Species profile
Ara macao
Scarlet macaw
LC · Least Concern — Least Concern — low risk, widespread and abundant
About this species
Scarlet macaw (Ara macao) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Least Concern. Scarlet macaws can live for more than 50 years in the wild and usually mate for life, travelling and feeding in pairs. Its recorded population direction is decreasing, so the category needs to be read alongside continuing losses of individuals or local populations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with terrestrial, forest. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. Macaws gather at clay licks to eat mineral-rich clay, which is thought to neutralise toxins in the unripe seeds and fruit they swallow. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
A scarlet macaw's beak can crack nuts hard enough to challenge a bolt cutter — yet it is delicate enough to peel a grape without crushing it. The catalogue records 2 principal pressures for this profile: Illegal pet trade, Deforestation. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Protecting and reconnecting habitat is a priority, together with infrastructure planning that keeps feeding, breeding or migration routes functional. Direct protection needs to combine enforcement with conflict prevention, demand reduction and local benefits that make coexistence viable. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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Listen to this species
Pañacocha Lodge (near Panacocha), Shushufindi, Sucumbíos · 0:32 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Stories connected to this species
Editorial context connecting this profile to climate, habitat and human activity.