al Wabra as the co-ordinator for the macaw project.
“I had always had an interest in the Spix’s macaw,” said Purchase.
When he arrived there were 55 Spix’s macaws at the facility — about 90% of the total world population.
In 2011, Purchase began a breeding program for the birds at Al Wabra. Within 10 years, the macaw population had more than doubled.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Saud had bought Concordia, the farm in Brazil’s Caatinga region, which would be the centre of the breeding project.
But in 2014, the sheikh died unexpectedly and the project stalled while his complex estate was unravelled.
With funds cut off, the facility survived on food donations to feed the animals.
“It was a really tough time,” said Purchase, who by then was managing the entire facility. “There was literally no money.”
In 2017, another blow followed after Saudi Arabia imposed a blockade on Qatar.
“We decided it was time for the birds to leave,” said Purchase.
Over the next two-and-a-half months, 120 Spix’s macaws travelled by plane from Qatar to Germany where they were kept in a special aviary provided by the ACTP.
Purchase accompanied the birds to Germany. “There we sat for 18 months,” he said. “Then we got word that the Brazil project was going ahead.”
In November — accompanied by his wife, Candy, and their two cats — he moved again, this time to Brazil.
With help from the ACTP and funding from the Pairi Daiza Foundation, construction of the facility was already well under way.
Key to the project is the large horseshoeshaped release facility where the macaws can fly “and build some muscle”, said Purchase. The creek (stream) systems have been fenced off to prevent goats from getting in and wells have been dug for local farmers so they don’t have to rely on the creeks for water for their crops.
The macaws’ food is being supplied by Belgium-based bird-and-pet-food manufacturer Deli Nature, which produces a sprout, bean, pea and seed mixture for the birds.
Crucially, the project has the backing of controversial Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose anti-environment stance has made him plenty of enemies.
The key, said Purchase, was to show the government that agriculture would benefit, and Deli Nature started a tree-planting project and helped develop farming skills.
“And they’ll buy their product back from them [farmers],” said Purchase.