An environmental parable for our times - the story of
a beautiful blue bird meeting its nemesis at the end of
the 20th-century. In December 1897 the Reverend F. G.
Dutton lamented that 'there are so many calls on a
parson's purse, that he cannot always treat himself to
expensive parrots.' He was hoping to purchase a Spix's
Macaw, a rare and beautiful parrot found in a remote
area of Brazil. Today, the parson's search would be in
vain. By the turn of the millennium only one survivor, a
lone male, existed in the wild. Spix's Macaw tells the
hearbreaking story of a unique band of brilliant blue
birds - who talk, fall in love, and grieve - struggling
against the forces of extinction and their own
desirability. By the second half of the 20th-century the
birds became gram for gram more valuable than heroin; so
valuable that they drew up to $40,000 on the black
markets. When, in 1990, only one was found to be living
in the wild, an emergency international rescue operation
was launched and an amnesty declared, allowing private
collectors to come forward with their illegal birds,
possible mates for the last wild Spix.In a breathtaking
display of stoicism and endurance, the loneliest bird in
the world had lived without a mate for fourteen years,
had outwitted predators and second-guessed the poachers.
But would he take to a new companion? Spix's Macaws are
like humans - they can't be forced to love. With
exquisite detail, this book tells the dramatic story of
the rescue operation, and of the humans whose
selfishness and greed brought a beautiful species to the
brink of extinction. The long, lonely flight of the last
Spix's Macaw is both a love story and an environmental
parable for our times. |
|