Leipzig zoo lets endangered macaws predict World Cup opener

Leipzig Zoo let its blue-throated macaws make a World Cup call, and the birds settled on Mexico before the opening match against South Africa. The zoo called the ritual Arakel, and it played out inside the Amazonia aviary, where the parrots interacted with match balls as visitors watched one of the zoo’s flagship birds do the choosing.

The joke lands because the species is anything but ordinary. Leipzig Zoo lists the blue-throated macaw as endemic to Bolivia and says the wild population is just over 100 individuals. BirdLife DataZone classifies the species as Critically Endangered and gives an estimate of 208 to 303 mature birds, while an IUCN-linked conservation summary puts the total population at 312 to 455 and says the macaw is found only in the Llanos de Moxos ecosystem in the Beni department.

Zoo director Jörg Junhold framed the tie to football as more than random theater. “As South Americans, the macaws have a special connection to the World Cup venues,” he said, turning a light prediction game into a nod to the bird’s continental roots. Zookeeper Florian Ullmann added that the birds are young, playful and curious, and said Arakel could also be used before Germany games in the future.

That matters because blue-throated macaws are not just photogenic crowd-pleasers. Zoo Atlanta describes them as seed dispersers and notes the threats that keep pressing on the species, including habitat loss and the illegal pet trade. The World Parrot Trust says conservation work around the bird has included training local residents to monitor nests, protect habitat and reduce threats, while Asociación Armonía reported record nest-box results in 2026 and 19 blue-throated macaw chicks fledging for the second consecutive year.

Leipzig’s 830-square-meter Amazonia aviary gives the stunt a stronger setting than a simple display cage. The macaws are used as a flagship species there, and the World Cup bit worked because visitors were looking at a rare parrot with a real conservation story, not a mascot in costume. The ball may have pointed to Mexico, but the sharper message was harder to miss: these birds are playful in public and still fighting for space in the wild.