Known as the famous blue macaw of Brazil, Arara Jacinta (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) is one of three species of blue macaw in South America. Measuring up to one metre in length from the top of the head to the tip of the tail, it is the largest species of macaw still in existence.


With the number of populations in the wild declining in recent decades, due to illegal trafficking, poaching and habitat loss, the blue macaw has gone from being considered by the IUCN to have gone from threatened to vulnerable.


Although numbers are becoming more stable there are only about 4,300 of these birds in the wild. Zoomarine has recently received a specimen of this species and has contributed directly to various on-site conservation programmes through the World Parrot Trust in various parts of the globe. Such as the Hyacinth Macaw Project, which aims to reclaim the habitat and increase the availability of nests and food resources in order to enhance recovery of this species, contributing to its conservation success.


Zoomarine and its visitors have already contributed more than €52,000 for projects like this in a joint effort to preserve a wide variety of endangered species of parrots (the group including macaws and parrots) and their habitats.