Ortalis remota belongs to the Cracidae family, which occurs exclusively in the Americas and also includes the popular guans and curassows. These birds are considered game birds, meaning they are highly threatened by hunting. Habitat loss is also one of the challenges for the conservation of these species.

A skin collected in 1927 by João Leonardo de Lima, deposited in the Zoology Museum of USP (University of São Paulo), aroused the curiosity of Olivério Pinto who, in 1960, suggested that it was a subspecies of the painted chachalaca (Ortalis guttata). This bird remained forgotten until it was rediscovered in nature by Edwin Willis in 1996 (record published in 2001), in Nova Granada and Barretos.

With the growth and popularization of birdwatching in Brazil, the Wikiaves website, supported by the Boticário Group Foundation, sparked the interest of birdwatcher Dina Bessa, who posted a photo of the taxon taken in Guapiaçu/SP on October 27, 2011.

Following all these events, in 2017 an article was published recognizing Ortalis remota as a fully recognized species, enabling conservation efforts for this species, which could become a flagship species for the protection of birds in northwestern São Paulo state.

In January 2018, the SAVE Brasil team began collecting data on the endangered Chachalaca (Ortalis remota) in northwestern São Paulo state. Data previously gathered with the help of citizen science allowed them to select the first sampling areas for the species' population census.

This project is sponsored by the Boticário Group Foundation.