The Spix Macaw came to international film through the animated ‘Rio’ film series. In the original film, Rio thought that he was the last of his species, only to find that there were more. In the second, we got to see a larger community of Spix Macaws as Rio built a family. Sadly, the only place you’ll ever see that again is on the Blue Ray.
According to a new study by BirdLife International, the Spix Macaw is one of new 8 species that have now been declared extinct due to the increasing deforestation in South America. In the past, bird extinctions were something that mainly happened in isolated island populations, but growing encroachment into rainforests by loggers has begun to threaten mainland populations.
Four of the eight newly announced extinctions are from birds who were based in Brazil. The last time a Spix was sighted in the wild was 2000. They still exist in captivity, as far as scientists are concerned, they are now extinct in the wild. That said, there is hope that captive breeding programs could eventually lead to the re-introduction of the species into the wild.