Severe droughts, exacerbated by El Ni os, regularly parch Bahia and reduce the Lear's habitat and primary food supply, the nut of the licuri palm. Poor farmers compound this shortage by feeding young licuri leaves to goats and other livestock during periods of extreme drought. Seen as agricultural pests, as well as a source of protein, Lear's are also hunted by local Bahians. The most immediate threat to the Lear's survival, however, remains the illegal pet trade. The Lear's is among the rarest of the macaw species and therefore is highly valued on the exotic pet market.
Middlemen pay a tempting poachers fee to poor local ranchers who capture the birds.
Scientists estimate that poachers remove 15 or more macaws from the wild each year. At this rate, some experts fear wild Lear's macaw populations could become extinct in less than a decade. The plight of the Lear's macaw is dire, but it differs only in degree from that of several other macaw species. Macaws, like other parrots, are appealing, intelligent birds that attract a great deal of interest from pet lovers including wealthy collectors who avidly seek the rarest birds and are willing to pay steep prices for a single specimen. Rare bird populations cannot sustain such demand.