Baby chick helping to bring world’s rarest parrot back from extinction

A Spix’s Macaw chick enjoys a nap. The species has almost vanished from the wild (Pictures: News Team)The world’s rarest parrot is being brought back from the verge of extinction – helped by the arrival of this healthy chick.

The Spix’s Macaw has been extinct in the wild for ten years after its numbers collapsed due to deforestation and poaching but births in captivity are rising.

‘There are only 73 in the captive breeding programme and the birth of this chick is a global victory,’ said Dr David Waugh of Tenerife’s Loro Parque Foundation.

He hopes to release birds back into the wild one day.