Tracheal Elongation in male white-bellied chachalaca (Ortalis leucogastra) and brown chachalaca (Ortalis vetula) as a sex-discriminating attribute

Abstract

Knowledge of poultry farming techniques has had and continues to play an essential role in the pet bird industry, commercial poultry farming, zoos, and ex situ bird conservation programs, with sex determination of specimens, is vital for good reproductive management. Certain groups of birds (such as cranes, swans, guinea fowls, and two passerine genera) are considered to have elongated tracheas. Meanwhile, in species whose trachea is superficial and sinuous, such a feature occurs in the male or the male and the female and is often more marked in the male. Males belonging to Ortalis vetula and Ortalis leucogastra can be sexed, either by touch or by x-rays, by determining the presence of a sinuous and superficial trachea that reaches the end of the sternum.