The Ara macaws have a Neotropical distribution from Mexico to Argentina. The centre of Ara distribution is the Amazon Basin and the Panama-Colombia border region; each with as many as four species found together (marginally five where the military macaw approach the western Amazon). Seven species are found in Bolivia, but no single locality in that (or any other) country surpasses four species. The most widespread species, the scarlet macaw, is (or was) distributed throughout large parts of Central America and the Amazon. On the other hand, the blue-throated macaw and the red-fronted macaw have tiny distributions in Bolivia. The overall range of many species and the genus as a whole has declined in historical times due to human activities. The military macaw is distributed from northern Mexico to northern Argentina, but the distribution is discontinuous, with populations in Mexico, a large gap, then a population in the Venezuelan Coastal Range and a population along the Andes from western Venezuela to northern Argentina. The blue-and-yellow macaw was extirpated from Trinidad in the 1960s, as well as retreating from northern Argentina, and several species apparently became extinct in the islands of the Caribbean.