Araucana
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The Araucana () is a breed of domestic chicken from Chile. The name derives from the historic Araucanía region where it is believed to have originated. It lays blue-shelled eggs, one of very few breeds that do so.
Breed standard In animal husbandry or animal fancy, a breed standard is a description of the characteristics of a hypothetical or ideal example of a breed. The description may include phenotype, physical or morphology (biology), morphological detail, genotype, g ...
s for the Araucana vary from country to country. It may have unusual tufts of feathers on the ears, and may be rumpless, without a tail and tail-bone; in the United States it may for this reason be known as the South American Rumpless. Both ear-tufts and rumplessness are caused by lethal genes, so not all birds display these traits. The
Ameraucana The Ameraucana is an American breed of domestic chicken. It was developed in the United States in the 1970s, and derives from Araucana chickens brought from Chile. It was bred to retain the blue-egg gene but eliminate the lethal alleles of the p ...
breed and " Easter egger" hybrids of the United States, which also lay blue or green eggs, both derive from the Araucana.


History

The early history of the Araucana is not documented. The birds were commonly seen in South America in the early twentieth century. The Spanish aviculturist Salvador Castelló, who visited Chile in 1914, saw them and named them "Gallina Araucana", as many were found among the
Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...
people of the Araucanía region of Chile, whom the Spanish called ''Araucanos''. Castelló believed the birds to belong to a new species, and reported his observations at the First World's Poultry Congress in
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
in 1921. The
systematic name A systematic name is a name given in a systematic way to one unique group, organism, object or chemical substance, out of a specific population or collection. Systematic names are usually part of a nomenclature. A semisystematic name or semitrivi ...
''Gallus inauris'' was proposed for them, and adopted at the Second World's Poultry Congress in Barcelona in 1924. It was later established that the Araucana belongs to the same species as other domestic chickens, ''Gallus gallus domesticus''. The blue egg of the Araucana was at this time thought to be unique among chickens. In 1933
Reginald Punnett Reginald Crundall Punnett FRS (; 20 June 1875 – 3 January 1967) was a British geneticist who co-founded, with William Bateson, the ''Journal of Genetics'' in 1910. Punnett is probably best remembered today as the creator of the Punnett ...
showed that the blue egg ("oocyan") gene in chickens is dominant with respect to white, while in combination with genes for brown eggs, various shades of green and olive are produced. In modern times, the
Ameraucana The Ameraucana is an American breed of domestic chicken. It was developed in the United States in the 1970s, and derives from Araucana chickens brought from Chile. It was bred to retain the blue-egg gene but eliminate the lethal alleles of the p ...
breed, a derivative of the Araucana, also lays blue eggs, while hybrid birds carrying the dominant oocyan gene may in the United States be called " Easter eggers". Several theories have been advanced to explain the origin of the blue egg characteristic. It has been variously attributed to hybridisation with '' Tinamus solitarius'', a species of
tinamou Tinamous () are members of the order Tinamiformes (), and family Tinamidae (), divided into two distinct subfamily, subfamilies, containing 46 species found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. The word "tinamou" comes from the Carib la ...
(dismissed as "erroneous" by Helmut Sick); to
genetic mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mitosis ...
; and to the action of a
retrovirus A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. After invading a host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase e ...
soon after the domestication of the chicken. Blue Araucana eggs were taken to Australia from New Zealand in the 1930s. The breed was standardised in the 1980s. Blue-egg chickens from South America were introduced to the British Isles at various times in the early twentieth century. The modern British-type Araucana derives from birds from a Chilean ship that was wrecked in the
Hebrides The Hebrides ( ; , ; ) are the largest archipelago in the United Kingdom, off the west coast of the Scotland, Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Ou ...
. The British Araucana was developed mainly by George Malcolm in Scotland in the 1930s.. He introduced the
lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...
plumage variety, and bred the bantam Araucana in the 1940s. The British-type Araucana was standardised in 1969 or 1974. In the United States, two breeds were established: the Araucana, which has ear-tufts and is rumpless, was standardised in 1976; and the Ameraucana, which is bearded, muffed and tailed (and thus similar to the tailed British type), and was added to the ''
Standard of Perfection The ''American Standard of Perfection'' is the official book of breed standards of the American Poultry Association. It classifies and describes the standard physical appearance, coloring and temperament for many breeds of poultry recognized i ...
'' in 1984. There has been a long and inconclusive debate about the origin of the Araucana and whether it derives from chickens brought by Europeans after Columbus reached the Americas in 1492, or if it was already present. A report published in 2007 on chicken bones found on the
Arauco Peninsula The Arauco Peninsula (Spanish: península de Arauco), is a peninsula in Southern Chile located in the homonymous Arauco Province. It projects northwest into the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula is located west of Cordillera de Nahuelbuta. Geological ...
in south-central Chile suggested pre-Columbian, possibly
Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...
n, origin. A report published in 2008 found no evidence of pre-Columbian introduction from Polynesia. The world-wide
conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...
of the Araucana is "not at risk"; population data for Chile is not reported.


Characteristics

There are both full-sized and bantam Araucanas. They may be either normally tailed or rumpless. The Araucana has a pea comb and lays approximately 250 blue or green eggs per year. In Australia, only the tailed Araucana is recognised in the Australian Poultry Standards; both tailed and rumpless may be exhibited. The British standard accepts both tailed and rumpless; they may be treated as separate breeds. The British type of Araucana has a beard and muffs which conceal the earlobes. In North America, Araucanas have long ear-tufts and are rumpless. As both ear-tufts and rumplessness are caused by autosomal dominant lethal alleles, not all of the birds can display these traits. A total of twenty plumage varieties are listed for the Araucana by the Entente Européenne d’Aviculture et de Cuniculture. Of these, five are recognised by the
American Poultry Association The American Poultry Association (APA) is the oldest poultry organization in North America. It was founded in 1873, and incorporated in Indiana in 1932. The first American poultry show was held in 1849, and the APA was later formed in respons ...
for large fowl: black, black breasted red, silver duckwing, golden duckwing, and white; for bantams, buff is added to these. The '' Australian Poultry Standard'' recognises black, cuckoo, lavender, splash, white and any colour which is standard in Old English Game. The
Poultry Club of Great Britain The Poultry Club of Great Britain is a registered charity founded in 1877. Its stated purpose is to "safeguard the interests of all pure and traditional breeds of poultry including chickens, bantams, ducks, geese and turkeys". The club main ...
recognises twelve colours: black, black-red, blue, blue-red, crele, cuckoo, golden duckwing, lavender, pile, silver duckwing, spangled, and white.


References

Chicken breeds originating in Chile Chicken breeds {{bots, deny=Citation bot