Scientists in Southwest America Discover a Millennia-old Parrot-Breeding Operation

According to a report, there is a 1000 years old parrot-breeding operation as per DNA evidence found in the South-western parts of the US.

In the parrot-breeding ground, there were skeletons of the scarlet macaw. A team of researchers from different American universities partnered to find out about- how the skeletons ended up outside their native range of South and Central parts of America.  After a series of genome reconstruction from the bird’s bones, the team found that the birds were bred by a group of humans.

The team members compared the genomes from 14 macaws with the modern day macaw. They found that all of the 14 ancient macaws were originated from one of the seven genetic lineages (Wild Scarlet macaws divisions).

The similarity between the ancient and the modern day macaws concluded that the ancient macaws were captured first and then bred, perhaps 100 years earlier than previously thought. According to the scientists, the existence of such a breeding center is still a mystery. But still, a lot of evidence is still required for their hypothesis. The National Geographic society revealed that other evidence such as paintings of macaw on pottery hinted a breeding center in the region.

“Our results suggest that people at an undiscovered Pre-Hispanic settlement dating between 900 and 1200 CE managed a macaw breeding colony outside their endemic range and distributed these symbolically important birds through the [Southwestern United States],” said one of the authors of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.