The dog/wolf comparison isn’t quite right. Dogs were domesticated over tens of thousands of years via selective breeding for traits that suited a peridomestic lifestyle. The Spix macaws that were reintroduced are the progeny of a handful of adults who’ve been in captivity for less than a generation, some of whom were likely wild-caught themselves. Is that a genetic bottleneck? Yes. Is it selection for pet traits? Not remotely. Plus, macaws regularly form mixed-species flocks, so their “culture” is perhaps not irretrievably lost if there are Illiger’s macaws in the area.
SoSorryItsTheMoops t1_j6l69yf wrote
Reply to comment by Rabid_Kiwi in Walking parrots by FrankieGS
The dog/wolf comparison isn’t quite right. Dogs were domesticated over tens of thousands of years via selective breeding for traits that suited a peridomestic lifestyle. The Spix macaws that were reintroduced are the progeny of a handful of adults who’ve been in captivity for less than a generation, some of whom were likely wild-caught themselves. Is that a genetic bottleneck? Yes. Is it selection for pet traits? Not remotely. Plus, macaws regularly form mixed-species flocks, so their “culture” is perhaps not irretrievably lost if there are Illiger’s macaws in the area.
Edit: a word