coronata palm, however, may have found a way to avoid such a fate, despite its large nuts. Macaws are very messy eaters, and this species is no different. A study found a significant number of undamaged palm nuts on the ground below the branches or rocks where the birds occasionally carry their harvest. A method by which the birds may secondarily disperse the nuts is by their habit of coming down to the ground to search out the nuts regurgitated by cattle, which eat the fruit, but usually cough up the large seeds, cleaned of pulp, which often aggregate in areas where the ruminants rest, and some also appear to be viable after this ordeal. Flocks of Lear's macaws will congregate at cattle corrals and walk around on the bare ground of rumination sites. After finding one, the regurgitated nut is often eaten on a high perch elsewhere. Cattle also alter the ecosystem by creating open spaces in the environment. It is thus possible that cattle ranching simulates the original ecology of Bahia, before the native megafauna had been wiped out around the time the Native Americans colonised America. Just 11,000 years ago, perhaps these macaws were commensals to one or some of the giant browsing herbivore species of northeast Brazil which travelled in herds, and the palms depended on this relationship for effective dispersal. Lear's macaw are somewhat of a pest species, and a major problem caused by the animals is their habit of raiding the plots of local subsistence farmers to consume maize (Zea mays). In order to minimize the chagrin of victims and stop them from shooting at the birds, a scheme was implemented in 2005 to compensate farmers for crops lost to the animals with bags of maize from elsewhere. During the COVID epidemic this scheme was halted, because most of the farmers were elderly, but the macaws were not shot, as COVID restrictions prevented farmers from marketing their corn anyway. Breeding The mating season starts at the beginning of the summer rains, at the start of the year, and extends up to May, when the young begin to fledge and leave the nest. A pair of Lear's macaw lay two or three eggs per year. The eggs are incubated for approximately 29 days. Although some pairs produce three chicks, the average survival rate is two per pair. However, not all pairs of birds in the