Rio 1 and a Half

by VPVPVP

Blue macaws Aurora, Sirius and Milo and Amazon flying fox Ahsoka must pair up with Zephyr, Samara, Celeste and Orion respectively to save their species. However, they must face a second band of smugglers and their pets lead by the violent swan Vecna together with the canonical Rio gang including Blu and his family before they are captured for the pet trade.

5. Species discovery surprise

Chapter 5- Sirius and Aurora's species discovery surprise

Over the next 12 years

Sirius the glaucous macaw, Aurora the Spix macaw, Ginger (now Ahsoka) the Amazon flying fox and Bruno (now Milo) the Lear's macaw grew up in their respective locations of London in the UK, Rio in Brazil and Perth in Australia along with their owners and carers. However, not all of them remained in the same location. Over the 12 years, the macaws forgot what species they were or where they had come from while Ahsoka pretty much forgot about the traumatic incidences caused by the poachers, such as the loss of her parents and the four went through many adventures in their areas. In London, Sirius and Aurora grew up with their owner Brandon who eventually moved out of his parents' home and into university to pursue a career in bird biology and conservation as inspired by his macaw companions and they also grew in knowledge of the area too. Milo the Lear's macaw's story in Australia was more complicated but he did not stay in Perth throughout the 12 years. He had travelled to Sydney where his owner, Audrey now lived. More on this later. As for Ahsoka, she grew up under the care of Joanna who continued to study bats and eventually became an expert bat conservationist and chiroptologist. She continued to care for Ahsoka and the pair became close friends despite Ahsoka not being a pet like Aurora, Sirius and Milo. After all, flying foxes were among the animals that cannot be kept as pets due to the health risks they carried.

London, the United Kingdom

The sun rose into the sky above the rather drab cityscape of the great English city of London and along with it, the citizens who got prepared to face their various daily routines and activities like going to work and taking their kids to school. On a London university campus, the students in their student houses also rose with the sun and got prepared to face the day of lectures, learning and social interaction. In one student house, a certain young man was asleep in his bed. It was now 7:00 am local time and as the young man, Brandon's alarm clock struck that time, it began to beep. However, Brandon's arm lazily rose to the alarm clock and pressed its snooze button. Then the lazy young man turned and tried to go back to sleep, but not for long. The sound of the alarm clock had stirred someone else in the room. On the top of a wardrobe present in Brandon's room were two blue macaws and they stretched themselves awake. One of them went over to the edge and saw that their owner was still asleep.

"Hey, Sirius, wake up," the first macaw, a female, spoke and nudged the other macaw, a male, out of his grogginess and gestured to Brandon. The male macaw came to the edge of the wardrobe and looked down on the sleeping Brandon and then to the clock's digital face which read 7:00 am. A frown formed on his face.

"Brandon has an early lecture today, Aurora," he told the female macaw, "we can't have him sleeping in and missing it. His lecturer will not be pleased if he doesn't attend it."

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" asked the female macaw named Aurora. Then the male macaw named Sirius formed a small mischievous smile on his beak, opened his wings and took off from the wardrobe. He headed for a jug placed on Brandon's desk, took it up in his talons and flew off for the bathroom.

Unlike Blu when he lived in Minnesota, the United States with his human friend Linda who couldn't fly, Aurora and Sirius could fly around the rooms with ease, having learnt to fly before they were seized by the poachers as chicks from their original home near Rio (something they had long forgotten by now). Aurora was a beautiful female macaw with light blue feathers of the maya shade, so her feathers were similar to the colour of a clear blue sky. She bore a pure white patch around each eye connected by a band over the beak coloured grey. The arrangement of Aurora's facial markings gave the macaw the appearance of wearing spectacles. Her late father Erico had this trait but Aurora had traits clearly inherited from her also-late mother Clarinda. This was two sets of head feathers clustered together on either side of her crown, giving Aurora the appearance of having pigtails but like her mother did when she was alive, Aurora preferred to keep the feathers tied into pigtails to keep them tidy and prevent them from flopping everywhere which made her look ridiculous. Aurora's feet were a shade of grey as well and she had a slender build and amber eyes similar in shade to the sun close to sunset or shortly after sunrise. Sirius was a handsome male macaw whose body build was fairly stocky. Like Aurora, his feathers were a shade of blue but they were azure coloured. His head, neck and tail and wing undersides, however, were light grey, that grey melting to the azure down his neck. His beak and feet were light grey; his eyes were a shade of blue like his father Alvin's but lighter. Sirius' crest was a sheet of grey feathers spread directly atop his crown and pointing back, stopping where his head curved down ward. Sirius possessed a facial feature that Aurora completely lacked: a yellow ring around each eye and another piece behind his lower beak mandible.

Throughout much of their lives, Aurora and Sirius had always thought themselves to be a kind of hyacinth macaw, especially Sirius with his yellow facial features and Brendon was on the same perch. However, their appearances, size and traits had made this assumption to be rather dubious. First off, hyacinth macaws were massive parrots. Sirius and Aurora were only half the size of an adult hyacinth. Secondly, their plumage colours were different from a hyacinth macaw's. Hyacinth macaws were mostly dark navy blue and sometimes a lighter lush blue. Sirius had azure blue feathers and grey feathers on his head, neck and under his wings and tail, traits that hyacinth macaws did not have, while Aurora did not have any yellow facial markings. But the pair and also their owner Brandon were completely unaware that the former two were part of two extremely rare and critically endangered species of macaws with Sirius' being the rarest. This was why the two macaws had NEVER seen other macaws like them throughout their entire time in London and this sometimes made them feel like oddballs among the community of pet birds in the area, some of them even teasing them about being this. Even Brandon had doubts about Sirius and Aurora being hyacinth macaws based on their features as all the other hyacinth macaws he had seen had been large, blue birds but he had buried the doubt over and over again. However, the three were to soon find out. The three were at university and had already obtained a degree in bird biology and were now doing a masters in bird conservation.

Aurora continued to wait on the wardrobe's top as Sirius soon returned with the jug filled with water. She then watched on in amused horror as she deduced what Sirius was going to do to which the glaucous macaw, with a mischievous smile nodded. Then as another student passed by the door to Brandon's room, a splash sounded followed by an explosion of cries from Brandon as he yelped from the shock of the cold water. The housemate formed a small, amused smile, stole a brief glanced into Brandon's room, shrugged and left for downstairs to get some breakfast. A little while later Brandon, Aurora and Sirius were also downstairs having their breakfast with the two macaws eating some fresh fruit and vegetables.

"What on EARTH were you think of there, Sirius!?" Brandon demanded to the sniggering glaucous macaw as he continued to eat while he dried his dowsed upper body with a towel, "You know FULL WELL how MUCH I HATE having cold water poured over my head, ESPECIALLY when I'm nice and warm in my bed!"

"Well, I guess you shouldn't have tried to sleep in then, should ya Brandon?" said Brandon's housemate in amusement. Brandon just rolled his eyes, finished drying himself off and left to get some breakfast of his own. As the pair continued to eat, another housemate, a young woman, came in.

"Hey, Brandon, Pete, have you read the latest article about the famous Spix macaw family in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil?" she asked.

"What about them, Maria?" asked the male housemate, Pete. Brandon, Aurora and Sirius also gazed at the female housemate, Maria, as she produced a flat device called an Iphone and handed it to the four to read.

"It's talking about how the first breeding pair of Spix macaws, Blu and his mate Jewel are doing with their three chicks which are two females and a male," Maria explained, "and it says they are doing well and that the chicks, all three of them are healthy. Tulio, the leader of the team called Project Blu Bird and the writer of the article, is out searching for more Spix macaws to establish more breeding pairs on the Blue Bird Sanctuary, an area of Rio's forest set up to protect the wildlife there, along with Blu and his family."

Brandon, with Sirius and Aurora perched on either side of his chair, read the article as Maria continued, "Also, Tulio and his team have been searching not only for more Spix macaws, but also for other rare macaw species like the glaucous macaw and so far, they had managed to find four, along with an extremely rare species of flying fox. Two of the blue macaws are Spix, a male and a female; one is a glaucous, a female and the fourth is a Lear's, a female. The flying fox specimen they had managed to find is a male Amazon flying fox, an extremely rare species of flying fox endemic to the Brazilian Rainforest but is critically endangered and Tulio and his team have a lesser department that deals with bats but more on that later. It is eventually found, to the disappointment of Tulio and company, that the male and a female Spix macaw were brother and sister via DNA testing... WAY too closely related for them to be breeding pair."

"Indeed," said Brandon as he passed the Iphone to Pete for him to read, "It is not a good thing to breed closely related individuals of a rare species. There is an increased chance of faulty genes being passed on which could have negative consequences of the fitness and viability of the offspring."

"Inbreeding depression," said Sirius, citing the term describing this fitness-affecting phenomenon.

"It can unfortunately happen in small populations in which the genetic diversity is low," said Aurora. Maria then continued, "So, after finding out that the two Spix macaws are brother and sister, the search is on for a Spix macaw for either one of them that is NOT closely related to them. Also, there is a search for a male glaucous macaw for the female glaucous, a male Lear's macaw for the female Lear's and a female Amazon flying fox for the male bat."

As she said this, two more housemates, another young man and another young woman, came in. They were already prepared to leave for their first lectures and they waved to Pete, Brandon and Maria before leaving. After bidding the pair goodbye, the three resumed the conversation. Then Pete's eyes travelled to Sirius and Aurora.

"By the way, have you wondered if your two parrots could well be part of a rare macaw species?" asked he, making Brandon look at Sirius and Aurora, "I don't think they could be hyacinth macaws you know like you often claim them to be."

"But I've always assumed them to BE hyacinth macaws, Pete," said Brandon with a hand gesture to the pair, "I always have since I found them as chicks in the Jubilee Gardens when I was only a boy."

"They don't really look like hyacinth macaws at all," said Maria, "First off, both of them are too bright a blue to be hyacinths and another thing; they're too small."

"Yes, hyacinth macaws are MASSIVE birds," said Pete. Brandon gazed at Sirius and Aurora, doubt about them being hyacinths resurfacing once again. Then Maria issued this piece of advice to Sirius and Aurora's owner, "I suggest you email a picture of those two to Tulio in Brazil and see what he says. After all, he is a true expert and knows FAR more about birds, especially parrots, than we in-training bird conservationists do."

"Yes," said Pete in agreement, "and I feel I must tell you this, Brandon. If Sirius and Aurora are indeed part of any of the ultra-rare species of blue macaw, you may want to get prepared to give them up."

This made Brandon look sadly at his two housemates. Sirius and Aurora's faces also fell as this would mean the three would have to sever the 12-year friendship they had forged since childhood. Despite this sad possibility, Brandon made the decision to take Maria and Pete's advice in contacting Tulio and sending him a picture of Sirius and Aurora. After all, he wanted what was best for his macaws.

"Alright, I'll do it, but it will have to be quick," said he, "We need to be off to our lecture in an hour's time. Do you mind if I borrow your laptop, Pete? Mine's packed away and I don't have time to set it up and contact Tulio via that way. I already have a recent picture of myself, Aurora and Sirius riding the London Eye in my camera that I can upload and send via the email."

Immediately, Pete left to get his laptop which was in operation in his bedroom while Brandon left to get his digital camera. A short while later, he returned to downstairs with his laptop and gave it to Brandon. Immediately, Brandon connected his camera to Pete's laptop, uploaded the picture of himself, Sirius and Aurora on the London Eye onto the device and then opened up the email. After signing into his account, he located Tulio's email address on the article on Maria's Iphone, copied it into the 'sender' box, uploaded the image and after typing a short description of the image with the question of what Sirius and Aurora's macaws species were, he sent the email to Tulio. He had done the job just in time as it was now time to go to the lecture theatre where the first lecture is to take place. Pete closed down his laptop and as soon as the five including Sirius and Aurora were ready, they left the house and headed off for the university campus to go to the lecture theatre.

After the lecture

Brandon, Aurora and Sirius returned to their house and entered the door. As soon as they were inside, Brandon commanded the two macaws to get his laptop open in his bedroom and immediately, the pair flew off for their owner's bedroom to boot up his laptop. Because they had grown up with Brandon since he had found them in the Jubilee Gardens, both Sirius and Aurora had grown up with the variety of gadgets such as laptops, computers and Iphones and thus knew how to activate and use them. They also knew how to spell, read and write and had acquired these as they grew up with their owner and also human companion. Once Aurora had turned on the plug from which Brandon's laptop was connected, Aurora opened up the laptop and booted it up. As she did this, Brandon entered the room and Sirius came by and typed in the password 'AuroraSiriusA113' into the password box by tapping his talons onto the keyboard. Brandon smiled as Sirius stepped aside to allow him to take over. Moments later again, Brandon's laptop was on its desktop. The picture of the desktop featured Brandon, Aurora and Sirius at a prom when they left secondary school, the former dressed in a three-piece suit and the macaws wearing a bow and a hat. Not only had Sirius and Aurora had accompanied Brandon to university, but also to school which was how they had acquired general knowledge in various subjects including science. However, they weren't quite as knowledgeable in the sciences as Linda's companion Blu.

Next, Brandon opened up the internet browser and logged into his email. As he opened his email, he saw that Tulio had replied to the email he had sent before he and his macaws left for the lecture. Immediately, he opened up the email and read Tulio's response about Sirius and Aurora in the picture. Aurora and Sirius also read it but as they did, their faces fell but surprise was also boiling within them. In his reply, Tulio had written that Sirius was a glaucous macaw and Aurora, a Spix macaw and that they must be transferred to Rio as soon as possible. This confirmed Pete and Maria's suspicions, and also those of Brandon that Sirius and Aurora were NOT hyacinth macaws at all. Sirius and Aurora were especially surprised. They had been part of two EXTREMELY rare species of macaws ALL THIS TIME. Brandon gazed at his companions.

"Well, looks like your days with me have become numbered, you two," he said sadly. Sirius and Aurora just gazed back at him equally sadly, knowing that this was true. Then Brandon continued to read Tulio's response and read that he will be sending one of his employees, Francisco Pablo to travel to the UK to visit him, which will take a few days for Rio was right across the Atlantic Ocean and in a different time zone. Francisco will need a little time to adjust to London's time area before going over to the university campus to meet him. The three took some time to digest the information in the email for a while until finally, Brandon broke the silence.

"We'll have to prepare to meet this Francisco guy then," said he and with that, he wrote a reply email to Tulio that he will do just that, sent it and logged out for now. He then turned to his two blue macaws which he now knows to be a Spix and a glaucous.

"You know something, ever since I have found you two as chicks in the Jubilee Gardens," he told Sirius and Aurora, "I have NEVER seen ANY other macaw EXACTLY like you despite us thinking that you two were just types of hyacinth macaws. I think this will be an excellent opportunity for you two to meet another macaw of your own species and perhaps even settle down with them with your own chicks."

Sirius and Aurora gazed back at Brandon with looks of surprise. Though Aurora had loved the idea of being a mate and mother with her own mate and chicks, Sirius was more uncertain about this role. However, he knew that he will have to do this for the sake of his species and he hoped that his mate-to-be in Rio will be a nice and friendly female for him to meet, get to know and eventually pair up with. Brandon widened his mouth into a small and assuring smile when he saw the uncertain look on Sirius' face.

"I know it sounds hard, you two," said he, "But it will be what's best for you and also for your species. After all, if you two are part of such RARE species of macaws, it will be important that you are imported into a proper conservation area, especially you, Sirius now that I know that you're part of a macaw species that's perhaps even rarer than the Spix macaw," he then petted Sirius on the head. This petting raised Sirius' spirits and he smiled at Brandon. Then the young man took his beloved parrots onto his arms and stood up.

"But the next step we gotta face is preparing for that Francisco guy," he said, "So let's do that. I will need to let my housemates know about this and that a visitor will be coming to our place..." and with that, he left with Sirius and Aurora to meet with Maria, Pete and the other two housemates downstairs as they also entered into the house to have a word with them about Tulio's response to his email.

Around three days later

Brandon, Sirius, Aurora, Maria and Pete sat watching the TV installed into their house. It was the weekend so there were no lectures or practical today and the other two housemates were out with friends. The weather outside was not very cheerful today. Through the windows, rain hammered down like a giant shower and the skies overhead were smothered with a dismal grey blanket of rainclouds spewing the deluge. Rumbles of thunder sounded in the sky along with the pelting noise of the rain as it continued to beat the London cityscape below. On the window ledge in the kitchen, Sirius gazed in disappointment at the downpour. He watched as several people dressed in coats with some of them holding umbrellas rushed by to their destinations, desperate to be out of the downpour as quickly as possible while on the partly flooded roads, cars drove by. Some of them generated small surfs of water as their tires rolled through the puddles that had welled in certain areas of the road's sides.

"We were going to go out into the small garden today," Sirius heard Pete grumble in equal disappointment, making the glaucous macaw turn his head to face the young man sat with his owner, Aurora and the woman, their eyes on the flat screen TV and the nature documentary that played on it, "I wanted to report some sunflowers into bigger pots but I cannot in this downpour."

"I wonder how Danny and Julie are doing with their friends," said Brandon, "I bet their plans had been dashed by this weather as well."

"Well, you can't go out for a walk in this, that's for sure," said Maria, "which was what the group had planned today..."

Sirius just breathed a sigh as the four continued watching TV, Aurora also miserably slumping on the backrest of the sofa on which the three humans sat. She also wanted to go out for a fly in this weather but could not for the rain. Macaws weren't built to fly in rainy weather as it was not good for their feathers and once their feathers got wet, it took a long time for them to dry and macaws could not fly well with wet feathers and both Sirius and Aurora knew this. Sadly, they and the three humans continued watching TV or staring out of the window at the horrible weather outside.

While Sirius continued gazing in disgruntle at the downpour, he noticed one of the pedestrians across the road run from side to side to avoid colliding with the other pedestrians as they ran along, shouting on the go. Then that pedestrian changed direction and darted into the road in the direction of the window to Sirius' alarm. A car horn erupted as an alerted driver honked it to yell at the pedestrian to get out of the way, and the pedestrian, a man, did and stumbled onto the curb Sirius' side. He crashed into the side of the house and made a tremendous thud, making Sirius jump and alerting the other four including Aurora.

"Did you guys hear that?" asked Brandon. Then Sirius took off from the window as the man rose to his feet outside, a startled squeak erupting form his beak. When Brandon saw this, he immediately darted for the door, yanked it open and rushed for outside. Moments later, with Maria, Pete, Sirius and Aurora looking on, Brandon returned with the man dressed in a yellow raincoat. The man was soaked to the skin and as he stumbled into the house, he began to grumble. His voice was laced with an accent, indicating he was from somewhere outside the UK.

"Thanks, lad," said he, "Honestly, the weather's terrible today."

"Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?" asked Brandon.

"I don't drink coffee but tea would be very nice," said the man in a weary voice. Brandon then told Pete to get the kettle on and pour the cup of tea, which he did and walked over to the kettle. Aurora flew in, opened the cupboard and handed Pete a mug which he took and said thanks. Then Aurora joined Sirius on the backrest of the sofa and watched as Maria got a chair from the table and placed it behind the man. The man then plopped heftily into the chair and said thanks to Maria.

"You look like you've been walking in that storm for some time," said the young woman.

"British weather, honestly," grumbled the man as he took a moment to rest, and recover from his fall, "It's not like in the place where I come from, Rio in Brazil, where it is often sunny though we also get downpours over there as well."

"London is in a far more temperate area of the Earth than Rio," said Brandon, "That is why we have such different weather patterns though they may overlap."

The man just continued sighing and pulled back his soaked hood, unzipped his soaked coat and, with Brandon and Maria's help, removed it from his body. Maria went to hang the wet coat on a hook to dry while Pete came in with the cup of tea.

"Thanks, um..." began the man as he received the cup.

"It's Pete," said Pete as the man took a light sip from the tea, flinching a little from the temperature of the drink, "That's Maria over there and this is Brandon. There are two others with us named Julie and Danny but they are on an outing with friends. We are university students."

"And those two macaws on the sofa over there are Sirius and Aurora," said Brandon.

"Just give me a minute to calm down from that hasty rush to here in that rain first," said the man and with that, the three students gave him a bit of space as he continued to relax and drink his tea. Then as soon as he had regained his composure, the man stood up and handed the half-drunken tea back to Pete to hold. Then he turned to Brandon with a smile, reached into a pocket of his shirt and handed him a card.

"My name is Dr Francisco Pablo," said he as Brandon took it and read it, "Professor of Ornithology and Bird Conservation and one of Tulio Monteiro's employees and teammates of the Project: Blu Bird conservation team but please, call me Francisco. Sorry for the late intro, I just wanted a bit of time to relax from that rush through that deluge out there."

Brandon then handed the card back to the man, Francisco and spoke.

"We're studying bird conservation too," said he, "In fact, we're doing a masters degree in it, but that's another subject. There are my macaws, Sirius and Aurora," he gestured to the pair on the backrest of the sofa. The pair then flew over to Brandon and perched onto his shoulders. Francisco looked on in surprise.

"Wow, they can fly, especially your Spix macaw!?" he slightly blurted out.

"Why the surprise?" asked Brandon.

"It's what macaws normally do unless their wing flight feathers are clipped," said Maria.

"Brandon here would NEVER clip the wings of his birds anyway as he finds it a cruel thing to do," said Pete to which Brandon nodded in agreement. Sirius and Aurora also flinched in revulsion at that thought for they cherished their ability to fly.

"When Tulio, my boss, went to the United States to track down a male Spix macaw called Blu in the care of a woman called Linda, he found that he has NEVER flown a single flap throughout his ENTIRE life until his adventures in Rio," said Francisco, "And his wings were NEVER once clipped, but that's another story. Now, onto the main subject," he nodded to the two macaws as Brandon went over to the tabletop and had Aurora and Sirius hop onto it for Francisco to examine closer, starting with the female Spix macaw.

"Wow, she is a beautiful specimen," he breathed, making Aurora blush a little, "she would make a great mate for the brother Spix macaw back in Rio."

"We read in that article that you found out that the pair of Spix macaws you found and brought to your conservation area were brother and sister, didn't you?" said Maria.

"Not a good match for a breeding pair due to the possibility of passing on faulty genes which would affect the fitness of the offspring," said Brandon.

"Absolutely not and I can see you've studied the area well," said Francisco, "But that, sadly, is the problem with animal species with such low numbers such as the Spix and glaucous macaws and the Amazon flying fox, an EXTREMELY rare species of mega-bat that is just as rare as the glaucous macaw. There is not enough genetic diversity to go around the individuals to pass onto their offspring which is why it is VERY important that when we establish breeding pairs of these animals to steer them from the brink of extinction, we must make sure that the males and the females are NOT too closely related," he then gazed at Aurora, "which I sure hope for this macaw in relation to the brother macaw we have in Rio."

Aurora just shrugged as Francisco continued, "But that won't be much of a problem for the other top macaw we are aiming to conserve, the Lear's macaw as we had also found a female, surprisingly this far north of our country of Brazil and we are hoping to establish a breeding pair of that species on the Blu Bird Sanctuary as well. We are currently tracking that male Lear's macaw living in Sydney, Australia to bring back to Rio to be her mate. Anyway, that, too, is another subject. Let's discuss the Spix and glaucous macaws first..."

Francisco then launched into an explanation about the two ultra-rare species of macaws, starting with Aurora's species.

"The Spix macaw, or Cyanopsitta spixii, is a VERY rare blue macaw species that is very closer to the brink of extinction. In fact, we believe this macaw to be extinct in the wild with only seven individuals known: Blu, Jewel, their three chicks and the brother and sister macaw duo we had recently found. Now that I have found Aurora here, that makes eight. Now the next step is to get Aurora to Rio, pair her up with the brother macaw and hopefully, we will have a second breeding pair of Spix macaws with Blu and Jewel's chicks having potential mates when they have offspring. As for the sister, the search for another male macaw for her will continue."

Francisco then moved onto Sirius' species, the glaucous macaw.

"The other ultra-rare species of blue macaw, the glaucous macaw or Anodorhynchus glaucous, is also apparently extinct in the wild with the last recorded sighting of this species being in the 1980s. After that, we thought the macaw has gone COMPLETELY extinct until we have managed to find that female macaw to our UTMOST astonishment. Now that we have that macaw brought safely to Tulio's Aviary, we now must get Sirius here to Rio, pair him up with the female and establish the first breeding pair of glaucous macaws. The glaucous macaw is closer to the brink of extinction than the Spix macaw so it is important that we do that as soon as we can to give this species a new lease on life."

"One of the main reasons why these birds are so rare is because of poachers and loggers, isn't it," said Maria.

"Yes, and most poachers just treat these animals like they are mere collectable objects than living things," said Pete.

"I have seen on the internet of the horrible conditions these poor animals are kept in," put in Brandon. Sirius and Aurora nodded in agreement. These two macaws DESPISED poachers with a FIERY PASSION and had hoped to NEVER meet such humans when they go to Rio and meet their future mates. A stern look formed on Francisco's face.

"Indeed poachers are a problem for these rare animals," said he, "And that is a frequent problem we have had ravaging our forest. In the eyes of the poachers, rare animals, particularly animals that are close to extinction like the Spix and glaucous macaws and the Amazon flying fox, are rare diamonds worth a LOT of money and often, the only thing the poachers care about is the price tag they assign to those poor animals and not the animals themselves."

"I heard a saying regarding money," said Brandon, "The love of it is the root of all kinds of evil and one of those evils is animal cruelty when smuggling them."

"Absolutely," said Francisco.

"Has your Aviary been targeted by smugglers before?" asked Maria.

"Once," said Francisco, "It was before Blu and Jewel paired up and had their three chicks. However, we have managed to apprehend the smugglers and have upgraded security measure tools installed to ensure that it doesn't happen again, especially now that we have that brother and sister Spix macaw duo, the female glaucous macaw, female Lear's macaw and male Amazon flying fox held there."

"Amazon flying fox?" Brandon repeated in confusion while Sirius and Aurora exchanged looks.

"Our team has minor divisions that specialise in caring for and conserving non-avian animals like bats," said Francisco, "And one of them is the Amazon flying fox, its Latin name being Pteropus amazon, a bat species that is as rare as the glaucous macaw and like that blue macaw, it is extinct in the wild with only the male we had found and the female we are tracking in our own city, being the last known two individuals of the species. In fact we used to have a small group of them living in our forest but they had all disappeared when the poachers struck. The female Amazon flying fox we are tracking down is apparently the last member of that clan. This is the classic example of the damage poachers can do to an animal population. Sometimes it's gradual, sometimes it's instantaneous but that is another subject," he then gazed at Aurora and Sirius and continued, "Now that I have finally found those two macaws as indicated in the picture of them you have sent us via email, the next step, as I have said before, is to get those two to Rio, pair them up with the female glaucous macaw and that Spix macaw brother and get those breeding pairs established and it's important that we do that as soon as we can as any more delay could endanger the project, especially regarding the glaucous macaw."

"But what about my bird conservation masters degree?" asked Brandon, "I have only just started it. Furthermore, how am I gonna pay for the airfare and the transport to Brazil?"

"We will cover for the costs of your transport to Rio and then to Tulio's Aviary," said Francisco, "and I will alert your lecturers that you have to come to Brazil with your two birds and that your masters degree will have to be put on hold, but other transport costs such as that to Heathrow Airport will have to be out of your own pockets. Don't worry; we will arrange most of the process for you."

Brandon exhaled a sigh, extended his arms to Sirius and Aurora and allowed them to climb from the tabletop to his shoulders. "It's gonna be quite a complicated process but we'll go along with it. After all, I want what's best for my parrots and if it means taking them to Rio to pair them up for conservation purposes, then so be it."

"Then it's settled," said Francisco and with that, he asked Maria for his coat. The young woman left to get his coat while Francisco himself prepared to leave. "I will return to my hotel and send word to Tulio that you will be coming to Rio with your two birds and also give you three time to get ready for the trip. And once I have done that, have alerted your lecturers of your travel and you are packed and prepared, we're off to Rio right away."

Maria returned with his coat and Francisco thanked her, took the coat from her and put it on. Brandon went over to the door and opened it for him.

"Will you be alright returning to your hotel in this deluge?" asked he.

"I should be," said Francisco as he checked his coat and made sure he had everything he had brought with him on him, "I just hope I don't run into any trouble with those cars again," he then walked towards the door and turned one last time to the three humans, "It was nice meeting you three and I shall see you sometime later, Brandon. Make sure you're properly packed for the trip, okay?"

"Okay," said Brandon and with that, Francisco left and Brandon closed the door behind him.

And so over the next week, Francisco did as he promised and Brandon packed the things he will need for the trip to Rio. He checked his passport was up to date for the trip and as soon as he, Aurora and Sirius were ready, the three travelled to Heathrow Airport to meet Francisco there to board the plane bound for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.