Araucana
A white Araucana hen showing ear-tufts
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| Conservation status | FAO (2007): not at risk |
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| Other names |
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| Country of origin | Chile |
| Distribution | world-wide |
| Traits | |
| Weight |
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| Skin color | white |
| Egg color | blue or green |
| Comb type | pea |
| Classification | |
| APA | All other standard breeds |
| ABA | All other comb clean leg |
| PCGB | Soft feather: light |
| APS | light breed softfeather |
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The Araucana (Spanish: Gallina Mapuche) is a breed of domestic chicken from Chile. Its name derives from the Araucanía region of Chile where it is believed to have originated. It lays blue-shelled eggs, one of very few breeds that do so.
Breed standards 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 breed and "Easter Egger" hybrids of the United States, which also lay blue or green eggs, both derive from the Araucana.
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 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 in 1921. The systematic name 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 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 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".
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Wikipedia