Cuban Macaw

Cuban Macaw
Painting by Jacques Barraband, ca. 1800
Conservation status
Extinct  (Ca. 1885)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Superfamily:	Psittacoidea
Family:	Psittacidae
Subfamily:	Arinae
Tribe:	Arini
Genus:	Ara
Species:	A. tricolor
Binomial name
Ara tricolor Bechstein, 1811
Former range in Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud
Synonyms
Psittacula tricolor Bechstein, 1811 Ara cubensis Wetherbee, 1989

The Cuban Macaw or Cuban Red Macaw (Ara tricolor) is an extinct species of parrot that was native to Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud, an island off the coast of west Cuba. At about 45–50 centimetres (18–20 in) long it was one of the smaller members of the Ara genus of macaws.^[2] It was the last species of macaw native to the Caribbean islands to go extinct.

Taxonomy

1765 illustration by François-Nicolas Martinet

The species was named in 1811.^[3]

A pair was kept in the royal menagerie at Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria from 1760.

Several skins are preserved in museums around the world; however, no eggs have survived. One specimen that disappeared from the Academty of Sciences in Havana is thought to have been later acquired by Walter Rothschild.^[2]

Macaws are known to have been transported between the Caribbean islands and from mainland South America both in historic times by Europeans and natives, and prehistoric times by Paleoamericans. Parrots were important in the culture of native Caribbeans, were traded between islands, and were among the gifts offered to Christopher Columbus when he reached the Bahamas in 1492. It is therefore difficult to determine whether the numerous historical records of macaws on these islands mention distinct, endemic species, since they could have been escaped individuals or feral populations of foreign macaws of known species that had been transported there.^[4] As many as thirteen extinct macaws have at times been suggested to have lived on the islands until recently.^[5] Only two endemic Caribbean macaw species are known from physical remains; the Cuban Macaw is known from nine museum skins and subfossils, and the Saint Croix Macaw (Ara autochthones), is only known from subfossils.^[4]

No endemic Caribbean macaws remain today; they were likely driven to extinction by humans in historic and prehistoric times.^[6] Several hypothetical extinct macaws were based only on contemporaneous accounts, but these species are considered dubious today.^[4] The Jamaican Red Macaw (Ara gossei) was named by Rothschild in 1905, on the basis of an old description, but it is thought the specimen described may have been a Cuban Macaw. It has been rumoured that aviculturalists have bred birds similar in appearance to the Cuban Macaw, though larger in size, as the species they were bred from.^[2]

Description

Painting by Barraband, 1801

The Cuban Macaw was about 50 centimetres (20 in) long, a third smaller than its largests relatives. The wing was 275–290 mm long, the tail was 215–290 mm, the culmen 42–46 mm, and the tarsus 27–30 mm. It had a red forehead fading to orange and then to yellow at the nape of the neck. It had white unfeathered areas around the eyes, a dark brown bill paler at the tip, and yellow irises. The face, chin, chest, abdomen and thighs were orange. The legs were brown. The upper back was brownish red with feathers scalloped with green. The rump, undertail feathers, and lower back were blue. The wing feathers were brown, red and purplish blue. The upper surface of the tail was dark red fading to blue at the tip, and the under surface of the tail was brownish red.^[2] The sexes were identical in external appearance, as in other macaws.^[7]

Behaviour and ecology

In 2005, a species of chewing louse, Psittacobrosus bechsteini, was reported from a museum specimen of the Cuban Macaw. It is thought to have been unique to this macaw, and is therefore an example of coextinction.^[8][9]

Extinction

Painting by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1907

The Cuban Macaw was reasonably common around 1800 on Cuba, and it probably also lived on Isla de la Juventud (previously called the Isle of Pines). During the early 19th century, the human population in its home range increased dramatically, leading to widespread deforestation. The bird was also hunted for food although its meat tasted bad, and nests were plundered or disturbed to acquire young birds to keep as pets. Until 1849, the species seems to have been able to hold its own at least in remote areas, but subsequently, the population crashed, never to recover. At least 19 specimens are known to exist, the last one being shot in 1864 at La Vega in the vicinity of the Zapata Swamp, which seems to have been the last stronghold of the species.^[2] Unconfirmed records suggest that birds persisted there until 1885.^[10]

References