SSC Specialist Group Profile: The Cracid Specialist Group (CSG)

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The species
Group overview
The members
CSG website

The species

Cracids are a family of large gregarious game birds made up chachalacas, guans and curassows, many of which have striking colours. Found only in the Neotropics, their size makes them an ideal protein source for people living in the region. Unfortunately, Cracids are not always harvested sustainably, many are severely over-hunted and their populations are plummeting rapidly throughout their range. Depletion of their natural forest habitat is another key threat to Cracids.

Chachalacas are the smallest members of the Family Cracidae. There are a dozen species, all in the genus Ortalis. Guans are the medium-sized members of the family, they are also the most diverse, comprising 24 species. Curassows are the largest of the Cracids with 14 species.

Group overview

The Cracid Specialist Group (CSG) was formed by Stuart Strahl in 1990 under the supervision of the World Pheasant Association, BirdLife International and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. Today the CSG is Chaired by Dan Brooks, with a number of Regional Coordinators that help expand regional interest in conservation of these species.

Among the CSG's most important objectives is bringing the Family Cracidae to the global attention of conservationists, and to stimulate additional research and worldwide interest in these endangered species.

One of the first goals of the CSG was to point out the economic importance of the Cracids in the ecological maintenance and preservation of Latin American forest reserves. The CSG maintains its active network through a series of workshops and symposia, a progressive publications series, and through endorsing a number of field conservation projects. In 2000, the Group published Curassows, Guans and Chachalacas: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan which serves as a guiding tool for the conservation of these fascinating birds.

The members

Fernando González García - CSG Regional Coordinator - Mesoamerica
Fernando González García, a Mexican biologist, studies the ecology, natural history and captive breeding of the horned guan. This is the longest ongoing Cracid research project, exceeding two decades.

Fernando first became intrigued by Cracids in 1980, when he attended a national meeting of ornithologists and conservationists in Xalapa, Veracruz, México. "I learned about the precarious situation of the Cracid family and especially of the horned guan. Habitat destruction and illegal hunting had pushed the species to the edge of extinction," he said.

Congress participants expressed grave concern about the future of Mexico´s Cracids . My interest was especially drawn to discussions about the horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus) - one of Mexico's seven Cracid species. The pavón, as it is known in Mexico and Pavo de Cacho in Guatemala, is endangered, restricted to the cloud forests of Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. It has been seen in two regions of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the Reserva de la Biosfera El Triunfo and Volcan Tacaná.

"My first visit to El Triunfo was in March 1981. Each day I walked for eight to ten hours through thick, foggy, moist woods looking for the guan. More than two weeks went by before I found one, and I only saw it for about 15 seconds. This made me realize that studying the bird for a reasonably long period would be a challenge and an adventure, considering its rarity, how difficult it is to find in the natural habitat, and the scanty information available," said Fernando.

Fernando's research has meant that much more information now exists about the natural history of the pavón. As well as studying the horned guan in the field, Fernando started a captive breeding jointly with a colleague and later with the Foundacion Ara in Monterrey, Mexico. This project continues in collaboration with the Africam Safari Zoo, in Puebla, Mexico and has succeeded in breeding some guans.

Most of the investigations on the horned guan have been carried out in the Chiapas state, focused mainly on ecology and reproductive biology. A database of Mexican bird sounds is now being developed, together with bioacoustics training courses in the diverse states of Mexico and some other Central American countries. Early versions of the Mexican Bird Sound Library can be found at: www.ecologia.edu.mx/sonidos.

Sergio Luiz Pereira, PhD. - CSG Regional Coordinator - Brazil
Sergio has been working on the conservation biology and molecular systematics of Cracids for almost 10 years. He has focused his efforts in the lab to answer several questions regarding the biology of cracids. He received a B.Sc degree in Biological Sciences in 1994 from the Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil, MSc and PhD degrees in 1996 and 2000, respectively, from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.

Sergio's main interest in cracids originated from the opportunity to apply genetic techniques in the conservation biology of a group of endangered Neotropical birds. He has evaluated the genetic variability of captive, reintroduced and wild populations of Cracids. Sergio's goal is to use genetic data as a tool to manage pairs of cracids involved in captive breeding programmes and evaluate to what extent they are losing their genetic variability due to declining populations.

In collaboration with private conservationists and hydroelectric power plants in Brazil, Sergio's team has successfully released and established wild populations back into areas where they were previously found. One good example is the recovery of two species of guans of the genus Penelope in a reforested area in the state of São Paulo. Also, in collaboration with colleagues in Brazil and Canada, Sergio has solved some taxonomic problems within the Cracid family. One of these was the validation of the extinct-in-the-wild Alagoas curassows (Mitu mitu), as a unique species, therefore, deserving immediate conservation action. He and his collaborators in Brazil also evaluated the genetic background of a captive stock of this species to be used in a recovery programme in the wild. Recently, Sergio has proposed an evolutionary hypothesis for the origin of these birds and established the genetic relationship between all 14 valid species of curassows, which will provide a better background for future conservation actions. Sergio is also the Portuguese Editor for the Bulletin of the Cracid Specialist Group.

Sara Bennett Ph.D.
Sara Bennett got "sucked into" the Neotropics by an interest in the ecology of migratory birds and has been pretty much "up to her neck in the swamp" ever since.

For 15 years, she lived in a remote area of the Colombian Amazon, studying flowering and fruiting rhythms of rainforest trees and bird diversity patterns, painting, and taking care of whatever orphaned life form fell out of the sky (mostly infant monkeys confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade). Then the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) showed up, and that was the end of that era, she said.

For the past three and a half years, with the support of the Field Conservation Program of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Amacayacu National Park, the Instituto Alexander von Humboldt, the Disney Zoo Conservation Program, and the Abercrombie and Kent Global Foundation, and to help implement the IUCN/SSC Cracid Specialist Group Action Plan, Sara has been working along the Colombian stretch of the Amazon River, with the Amacayacu National Park and the indigenous people who share jurisdiction for the southern part of this important conservation area. This work began as a straightforward investigation into the biology of a little-known, intriguingly different, and endangered Cracid species, the wattled curassow (Crax globulosa) with a large team of local co-investigators. It has resulted in an ongoing field experiment to see whether the population will recover if it is not hunted and, in the catalysis of programmes that are empowering local people as leaders in the development of natural resource management plans, community-based natural resource monitoring, and research.

In a country notorious for violence and conflict, Sara's goal is a "win-win" outcome, in which both wildlife populations and humans benefit from local initiatives to understand and experiment with the structure and dynamics of the system in which they are keystone predators.

A popular book on the conservation and natural history of Colombian monkeys illustrated, written (in Spanish), designed by Sara and commissioned by the Instituto Alexander von Humboldt (the government agency responsible for development and analysis of the scientific aspects of natural resources policy in the country) is currently in press.

Bennett Hennessey
Bennett Hennessey has been working on birds in Bolivia for the last eight years, from the obligatory volunteer work and co-guide (read tripod carrying) early years, to field expeditions going where no scientist has gone before, most recently. In 1997, Dan Brooks, CSG Chair noted the strange disappearance of what was once a common species of Cracid, the wattled curassow (Crax globulosa) and Bennett's interest was piqued.

Here was a large curassow that had been last recorded in Bolivia in 1937, and recorded before that as very common. So what had happened? With support from the World Pheasant Association, Bennett went to the closest large town and started seeking local information. The bird was a mystery, no information existed about it, until one day, a 70 year-old former caiman hunter said the magic word - Mamaco (the wattled curassow in Tacana indigenous language). He led to other men, who in turn, led to a series of villages close to the site where the species was first seen. "Several trips were made until finally, with the support from the Swedish International Development Agency and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), we packed our tents, bought our food and water purification tablets and headed off into what would become Mamaco territory. Eight days later we were looking up at a male perched in a tree along the Rio Negro," said Bennett.

"This was big news, but now we really needed to do something, especially as the species remains threatened by local hunting. We thought it was important to talk to the local communities along Rio Negro and through the Chicago Zoological Society Board's Endangered Species Fund and WCS support, we traveled back to the five main communities on the edge of the wattled curassow's range. In each community we presented the information we had learned from elders and our expedition results. We asked them if they would consider creating a hunting moratorium on the species - which most did! And to leave a more lasting message, we raffled Mamaco t-shirts off to the communities. The t-shirts, with artwork of the male and female wattled curassow serve as a field guide, and an education and communication tool."

In August 2003, through the Weeden Foundation support, Bennett and colleagues completed a preliminary census of the species, finding it to have a healthy enough population that simply needs protection, and not a complex reintroduction programme. They also produced an educational video of the species.

"We are now moving on to how we are going to protect this wonderful animal. We have plans to conduct a workshop with the local communities to discuss how we can protect the species. In Bolivia we have many options, but we want to find the most sustainable way to protect the wattled curassow and secure its long-term future," says Bennett.

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