Tapirage is a technique used by South American Amerindians to change the natural colors of birds by rubbing their skin with toxic tree frog secretions. Examples of tapirage can be found in museums, and it has been used to mislead consumers about the real plumage of birds. The process may have been used because it ensured a truer, more lasting dye that penetrated the entire feather or because the Amerindians were experimental.
Tapirage is a technique that is used to change a bird’s natural colors. The technique emerged among South American Amerindians, who practiced it for centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Some curious Europeans also adopted the tapir, later using it to mislead consumers about the real plumage of birds such as canaries. Museums with artifacts from Central America and the Caribbean sometimes have examples of tapirage on display, typically integrated into larger works such as tapestries and feathered cloaks.
According to legend, tapirage is accomplished by first plucking a bird’s feathers and then rubbing the bird’s skin with the secretions of toxic tree frogs. These secretions apparently have chemical compounds that can cause feathers to change color, so when the bird develops fresh plumage, it will be tinged yellow, orange, or red.
Certain birds can certainly change color in response to environment and diet, such as flamingos, which notoriously turn pink from the krill they eat. It is not entirely unreasonable to assume that the Amerindians took note of this and decided to do some experimentation to obtain the desired colors of plumage for various craft projects, although the way the first experimenters arrived at the idea of using the toxic secretions of frogs is a bit of a mystery.
The process of tapirage has been described in several contemporary texts, and examples of unusually colored feathers in museum collections testify to the fact that it was, in fact, a real practice. In addition to being used to grow colorful feathers for specific projects, tapirage has also apparently been used to change the natural colors of birds to look like entirely different (and more valuable) species. European canary breeders have sometimes been accused of selling birds that have been tapiraged to unwary consumers, for example.
Upon hearing about this elaborate process of changing a bird’s color, one might wonder why the Amerindians didn’t just dye feathers, since they certainly knew about natural dyes. The tapirage may have ensured a truer, more lasting dye that actually penetrated the entire feather, rather than coloring the outside. Colors like yellow and orange can also be difficult to achieve with natural dyes, so tapirage may have been the more reliable dyeing technique. Or maybe the Amerindians just got experimental.
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