Golden Parakeet (Ararajuba)
Guarouba guarouba

A member of a flock feeding in a Murici tree (Byrsonima cf. crispa) around the visitors' cabin at Uruá in Parque Nacional da Amazônia (Tapajós), between the Trans-Amazon Highway and the Rio Tapajós, south of Itaituba, Pará, Brazil. 13 August 1998. Carlos Yamashita has identified the bird as an immature because it still has lots of green on the secondary covert feathers.

Taxonomic News: Guarouba confirmed to be closely related to the Red-shouldered Macaw, Diopsittaca nobilis:

Erika S. Tavares, Carlos Yamashita & Cristina Y. Miyaki. Phylogenetic relationships among some Neotropical parrot genera (Psittacidae) based on mitochondrial sequences. The Auk 121(1):230-242 (January 2004). The authors studied relationships among the macaws -- Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, the recently-split small macaw genera Primolius and Diopsittaca, Guarouba and three species of Aratinga. Their results support the split, and in addition demonstrate that Guarouba and Diopsittaca are sister genera. Aratinga leucophthalmus was found to be distant from the two other Aratinga species tested, A. cactorum and A. aurea, suggesting that the genus Aratinga is not monophyletic. Orthopsittaca, Rhynchopsitta and Nandayus were not included in this study.

Meeting about the Golden Parakeet at the Rio Zoo, 2-3 March 2004: Ararajuba é tema de encontro de especialistas no Rio.

Ararajuba: Ave Símbolo da Ornitologia Brasileira. Centro de Estudos Ornitológicos.

Mayor of Itaituba caught logging Amazônia (Tapajós) National Park. (Greenpeace report - pdf):

"On 16 April 2001, Ibama was notified that there was logging activity within the limits of the Amazon National Park. In May, a small team of Ibama inspectors went to the region and discovered an illegal clear-cut of 706 hectares of forest and further preparation of 3,000 hectares for clear-cutting within the park. According to the inspectors, the men working in the park confessed to be working for the Mayor of the local town of Itaituba, Sr. Wirland Freire, who had recently bought a farm near the park.

"He was preparing the park to be burned in order to expand his cattle ranching operation.

"Norberto Neves de Souza, the Ibama agent in charge of the operation, told Greenpeace that at least 70 chainsaws were operating within the park, because of ‘the number of workers and the number of chainsaw belts and because of the speed of clear cutting.’ During the inspection, Ibama confiscated 14 chains for chainsaws, two axes, 234 sharpening files, 89 scythes and four tents.

"A team of Greenpeace activists accompanied a second Ibama inspection of the Amazon National Park and of the Mayor’s farm later in May. During the inspection a chainsaw, two shotguns and various chainsaw belts were confiscated.

"Mayor Freire has subsequently received two fines, totalling US$20,000."

IBAMA Headquarters Invaded in Itaituba. Diário do Pará, 5 March 2004. Hundreds of "agricultores" protesting the demarcation of Parque Nacional do Itaituba took over IBAMA headquarters in Itaituba and held 7 employees hostage for 10 hours. (Let's hope they didn't damage or steal the fax machine to which birders send their requests for permits.) Marcílio Monteiro, the director of IBAMA in Pará said that deforestation, illegal logging and land speculation are running wild inside the park and that corrupt politicians who have established fazendas inside the park were the principal instigators of the protest.

WPT-USA Golden Conure Fund - They are supporting important research on the species by Carlos Yamashita, who (as you can see from his articles posted on WorldTwitch) is a leading authority on South American parrots.

Copyright © 1998 - 2004 John Wall