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Macaw that inspired "Rio" dies

Macaw that inspired "Rio" dies

2 Jul – The "Rio" animated movies had lost its inspiration when an endangered blue macaw had died at a private refuge at Sao Paolo, Brazil last Wednesday.

The National Geographic reports that the macaw named Presley, which is widely believed to be the basis for the story of the 2011 animation by Blue Sky Studios and its sequel in 2014, had died at the age of 40 after failing to recover from irregular heartbeats for the past year.

"His death came as a surprise," said Linda Wittkoff, director of the Lymington Foundaton where Presley was residing

Presley was taken to a university veterinarian hospital when it showed a loss of appetite a week before it died, while the expected lifespan of a macaw can be up to 80 years.

Presley is said to be but one of two remaining Spix's Macaws that was born in the wild before the endangered species was no longer to be found in the jungles due to extensive deforestation in Brazil.

While there are believed to be about 100 of surviving macaws thanks to conservative efforts, the species has been affected by genetic defects due to inbreeding between the parrots in refuges. As a wild born macaw, Presley would have brought diversity to the gene pool but previous mating turned out unsuccessful.

Before his death, Presley was considered for providing his seed for a never attempted artificial insemination.

While the relationship between Presley and the animated lead bird, Blu, was never fully established by director Carlos Saldanha, both birds shared an uncanny similarity in their backstory. Presley is believed to have been smuggled out of the jungles of Brazil in the 1970s and was sold to different pet owners from Europe to the United States.

When Presley's latest owner called a veterinarian in Colorado in 2002, Presley was found poorly kept in a cage and unable to fly. It took six months of rehabilitation before Presley would learn to fly and was returned to Brazil to live in the Sao Paolo zoo.

Saldanha was thinking of making a movie about penguins when one landed on a shore of Brazil in 1995 before he was preceded by the release of George Miller's "Happy Feet" in 2006.

Saldanha later changed his mind to feature the blue feathered macaw and wanted to take the opportunity to raise awareness about the endangered species.

"I wanted [to feature] the rarest bird...The Spix's macaw truly is the rarest," he said.

The "Rio" series has so far two installments with its latest sequel released in Malaysia in April. In the sequel, Jesse Eisenberg reprises his role as Blu, who leads his family of macaws into the Amazon where they find a new population of other Spix's macaws in the jungle. "Rio 2" also stars Anne Hathaway, will.i.am, Jamix Foxx, Bruno Mars, Andy Garcia, George Lopez, and Jemaine Clement.