Looking for love? Last wild macaw in Rio visits birds in zoo daily
Updated May 08, 2021;
Posted May 08, 2021
A blue-and-yellow macaw that zookeepers named Juliet flies outside the enclosure where macaws are kept at BioParque, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. Juliet is believed to be the only wild specimen left in the Brazilian city where the birds once flew far and wide. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)AP
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By DAVID BILLER, The Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) Some have claimed she’s indulging a forbidden romance. More likely, loneliness compels her to seek company at Rio de Janeiro’s zoo.
David Biller20:37, May 08 2021
Bruna Prado/AP
A blue-and-yellow macaw that zookeepers have named Juliet, left, grooms with a captive macaw at BioParque, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Some have claimed she’s indulging a forbidden romance. More likely, loneliness compels her to seek company at Rio de Janeiro’s zoo. Either way, a blue-and-yellow macaw that zookeepers named Juliet is believed to be the only wild bird of its kind left in the Brazilian city where the birds once flew far and wide. Almost every morning for the last two decades, Juliet has appeared. She swoops onto the zoo enclosure where macaws are kept and, through its fence, engages in grooming behaviour that looks like conjugal canoodling. Sometimes she just sits, relishing the presence of others. She is quieter – shier? more coy? – than her squawking chums.
By Press Association 2021
A blue-and-yellow macaw that zookeepers named Juliet flies outside the enclosure where macaws are kept at BioParque, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
A blue-and-yellow macaw, believed to be the only wild macaw left in Rio de Janeiro, has been spotted visiting the city’s zoo nearly every day to try to find a mate.
The bird, named Juliet, has appeared at the BioParque’s macaw enclosure almost every morning for the last two decades.
Blue-and-yellow macaws live to be about 35 years old and Juliet – no spring chicken – should have found a lifelong mate years ago, according to Neiva Guedes, president of environmental group the Hyacinth Macaw Institute.