Two of the male curassows wearing their new backpacks
Photo by Christine Steiner

Fitting the backpacks
Photo by Christine Steiner

A male curassow in the release pen on their first day
Photo by Christine Steiner

A female curassow in the release pen on their first day
Photo by Christine Steiner

Monitoring the Reintroduction of the Red-billed Curassow (Crax blumenbachii) into Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest

by Christine Steiner

The Atlantic Rain Forest destruction (habitat loss) and hunting threaten the Red-billed Curassow Crax blumenbachii (Galliforme, Cracidae) with extinction in the wild. The original distribution of this bird lies between Rio de Janeiro and Bahia states. It occurs in forests from sea level up to 500 m. Current estimates suggest that only 250 birds survive in the wild, divided between seven isolated sites in Bahia and Espírito Santo State. Four reintroductions have occurred at Minas Gerais State since last decade, and the areas still hold Red-billed Curassows nowadays.

With its 5500 ha inserted in Três Picos State Park (46,350 ha, RJ), Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu (REGUA) is ideally suited as a reintroduction site at Rio de Janeiro because it is regularly patrolled by rangers and has been very successful in eliminating all hunting.

The objective of our project is to monitor 10 male and 10 female reintroduced Red-billed Curassows at REGUA. It is a PhD. research project developed by the biologist Msc. Christine Steiner S. Bernardo (Unesp, Rio Claro, SP, Brasil). Radio-tagged Red-billed Curassows will be studied intensively over a three year period using radio telemetry, to obtain data on the post-release phase of reintroduction. This is the first research to utilize a rigorous methodology to obtain data on the pos-release phase of reintroduction. The birds are supplied by Crax-Brasil, and the tags by Biotrack (UK).

The use of radio telemetry will attempt to reveal key missing information about biology of the Red-billed Curassow such as its home range size, establishment of territories, roosting sites, patterns of movement, survivorship and behavioral association between the reintroduced birds. It will also be possible to know spatial and temporal patterns of pair bonding and, later on in the study, its nesting behavior. The birth of the first and subsequent generation chicks in the wild will be used as a criterion to assess the success of the reintroduction program as a whole.

With Red-billed Curassow reintroduction, we will see the return of a potentially important agent of seed dispersal and contribution towards reinstating a missing component of the food chain for large mammal species in this large fragment of Atlantic Rainforest. The Red-billed Curassow will be used as a readily identifiable and charismatic flagship species for REGUA and the Três Picos State Park, providing a focus for public support. All information will have a direct bearing on conservation efforts and will generate data for the identification of potential release sites elsewhere in Atlantic Rainforest.