Quetzals and Guacamayas are present in significant numbers, along with the largest and most powerful eagle found in the Americas, the Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja).
It has also been active in breeding the Mexican gray wolf, which is currently extinct in the wild, and cares for and breeds several species of macaw, including the scarlet macaw.
Macaw | Scarlet Macaw | Spix's Macaw | The Real Macaw | Red-fronted Macaw | macaw | scarlet macaw | red-fronted macaw | Lear's Macaw | Blue-throated Macaw | Tambopata Macaw Project | Hyacinth Macaw |
The zoo currently specializes in eight "worlds" of animals: cougars, lemurs, cranes, reindeer, macaws, wallabies, ratites, camelids.
:Home to over one hundred species of birds, including: Macaw, Bird of Paradise, Great Curassow, Blue-crowned Pigeon, Green Touraco, Channel-Billed Toucan, Toco Toucan, Golden Pheasant, Vulturine Guineafowl, Wood Duck, Emerald Dove, Violet Turaco, Asian Fairy Bluebird, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Taiwan Sibia, Finch-billed Bulbul and Eclectus Parrot.
This lake has more than 100 important indigenous species such as the red snook fish (Petenia splendida), crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii and Crocodylus acutus), jaguars (Panthera onca), Pumas (Puma concolor), White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), red brocket (Mazana americana), and several bird species, including parrots, toucans, and macaws.
All present Lear's Macaw conservation projects are managed under the authority of IBAMA.
The consequences of such an internal vendetta led Colombian authorities to intervene in order to increase law enforcement efforts against the cartel, which resulted in the 2004 arrest of some 100 assassins in the employ of both rival factions, and in the 2005 capture of Varela's close associate Julio César López (alias "Ojitos", or "Small Eyes"), and Montoya's chief hatchetman, Carlos José Robayo Escobar (alias "Guacamayo", or "Macaw"), among others.
Her struggle was documented in the book The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird (2008), by Bruce Barcott.
In his book Macaw: The Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird he criticized the private holders of birds such as Antonio de Dios's Birds International, arguing that the Spix's Macaws should be returned to their native country, Brazil, for captive breeding and reintroduction to their natural habitat, which is still in decline.