Past Studies
Curassows
Curassows (Family: Cracidae) are among the most threatened neotropical
birds due to hunting pressure and logging. They are large birds
(2-4 kg), which spend most of their time in the forest floor and
only go in the trees to roost, to escape terrestrial predators,
or occasionally to eat fruits or leaves. Their diet is composed
mainly of fruits (70%, more than 100 species), but they also eat
invertebrates, cotyledons, seeds, flowers, leaves, and small vertebrates.
Curassows eat mainly fallen fruits under tree canopies, but they
also eat from understory plants like Psychotria spp. and Heliconia
spp. Curassows can visit the same tree to eat fruit, seed and cotyledons,
suggesting that they may have a great impact on the dispersal,
establishment, and recruitment of the species they feed on.
In 1998, I worked as an assistant for a study entitled “Complementary
or substitutable foods: what do curassows forage for?” in
the Centro de Investigaciones Ecológicas la Macarena (CIEM),
, Colombia, conducted by Dr. Ivan Jiménez. We used a group
of Salvin’s Currassows as a model organism. We manipulated
the fruit abundance on the feeding patches and measured the quantity
of different diet items that the currasows consumed. It seems that
the curassows complement their fruit diet with leaves These birds
likely obtained nitrogen from leaves and energy from fruits based
on nutritional analyses of these items, see Jiménez et al.
2001 for details.
In January – July 1999, together with Juan L. Parra, Yaili
Molina and Marta S. Agudelo, I collected data for our undergraduate
thesis, with special colaboration by Rosario Castañeda.
We studied a pair of Salvin’s (Mitu salvini)and Black (Crax
alector) Curassows in the Centro de Investigaciones Ecológicas
la Macarena (CIEM), Colombia. Our principal questions were: 1)
do the curassows use different forest types following the fruiting
phenology?; 2) how does the diet vary between individuals and species
and throughout time?; and 3) do the currasows know where their
food resources are? To answer these questions we followed two pairs
of currasows from 5:30-18:30 every day during our study.
We analyzed their use of space by drawing their daily trajectory
using all the known places (e.g., trails, nests, fruiting trees,
creeks) that the curassows passed by during the observation period.
These daily trajectories were plotted on a trail map of the study
area. To measure fruit availability, we placed plots (50 x 5) and
fruits traps (1m2) within these plots in the different forest types.
We collected the fruits from the trap weekly and counted the fruits
on the small bushes inside the plot. To quantify their diets we
counted the number of items within each food category (during one
minute every four minutes) eaten by each individual (male and female).
To determine whether the curassows “know where to go” when
they are searching for fruits, we set up a rope two times per week
per species for twelve hours of observation (one full day in the
field). Flagging tape was placed on the rope every ten minutes
as we followed the pair and also during different behaviors such
as feeding, resting, sunbathing, and encounters with other animals.
The next day, after the rope was released, we used a 5m rope to
measure the trajectory and a compass to measure the direction.
The majority of this work is in our undergraduate theses, and a
small portion is published (see Parra et al. 2001).
In 2000 I collaborated with Ivan Jiménez in conducting a
survey of the Great curassow (Crax rubra) in La Selva Biological
Station in Costa Rica. We conducted surveys at different times
of the day and recorded aural and visual detections. Our objective
was to find a way to more accurately estimate densities for members
of this family. This information is published (see Jiménez
et al. 2003).
In 2001 Juan L. Parra and I collaborated with Ivan Jiménez
in the data collation for his PhD dissertation. We worked with
the Razor-billed curassow (Mitu tuberosa), examining the information
free-ranging foragers use to make the decisions to leave food patches.
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| Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini) family taking a sun bath, Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Few weeks old nestlings of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| Juevniles of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), almost with the full adult plumage. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Male of the Black Curassows (Crax alector), with a female in the background taking a dust bath. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| Juvenil of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Female and sub-adult of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| Female of the Black Curassows (Crax alector) during a preening session. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Pair of the Black Curassows (Crax alector) foraging. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| One week old nestling of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini) feeding on a grasshopper provided by the adults. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Pair of Black Curassows (Crax alector) during a non foraging session. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| Female of Black Curassows (Crax alector) taking a dust bath. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Egg of the Black Curassows (Crax alector), after it fall from the nest. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| Male of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), with female and sub-adult in the background. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Razor-billed Curassows (Mitu tuberosa), Cosha Cashu Biological Station, Peru, 2001. |
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| Razor-billed Curassows (Mitu tuberosa), Cosha Cashu Biological Station, Peru, 2001. | Razor-billed Curassows (Mitu tuberosa), Cosha Cashu Biological Station, Peru, 2001. |
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| Two days old nestling of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Female of the Black Curassows (Crax alector), drying the feathers in a gap. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| 4 day old nestling of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Adult of the of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini), search for food for the nestling. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
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| One week old nestling of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini) feeding on a grasshopper provided by the adults. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. | Nestling of the Salvin’s Curassows (Mitu salvini) resting next to the one of the adults. Parque Natural Nacional Tinuga, Colombia, 1999. |
Andean Guans
Andean birds are poorly studied compared to birds of lowland
forest. Andean forest has fewer species and higher number of endemic
birds. The species in the cracid family are no exception, they
are poorly studied and many are restricted-range endemics.
During 2002 and 2004, I worked for the Wildlife Conservation
Society (WCS) Colombia program, where I collaborated with Marcia
Muñoz, Margarita Ríos and Gustavo Kattan in the
development of a one year survey of three species of guans
(Cauca Guan (Penelope perspicax), Sickle-winged Guan (Chamaepetes
goudotii) and Wattled Guan (Aburria aburri)) in the Central
Andes of Colombia in the Santuario de Fauna y Flora Otun Quimbaya,
Risaralda.
The Cauca Guan is endemic to the Central and Western Colombian
Andes, The Wattled Guan occurs from Venezuela to Peru, but is rare
throughout its geographic distribution. The Sickle-winged Guan
is distributed from Colombia to Bolivia and is fairly common along
its distribution. We also collected distribution data on other
large frugivorous species: Red-ruffed Fruitcrow (Pyroderus scutatus),
Golden-headed Quetzal (Pharomachrus auriceps), Crested Quetzal
(Pharomachrus antisianus), Collared Trogon (Trogon collaris), Emerald
Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus prasinus), Crimson-rumped Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus
haematopygus), Andean Coock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruviana), and
the Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas).
Surveys were conducted monthly during one year along six one-kilometer
trails. Eight surveys were conducted per trail per month, four
in the morning and four in the afternoon, for a total of 48 surveys
per months Ad libitum observations were conducted during these
months on behavior, diet, movements and general natural history.
Most of these data are in the publication process and some are
already in press (see Rios et al. 2005).
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| Watlled Guan (Aburria aburri) Zoologico de Cali, 2002. | Over view of the cloud forest in the canyon of the Barbas river, Colombia, 2000. |
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| Sickle-winged Guan (Chamaepetes goudotii), Zoologico de Cali, 2002. |
Cauca Guan (Penelope pespicax), Zoologico de Cali, 2002. Click aqui para oir el canto de Alarma Click aqui para oir el canto |
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| Over view of the cloud forest in the Santuario de Fauna y Flora Otun-Quimbaya, Colombia, 2003. | 4 days old nestling of the Sickle-winged Guan (Chamaepetes goudotii), Santuario de Fauna y Flora Otun-Quimbaya, Colombia, 2003. |
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| Nestling of the Cauca Guan (Penelope pespicax), Santuario de Fauna y Flora Otun-Quimbaya, Colombia, 2003. | |