Breeding/Release Programme for Blue & Gold Macaws

Since 1966, the P-a-P Wildfowl Trust has been actively breeding and releasing locally endangered waterfowl. In 1997 & 1999, Scarlet Ibis and Blue and Gold Macaws, which had been bred at the Trust were released. To complement the breeding and release of these endangered birds into existing wetland habitats to ensure viable populations, the Trust has also designed and implemented Environmental Education & Public Awareness Programmes shared daily with our student and public visitors, on and off site . Following successive years of lobbying and daily active environmental works, the Trust has been instrumental in accomplishing significant environmental milestones.

The successful breeding of Trinidad’s Largest Macaw species, The Blue and Gold Macaw in 1995 when several healthy Blue and Gold Macaw chicks hatched at the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust, parent- reared in a specially designed Breeding Unit for successful translocation into the Nariva Wetlands, a RAMSAR site, so designated in 1994 as a result of the relentless advocacy by the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust with the support of other NGO’s & the Forestry/Wildlife Division.

A number of releases of the previously extirpated Blue & Gold macaw into the Nariva Wetlands have been done by the Trust; the most recent in 2011. A flock of ten, ringed birds were introduced into the pre-release aviary in Bush Bush in the NarivaSwamp, in the presence of Forestry & Wildlife Officers. They were then released into the wild, their known habitat, where their favorite food the Moriche Palm (Mauritia flexuosa) is found. The Blue and Gold Macaw (Ara ararauna) continues to be part of the Trust’s avian breeding programme, with successful hatches every year. Once again, we have 22 adult birds soon to be released.