The Preclassic military macaw (Ara militaris) from the Cueva de Avendaños (Chihuahua, Mexico) was not locally procured

Abstract

The oldest macaw specimen in Pre‐Hispanic Mexico and the southwestern United States was recovered in Cueva de Avendaños, Chihuahua, Mexico, at the base of the Sierra Madre Occidental. It dates to the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period (1929–2057 cal BP). The head is the only preserved element of the macaw and it was mummified through natural causes. Research on this specimen examines its sex identification and its geographical range, questioning whether this specimen belongs to a local population living in the vicinity of the cave. A species distribution model over the last 2000 years was elaborated to ascertain the presence of military macaw in the study area. Our results show that the macaw was non‐local, sustaining the idea that the practice of early animal husbandry existed in the early stages of the Pre‐Hispanic world, and also suggest that a significant and rapid climate changes characterized the Holocene, affecting the military macaw's distributional range.

Songs of the past ‐ papers of the 10th ICAZ Bird Working Group Meeting

“…For example, Meijer et al (2023) show that red junglefowl on Flores (Indonesia) reached the island, and potentially the whole of Wallacea, through human-mediated dispersal. Similarly, Cruz et al (2023) show that remains of military macaws found in Cueva de Avendaños, Chihuahua, do not represent a range expansion of the species, but rather signals long-distance trade and subsequent animal husbandry. Thus, caution is warranted when assuming a species is native to a region because of the presence of the species' bones in the archaeological record.…”