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| Dominican green-and-yellow macaw | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dominican green-and-yellow macaw |
| Status | EX? |
| Genus | Ara? |
Dominican green-and-yellow macaw The Dominican green-and-yellow macaw is an extinct or possibly extirpated parrot historically reported from Hispaniola. Accounts and museum specimens have linked it to colonial-era naturalists and later 19th-century explorers, generating debate among ornithologists, museum curators, and biogeographers about its taxonomic validity and historic range.
Early published names for macaws on Hispaniola appear in works by Christopher Columbus, Hernán Cortés, and naturalists cited by Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century, while formal 19th-century descriptions drew on specimens held by institutions such as the British Museum and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Debates over whether the taxon represents a distinct species, an insular subspecies, or misidentified specimens involve comparisons to taxa treated by John Gould, Alfred Newton, Osbert Salvin, and Frederick DuCane Godman. Molecular studies referencing protocols from laboratories at Smithsonian Institution and American Museum of Natural History have been proposed to resolve relationships with mainland taxa described by Alexander von Humboldt and later catalogued by George Robert Gray.
Contemporary descriptions in ship logs and colonial reports compared the macaw's plumage to that illustrated in plates by Mark Catesby and John James Audubon, noting green upperparts and yellow underparts reminiscent of descriptions of related species named by Georges Cuvier and illustrated in volumes from the Royal Society. Measurements reported in cabinets attributed to collectors such as Sir Hans Sloane were later referenced in taxonomic keys by Ernst Haeckel and field guides influenced by editors at the Royal Geographical Society. Morphological analysis has involved comparison of beak form and tail length with specimens catalogued by The Zoological Society of London.
Historical distributional claims associate the macaw with regions of Hispaniola including sites visited by Bartolomé de las Casas and settlements such as Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince. Habitat inferences reference Hispaniolan ecosystems characterized in accounts by explorers like Alexander Wetmore and landscape descriptions used by Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent and chroniclers of the Caribbean colonial period. Museum specimens purportedly collected near locations documented in correspondence preserved at the Vatican Library and archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France have been cited to map alleged range limits.
Colonial-era observers compared flocking and feeding behavior to mainland congenerics described by Charles Darwin and field naturalists associated with expeditions sponsored by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Royal Society. Reports mention frugivory on palms and native fruit trees recorded in agricultural treatises from Hispaniola and interactions with indigenous groups referenced in mission records from Jesuit and Franciscan archives. Ecological roles inferred by later ecologists echo concepts used in studies by Alexander Skutch, David Lack, and researchers affiliated with the Caribbean Ornithological Society.
Assessments of extinction risk have drawn on specimen histories curated at institutions such as the Natural History Museum, London and Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, and on reviews published in journals circulated by the International Ornithologists' Union and the Linnean Society of London. Conservation narratives reference colonial-era habitat transformation associated with plantation economies overseen by colonial administrations in Spain and France and later 19th-century land use changes documented by authors used in analyses by the World Wildlife Fund and BirdLife International. Proposals for de-extinction or reintroduction would engage stakeholders including governments of Dominican Republic and Haiti as well as research teams at universities like Harvard University and University of Cambridge.
The macaw appears in travelogues by Christopher Columbus and chroniclers such as Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, and in natural history compilations alongside illustrations by Mark Catesby and later collectors like Hans Sloane. It features indirectly in colonial-era economic records and ethnographic notes concerning interactions with Taíno communities documented in archives used by scholars at Yale University and University of Puerto Rico. Its contested status has inspired debate among curators at the British Museum, conservationists in organizations such as the Nature Conservancy, and historians publishing in forums led by the Royal Geographic Society.
Category:Extinct birds of the Caribbean Category:Macaws