The Blue Macaw Who Inspired Rio Has Died With No Offspring — cinemablend.com

A report from National Geographic says that the endangered blue Spix’s macaw that inspired the story of Rio – a bird named Presley – has passed away at the age of 40, and, most depressingly of all, left no offspring behind. Like his big screen counterpart, Presley was smuggled out of Brazil, but instead of just being in the United States, the bird was sent all throughout Europe as part of various private bird collections. He eventually ended up in Colorado, and in 2002 he was discovered and returned back to his native country. Scientists hoped that his return would inject an important amount of variety into the species’ dwindling gene pool, but unfortunately that plan didn’t work out so well.

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