Chapada dos Guimarães National Park in Mato Grosso state was among the areas of Brazil’s vast, wooded Cerrado savanna that was hit by this year’s fires. (Photo Courtesy of Center of Life Institute)
The wildfires closed in on Brazil’s Hyacinth Macaw Institute on Aug. 1. Within a week, they had torched two thirds of the nonprofit institute’s 54,000-hectare (133,400-acre) breeding center as well as 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) adjacent to the center, which works in the vast Pantanal wetland region to conserve the endangered, cobalt-blue hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus). In the process, the flames incinerated scores of artificial, tree-mounted macaw nests, as well as trees with natural cavities used as nests by the birds. They also took a heavy toll on two palm species (Acrocomia aculeata and Attalea phalerata) whose seeds constitute the macaw’s prime food source. All 700 macaws at the breeding center escaped; but eggs they’d recently produced were destroyed, and scientists expect the bird’s broader population—just 5,000 in Brazil—will suffer, as will the population health of other Pantanal species. “The fires impacted not only... [Log in to read more]
