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Geographical Variation in the Scarlet Macaw by George A

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Geographical Variation in the Scarlet Macaw by George A Geographical Variation in the Scarlet Macaw by George A. Smith Peterborough, England Magnolia The geography of the Americas is warmer than it is today and the hardy similar to the form of an hourglass. trees such as pine, alder, and birch, Bira The uppermost bulbous end is com­ and cold-resistant herbs and grasses posed of Mexico, the United States grew to the extreme north. It was not and Canada. The lower portion is just parrots but many animals, includ­ Farm~;' South America. Joining these two is ing such cumbersome creatures as the the narrowing neck of Central elephants, that crossed from Asia, America. over the Bering Straits, to become the Inverting an hourglass enables first representatives of their kind in gravity to pull sand through the con­ North America. Precisely as did the stricting collar and likewise there are Asiatic people, some 45,000 years natural pressures that would move ago, the limited number of pioneer­ animals and plants past the Isthmus ing parrots who gained entry into of Panama. Obviously, birds will have such a fertile land would have rapidly a greater facility to transfer up or spread their multiplying populations down than mammals. Migratory spe­ as far south as Terra del Fuego. cies sweep through Panama twice in a In the absence of competitors for year. However, those with less well hard-shelled seeds, in a "double developed powers of flight, or those continent" providing so very many We Buy Birds specialized for a particular habitat or different habitats, vegetation and diet, would find it more difficult. climates, the parrots would have We Shlp Birds Some species have found it impos­ experienced exactly the circum­ COMPLETE BIRD SUPPLIES sible to shift through Central Amer­ stances to give them a comparatively ica. Cranes and chickadees have still rapid speciation. Ultimately, this gave (714) 527-3387 not entered the southern continent, us the modern American species as is Open 9 to 6 Closed Sun., Mon" Holidays whereas a few species of tinamous, found today. 8990 Cerritos Ave. cracids, hummingbirds, toucans, ant­ Long after the time of their entry, Anaheim, Ca. 92804 birds and cotingas have progressed the several ferociously protracted Ice past Panama in the opposite direc­ Ages must have wiped the "slate" of tion. This is certainly true for parrots. most of North America completely clear of parrots. As each cold spell If we think of the nectar-feeding ended, the intervening warm respites lories; the nocturnal, grazing Kakapo; allowed parrots to expand upward Our 10th year the inner-bark eating pygmy parrots; and outward from the tropics. The of providing the the broadtails and cockatoos of the dry deserts of northern Mexico and Australian region and then compare California were barriers and this finest in custom these with the parrots from the Amer­ made it difficult for the parrots to get icas, the first group seems to have a into the States. Nevertheless, the designed aviaries far more obvious complexity. There Carolina Conure (Aratinga carolin­ and bird cages. may be several reasons for this. Isola­ ensis) (it may have got in via Florida) tion on islands is notorious, in the established itself as far north as the Various Products include: evolutionary sense, for rapid specia­ state of New York. A few conures, • Assembled stackable cages tion. Another is that all of this area some Amazons and the Thick-billed • Large Indoor and Outdoor Aviaries has suffered repeatedly from climatic Parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) change, and with this the changing • Stackable Breeding Units came to inhabit Mexico and northern • Walk-in Flight Cages vegetational patterns with each event Central America. (The Thick-bill may, would thrust the parrots into another today, be not too dissimilar from its The versatile framing system, evolutionary maelstrom. Perhaps, Asiatic "ancestors"). therefore, this rich, antipodean vari­ using 1" sq. molded nylon Some macaws were able to move connectors and 1" sq. aluminum ety has taken a comparatively short northwards out of South America. Of geological time to accomplish. The those that did, the Green-winged (A. or steel tubing, makes it simple "age" and history of parrot develop­ chloroptera) and Severe Macaws (A. for you to create your own ment is another story. severa) became stuck at Panama. Two custom-made aviary or bird cage. Nevertheless, the overall sameness species, the Military (A. militaris) of the New World forms suggests that and Scarlet Macaws (A. macao), man­ they are relatively recent in a geologi­ aged to get through. Once there, they [CCorners Umlted cal sense. This is but one reason why I had no competition from other 424 HARRISON STREET am convinced that they immigrated macaws and could evolve into their KALAMAZOO, MI 49007 there somewhere between fifteen and "niches:' Coming from the mountain ten million years ago. slopes and moving into the humid [_, ] FOR1-800-456-6780AFREE CATALOG CALL TODAY '_I. The world's climate was then tropical lowlands isolated some Mili- afa WATeRBIRD 13 tary Macaws. This ecological differ­ that a number of the yellow feathers ence enabled them to evolve larger are richly tipped with green. Indeed, size, paler color, and now a different some of the coverts may be entirely pattern ofbehavior. This went to such green. Further, though this has yet to an extreme that they became a differ­ be corroborated by the measurements ent species: Button's Macaw (A. taken of museum skins, so many of ambigua). Elsewhere, the Military the aviary birds obtained from Macaw also became somewhat less South America (some are known to The montane and has now diffused over have been imported from Guyana) much of Mexico. These now differ seem so much larger generally (as subspecifically from those to the well as being brighter) than those south. known to come from northern Macaw Likewise, the Scarlet Macaw of Central America. Mexico and Central America may also The Scarlet Macaws from Panama, have gained entry only towards the and to an increasingly lesser degree end of the last Ice Age (some 12,000 Costa Rica, have examples of both Society years back). Originally, so few indi­ colorations in the population. It is, vidual birds percolated through the therefore, assumed that this area constraints of the Isthmus that they forms a "hybrid zone" between the were limited in their genetic diversity. brighter southern and the duller Once through this geographical northern races. of barrier, the inevitable inbreeding and It would take a study which subsequent evolution from the encompasses more skins than the founder-immigrants ensured that they British Museum, the Smithsonian, America developed a different appearance and the American Museum of Natural from those Scarlet Macaws found on History have supplied, to prove that by Robert Francis the mainland ofSouth America. geographical patterns are present in Burton, Michigan The museum worker is very much even smaller geographical areas. For inclined to subdivide species of birds example, I know that some of the The Macaw Society of America into geographical races (or sub­ most brightly colored Scarlet Macaws (MSA) was formed in the middle of species). The usual reasons are that from Nicaragua, to the northeast of 1990. This national organization was they have differences in coloration or Panama, have blue tips to many of founded to promote the continued size. It is strange that no one has sub­ their yellow feathers. Skins from education of all its members, breed­ divided the Scarlet Macaw. some areas prove smaller. In Brazil ers, owners or others interested in the While in Washington, D.C. for the there is a difference, or appears to be, care, breeding, ownership and preser­ 1990 AFA Conference, I went to between those birds found in the vation of all macaw species. Its pur­ further confirm this in the ornitho­ southeast and northwest portions. pose is also to continue to promote logical section of the Smithsonian. At Perhaps some of these differences the domestic breeding of the endan­ once, I found that Joanne Abramson will prove to be nothing more than a gered species while discouraging the (of Raintree Macaws) had indepen­ "cline" where one form gradually practice of hybridization of all spe­ dently come to the same conclusion, merges into another. This is yet to be cies. It promotes the restriction of for she was there carefully working studied. importation of macaws, limited to through their skins. We might mention that both the breeders for the establishment of new We agree that the Scarlet Macaw Military and the Scarlet Macaws gene pools for the domestic pet trade, has two discernable populations. crowned their pre-Cortez conquest of thereby reducing the pressures on the One, to the north of Panama, tends to Central America by getting into the limited populations in their native have a paler red feathering. Perhaps largest of the Caribbean Islands. lands. this race is more subject to fading, Unfortunately, the macaws from The Macaw Society of America especially to the nape of the neck. these are now totally exterminated publishes a bi-monthly newsletter However, the chief characteristic of and as most went in the years before which provides the information this form is the yellow of the wing descriptive ornithology began, we about macaws or macaw-related coverts. This is fairly extensive and have so little to go on. A few entries items. This newsletter includes input has no, or very little, green edging to have come from buccaneers' log from various avian experts, breeders, these golden feathers. In South books, from ecclesiastics' diaries and owners and veterinarians. Through its America, the macaws tend to be a from sporting (gun-toting) land newsletter, it is the objective of MSA darker (and more sun-fast?) red in owners.
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