Remember Blu? The
blue macaw from the movie Rio who thought that he was the last of his species?
Well, his nightmare has come to life and the blue macaw parrots, who were
declared endangered about seven years ago, are now officially extinct in the
wild.




This bird from
Brazil, also known as the Spix's macaw can no longer be seen in the wild,
concluded a study done by BirdLife International. The study found that the blue
colored bird now only exists in captivity and the numbers are extremely few and
heartbreaking.
According to the
organization, the bird has gone extinct due to the rise in deforestation and
constant loss of habitat. The birds were also not so adaptive and lived near
dominant species and predators. The birds are believed to still exist in some
breeding programs, there's no official proof of the statement though.

The threat that
the species might become extinct and we must do everything to conserve it was
sparked in the 1980s! Author Tony Juniper even penned a book called
"Spix's Macaw: The Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird", in an
attempt to make people aware of the situation in 2002.
Other than the
blue macaw, 7 other bird species have been declared extinct. The announcement
was made this week, based on the statistical analysis by BirdLife
International. Five of the species belong to South America and were victims of
deforestation and too much human interference.

Three species -
namely - the cryptic tree-hunter and the Alagoas foliage gleaner from Brazil
and Poo-Uli from Hawaii have been completely wiped out and are now gone
forever. All these extinctions were caused by human interference and not
natural causes, it is sickening. How many more extinctions will it take for
humans to finally learn to respect the privacy of other animals?
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