AL-SHEEHANIYA, Qatar ? Cobalt-plumed and flapping, Jewel, a young Spix?s macaw, hops into a plastic bowl. She?s well trained in the routine. Her handler, Ryan Watson, sets the bowl on a scale. He?s pleased. The 4-month-old parrot is growing.
If Jewel continues to thrive, Watson will soon move her and a companion ? a second young macaw shrieking at the far end of the pair?s long enclosure ? to a larger aviary, where they will flock with others of their kind.
Though the distance of the move will be short, it has far-reaching implications: It will foster fledgling hope that this rarest of parrots can be saved. Just 76 of the handsome blue birds ? endemic to northern Brazil but unseen there in 11 years ? are known to exist, all in captivity. Watson was hired by a member of Qatar?s royal family, Sheik Saoud bin Mohammed bin Ali al-Thani, to rescue the species from the edge of extinction and send it soaring back into the Brazilian jungle.
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