Lesser Antillean macaw

The Lesser Antillean macaw or Guadeloupe macaw is a hypothetical extinct species of macaw. It is thought to have been endemic to the LesserAntillean island region of Guadaloupe. Early writers described it as being abundant, but it was becoming rare by 1760. Disease and hunting by humans are believed to have eradicated it shortly afterward. It may have been a close relative of the scarlet macaw and may have lived on Dominica and Martinique.

About Lesser Antillean macaw in brief

The Lesser Antillean macaw or Guadeloupe macaw is a hypothetical extinct species of macaw. It is thought to have been endemic to the LesserAntillean island region of Guadaloupe. A phalanx bone from the island of Marie-Galante confirmed the existence of a similar-sized macaw inhabiting the region prior to the arrival of humans in 2015. The bird ate fruit, nested in trees and laid two eggs once or twice a year. Early writers described it as being abundant, but it was becoming rare by 1760. Disease and hunting by humans are believed to have eradicated it shortly afterward. It may have been a close relative of the scarlet macaw and may have lived on Dominica and Martinique. A small parrot-like parrot has been found on the French island of Anse Folle-Galle. The species is one of 13 extinct macaw species that have been proposed to have lived in the Caribbean islands. Many of these species are now considered dubious because only three are known from physical remains, and there are no extant endemic macaws on the islands today. It was mentioned and described by several contemporary writers. Austin Hobart Clark described the species on the basis of these accounts in 1905. In 1908 Clark reclassified the Dominican macaw as a separate species based on writings of Thomas Atwood. In 1967, the American ornologist James Greenway wrote that the macaw could have been imported to the region from elsewhere by the native population, but this is difficult to prove.

Julian Hume proposed in 2012 that the similarity between the Lessers Antilleans macaw and the Cuban macaw indicates that they were close relatives, and that they may have descended from the mainland macaw, and other hypothetical species suggested for Jamaica and Hispaniola. The English paleontologist Julian Hume also suggested that the Lesser antillean macaw and the Cuban  macaw formed a superspecies with the Jamaica and Haiti macaw and other hypothetical extinct species of macaws of Jamaica and  Hispaniola of the same name. The Lesser Antilleans Macaw was first mentioned by the Spanish historian Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés in 1553, referring to a 1496 account by Ferdinand Columbus. In 1774, the French naturalist Comte de Buffon stated that the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus had found macaws in Guadelupe. The French botanist Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre gave the first detailed descriptions in 1654 and 1667 and illustrated the bird and other animals found in Guaderoupe in 1667. The French clergyman Jean-baptiste Labat also described the bird in 1742. In 1905, Clark gave the species its scientific name, Ara guadeloupensis, based on the contemporary accounts, and he cited a 1765 color plate as possibly depicting this species.

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