scarlet macaws are a species of long-tailed, large-beaked parrots, a poster child of tropical birds. yet in much of their range, including mexico, guatemala, and belize, poachers illegally steal chicks by cutting down nesting trees, which decimates current population and eliminates already-rare cavity nests. compounded with deforestation, it seems even more likely that extinction will claim scarlet macaws next.

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thankfully, macaw conservation has a power couple on its side. gabriela vigo and her husband, donald brightsmith, met in 2003 at a research center in a remote pocket of the peruvian amazon. now, they have a 7-year-old daughter named mandy lu whom they raise in the rainforest for part of each year while they co-direct the macaw society, formerly known as the tambopata macaw project.

“in peru, we’ve been working in a healthy parrot community to document how they function in areas that have not been impacted by humans,” brightsmith said. “it provides a sort of baseline to which we can compare other more impacted areas.” a professor in the schubot exotic bird health center at texas a&m university, brightsmith has risen to the top of his field by publishing papers about macaw clay licks, breeding, foraging, chick development, ecotourism’s role in conservation, and more.

but he will readily admit that recently, his wife has done most of the field work. in the past few years, vigo went on jungle walks with mandy lu while also taking on a whole new flock of kids: tiny, bald, squawking little things that vigo loved as if they were her own—macaw chicks.

scarlet macaw parents lay between two and four eggs each year, but even if four chicks make it out of the egg, only one or two ever survive naturally to fledging. years of monitoring the macaw society’s nest boxes revealed that breeding pairs focus their efforts on one or two of their oldest and healthiest chicks. unless something goes wrong with the first- and second-born siblings, numbers three and four will be practically ignored from day one.

not so with vigo on the scene. during macaw breeding seasons from 2017 to 2019, she conducted research for her ph.d. at texas a&m: a study called chick relocation, or, on the board in the macaw society’s chick nursery, “the hunger games.” unlike in the books, however, all the players survived till the end.

during the breeding seasons, volunteer tree climbers checked on scarlet macaw nests daily. when they found chicks with too many older siblings, they brought them back to the nursery, where a team of veterinarians cared for them until their opened, after about three weeks. then it was time to find foster nests. the base criteria were similar to those which make for a good human foster home: a comfortable nest with responsible and experienced parents. the complicated part? nests could only have one chick already in it, so that the parents would have enough food for both chicks, and new siblings had to be at the same developmental stage, so that there wasn’t any preferential treatment. it made for a difficult match-making game, but vigo ensured that each chick ended up with a home.

vigo fine-tuned her experiment with great success: aside from a couple of freak lightning strikes (literally), every foster chick fledged. in her words, “it showed that macaw chicks that were naturally doomed to die could be raised by foster parents and help raise population numbers.” this is great news, and not just for her ph.d.

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when not volunteering with the macaw society, rodrigo león runs his own macaw research in mexico’s lacandon rainforest with natura mexicana. his constant bubbly energy and charming smile hide his strenuous job description: tracking the scarlet macaw nests likely to be poached, removing the chicks before anyone else can get to them, then raising them until fledging and releasing them into safer parts of the jungle.

thanks to vigo, it won’t always be this difficult to protect parrots. now that her experiment has proven successful in peru, where the macaw population is large and stable, the chick relocation method can be replicated by natura mexicana or any other project which seeks to conserve and grow small populations of parrots. instead of raising the rescued chicks by hand, scientists like león can feed them for a couple of weeks, then move them into nests out of poaching range—a true win-win. not only does it give macaw researchers more time to focus on other aspects of conservation; with adult birds teaching the chicks how to find food, fly, and live in the wild, it gives the species a greater chance of survival, one chick at a time.

meanwhile, the macaw society is entering their next phase of work. said brightsmith: “we plan to continue our scientific research and expand our direct conservation actions in areas where macaws and parrots are in trouble,” including mexico, costa rica, guatemala, belize, argentina, and the usa, while maintaining a home base in southeastern peru. better yet, vigo is confident that she and brightsmith won’t be working alone. “we’ve used our research as a training platform,” she said, “to teach a new generation of naturalists and conservationists in peru and worldwide.” perhaps one of these young scientists will start the next society for the birds.

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greta hardy-mittell is an avid writer and conservationist from vermont, usa. she volunteered for the macaw society from november 2018-january 2019, and credits the experience with changing her life.

perhaps one of the most reported stories in recent weeks leaves much to be desired. in the space of just 48 hours, 2,500 fires had been started in the amazon rainforest, not only placing at risk the trees that absorb 5% of annual emissions, but also the more than 10 million species of animals who claim the rainforest as their home. and, as usual, twitter is abuzz with haunting images of burning trees, most of which come from last decade, but hey, it’s the thought that counts! #prayforamazonas.

which begs the question, considering just how deadly these fires are, brazil must be scrambling to stamp them out, right? if this was what you thought, you’d be surprised.

because the only thing that catches faster than forest fires is a viral phenomenon known as the trump effect. it’s crossed the atlantic, reaching so far as england,/ and now, it could be spreading into south america. the latest victim is brazilian president jair bolsonaro, a long-time opponent of environmental advocacy in brazil, so much so that his people have dubbed him captain chainsaw, which isn’t a becoming title for someone in charge of 60% percent of the world’s largest carbon sink.

with this in mind, it should come as no surprise that when the amazon fires started, he told reporters, “the ministry of justice can send 40 men to combat the fight, but do you understand that? forty men. there are not enough resources. we are in chaos.” 

his failure to meet fire with fire (or in this case, water) was just one act in a docudrama of negligence.

bolsonaro reportedly spent the evening of aug. 23 watching standup from a prominent christian right-wing comic. and to add to the irony, he did this while his pre-recorded speech was broadcasting, the one apologizing for his inaction.

with a national emergency formally declared (48 hours of noxious destruction later), bolsonaro finally had grounds to call in the brazilian army to lend a hand (and pail) to the fire. but a bad taste still lingers in the mouths of many international spectators. 

as early as aug. 28, when these fires first made international news, bolsonaro was calling out environmental ngos in his country, professing that “there is a strong suspicion that people from the ngo’s lost the teat.” he suggested that environmental protection agencies were intentionally destroying swaths of the amazon to “bring about problems for brazil” after losing government funding. and if that sounds like a crackpot idea, it’s because it is.

when reporters asked bolsonaro for the basis of his so-called suspicions, he shot back, “for god’s sake, there’s no proof of that, nobody writes, ‘i will set fire to that.’” because of course, no one could possibly be careless enough to leave a paper trail of environmental neglect. except, that is, if you’re bolsonaro.

in the wake of this amazon disaster, open democracy uncovered incriminating powerpoint presentations used at a february meeting between bolsonaro’s government officials and leaders in the para state of brazil, home to the amazonia national park. one slide read, “development projects must be implemented on the amazon basin to integrate it into the rest of the national territory in order to fight off international pressure for the implementation of the so-called ‘triple a’ project.” triple a here refers to a group of multilateral conservation projects in the amazon rainforest, the andes mountains and the atlantic ocean, all of which bolsonaro has doggedly opposed.

what’s more? the powerpoint continues, “to do this, it is necessary to build the trombetas river hydroelectric plant, the Óbidos bridge over the amazon river, and the implementation of the br-163 highway to the border.” bolsonaro made it easy for us; there is no prevarication here, nor misdirection. the objective is loud and clear: stymie conservation efforts by damaging brazil’s natural resources. and, if you’ll kindly recall bolsonaro’s unfounded accusations of ngos working in his country, it seems he was guilty of the very behavior he decried.

in spite of all this inculpatory evidence, i think the mainstream media gives bolsonaro a lot of undeserved credit. how much of his decision to confront the amazonian conflagration is attributable to his altruistic and justified concern for brazil, and how much is just, uh…sem bolas?

shortly after his whole “40 firefighters” statement, france’s golden boy, president emmanuel macron, publicly threatened bolsonaro with an obstruction of the eu-mercosur free trade agreement, a groundbreaking trade deal between the two blocs that eliminates tariffs on agricultural goods from the mercosur bloc. macron, and virtually any other un member state, would have known that this was an incontrovertible pressure point, not just for brazil but also for argentina, paraguay, and uruguay, the other members of mercosur. 

the timing of this threat and bolsonaro’s reinstated commitment to the amazon fires just seems too quick, too reactionary, too…apprehensive. and, as usual, bolsonaro made his intentions clear when, in his aug. 23, evening speech he said, “forest fires exist in the whole world and this cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions.” i don’t know, what could he possibly be nervous about? 

thankfully for him, a few leaders have stepped in to offer a reassuring squeeze. ok, more like one. in a recent tweet, president trump said, “our future trade prospects are very exciting and our relationship is strong, perhaps stronger than ever before.” sounds like trump really empathizes with bolsonaro’s plight. or maybe their priorities just align really well. after all, both are right-wing capitalists, climate change deniers, and have structured their entire campaigns around building stronger, more self-sufficient economies (fine print: through an unadulterated bashing of foreign competition). 

but the similarities don’t end there. bolsonaro’s rhetoric also displays uniquely trumpian tones, occasionally producing bewildering gems like “brazil is like a virgin that every pervert from the outside lusts for.” in all seriousness, that comment does deserve a second look because it offers us an incisive, behind-the-scenes peek at the primary motive behind his vehement anti-environmentalism: political control. 

bolsonaro has given the logging, mining, and farming industries in brazil clearance to annex land owned by native communities on the sole basis that they manage what he considers unreasonably vast amounts of wealth. similarly, he cannot distinguish between foreign aid and sovereignty infringement. look, for example, at how his administration views norway’s and germany’s generous donations to the amazon fund.

“we’re not naïve,” said brazilian chief of staff onyx lorenzoni, “there’s a view out in the world, sponsored by nongovernmental organizations, that relativizes brazil’s sovereignty over the amazon. here’s a little message: ‘don’t play around with us.’” 

the point is, bolsonaro is digging himself a precipitous hole, especially when he lets his own ego stand in the way of him and a $20 million donation from the g7. 

meu deus. the good people of twitter may need to change their tune. #prayforbolsonaro.