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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Why mummified tropical parrots are buried in one of the world’s driest deserts

Scarlet macaws and other birds plucked from distant jungles lived out their lives as pets in oasis communities.
Live scarlet macaw from the Bolivian Amazonia

The scarlet macaw was exported live from humid forests to desert communities in South America almost 1,000 years ago. Credit: Carlos Capriles Farfán

Deep in one of the world’s most arid deserts, people living centuries ago displayed their status by keeping an unlikely pet: the scarlet macaw, a large and demanding parrot imported from tropical forests hundreds of kilometres away.

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Nature 592, 168 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00848-9

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