{"id":2205,"date":"2019-06-02T08:51:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T08:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/?p=2205"},"modified":"2020-07-06T06:42:39","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T15:42:39","slug":"salt-of-the-earth-sustaining-macaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/salt-of-the-earth-sustaining-macaws\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt of the Earth: sustaining macaws in the Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This is our fourth blog in the Las Piedras guest blog series, following the adventures from the WildFF Friends and Family trip. Check out David\u2019s journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center<\/a> to learn more about the group’s arrival at this jungle paradise.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n Macaws are beautiful, colorful, social birds and are the largest of the parrot family. Although their diet is varied including nuts, seeds, ripe and unripe fruit, flowers, plants, insects and snails, macaws that live in the Amazon basin are lacking the critical nutrient, sodium, that is needed for normal nerve and muscle function. To supplement their diet, these macaws gather at clay licks and literally eat the clay, which contains a much higher quantity of salt than their normal diet. <\/span>A\u00a0clay lick\u00a0is a naturally forming wall of\u00a0clay\u00a0on a riverbank caused by erosion from the river.<\/span><\/p>\nWhy do macaws in the Amazon need clay licks?<\/span><\/h4>\n