Wild chickens are common in Hawaii, but how did the birds get to that highly-isolated island?
The simple answer is humans brought them there. This migration occurred in ancient times, as humans first made their way across the Pacific, hopping from one island to another. The Lapita people first colonized western Polynesia, including Fiji and Samoa sometime around BCE 1100. Other people soon began vast maritime journeys, discovering the Phillipines, Indonesia and Eastern Island. There is even some evidence, so far inconclusive, ancient people may have landed in South America. This was one of the last great migrations of humans to new lands on the Earth.
Hawaiian chickens are not that calm, domesticated variety are usually seen in the United States. They have grown feral, and are extremely unfriendly. Researchers sequenced DNA from the animals, and compared the results to data collected from the remains of ancient chickens. These were collected from old piles of food waste and from caves.
The study was conducted by archeologists from the University of Abelaide in Austrailia. They found that all of the ancient bones, and many of the modern birds, share a DNA code that is native to southeast Asia. This line could be traced back to the Philippines.
The Lapita People roamed the South Pacific for 1,100 years, from BCE 1600 to BCE 500. They were known as the greatest navigators of their day. They spread Oceanic languages all over the region, and populated many islands that had never before seen a human being. They were the ancestors of the Polynesians.
Examination of the chicken genetic code showed the chicken first appeared in the Bismarck Archipelago, north of New Guinea, around the year BCE 1200. After that, seafarers brought the bird to West Polynesia. It took 1500 years for the birds to travel to eastern Polynesia, a pause in the trans-Pacific migration that puzzles archeologists. Just 50 years later, chickens were found on New Zealand, Easter Island and Hawaii.
A previous investigation stated a DNA sequence in South American chickens matched that found in Pacific regions of Asia. That announcement lent support to the notion that ancient people of the Pacific came to South America. This new study tested the materials used in that earlier experiment, and found the samples were contaminated by modern genetic codes. Although this does not disprove the idea that ancient navigators could have made it to the New World, it does refute some of the data supporting the idea.
Details into the study of chicken migration was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
