Astudy that I previously shared with you indicated that Indigenous people started breeding parrots in captivity more than 1000 years ago (more here). That study found evidence that macaws lived in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico — far north of the species’ historical Neotropical ranges in the rainforests of Central America. But now a new study has found that Indigenous people were breeding scarlet macaws, Ara macao, in captivity even earlier than we first realized — as early as the 1100s. This is according to a detailed examination of eggshells found at the Mimbres archaeological site of Old Town in Southwestern New Mexico (Figure 1).
North America???s First Parrot Breeders Got Started Earlier Than We Knew
Astudy that I previously shared with you indicated that Indigenous people started breeding parrots in captivity more than 1000 years ago (more here). That study…