Aviculture
They are relatively easy to breed in captivity, and the captive population is many times larger than the wild population. Individuals are kept in several zoos around the World, among them the Santa Cruz zoo in Bolivia.
Several breeding and conservation schemes in zoos have now been set up to save this species. Other projects have been started to protect the remaining wild population, but at present numbers are still decreasing.
In the wild, within the palm groves of Bolivia, birds nest in tree hollows created in dead palm trunks, rotten knot-holes and dead limbs of trees. There is some evidence that parents maintain the third chick of a clutch with minimal food as an insurance against the loss of the older dominant chicks. If disaster should befall the larger chick the parent can switch to feeding the youngest and it will exhibit a constant growth curve from the day of active feeding. It is this physiological response that enables researchers to raise the third chick of a clutch in captivity and then return them to the wild nests when they are nearing fledge.
Blue-throated Macaws are early nesters and utilize these rare resources of nest holes before the other macaws are in breeding condition.
Read more about this topic: Blue-throated Macaw