ARA Project: Great Green Macaw Education as Part of Conservation
August 2, 2012 Colline Emmanuelle, volunteer, ARA Project
Breeding and releasing macaws is an important part of what we do here in Costa Rica, but so is working with the community.
Once the macaws are released, it is crucial to make sure the reintroduction is being supported by the locals. One of the ways we do this is by visiting schools and doing reforestation projects. With the world’s first-‐ever release of Great Green Macaws on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, this is especially important.
Playing a game outside and learning about Great Green macaws
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May 31st we went to visit the kindergarten class at the Sea Heart School in Playa Negra. We read the children a story about a fruit-‐loving macaw and his rainforest friends (The Parrot Tico Tango, by Anna Witte) and talked about the importance of the Great Green macaws in the student’s neighborhood.
We explained that macaws are kinds of birds and come from eggs and the children were shown a macaw egg. The children also played a game outside and learned about how macaws eat almonds (their preferred food source) in the rainforest.
In anticipation of The ARA Project’s visit, the children had collected a bag of beach almonds for the macaws, and gave it to us at the end of our visit.
Kindergarten class hears a story about a macaw
On June 1st we visited the Centro Educativo Playa Chiquita. Since it was our second visit, we did a fun quiz with the students to see what they remembered about macaws from our last visit – they did really well!
Learning about macaws and their eggs
For this visit, we focused on Great Green macaws’ place in the rainforest ecosystem and their relationship with the Mountain Almond tree (Dipteryx panamensis), or Almendro de Montaña. The almendro is the preferred nesting tree and food source of the Great Greens. The macaws use their beaks to crack open the almond nuts and enlarge the natural holes in the tree trunk to nest in (see picture below). This tree has been heavily deforested for lumber since it is a very durable tropical hardwood, though now it is illegal to cut them down in Costa Rica.
Mountain Almond trees, or Almendros de Montaña
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The students got to see how strong the macaws’ beaks are by watching us crack an almond nut with boltcutters. They also got to try lifting a piece of almendro wood; they were surprised how heavy it was!
The kids had fun testing the weight of the almendro!
After the presentation, we went to the students’ “macaw garden” and helped them transplant the almendro saplings from the ground to pots for future reforestation.
The ARA Project will work with these students and others to plant more of these trees in the local area. Planting these trees is a great way for the locals to help the macaws in their area, not to mention combatting soil erosion and climate change. We’ll be sure to blog about our reforestation projects!
Content and photos copyright © 2012 ARA Project. All rights reserved.