The Red-billed Curassow

Abstract

The red-billed curassow, or mutum, Crax blumbachii formerly occurred from southern Bahia to Rio de Janeiro in south-east Brazil, although only a few specimens were ever obtained. Europeans settled this region early, and it was feared that hunting pressure and, later, habitat destruction had brought the species to the verge of extinction when in 1970 Sick discovered a population about 60 km north of Linhares, Espirito Santo, in and near what is now the Reserva de Sooretama. This forest reserve is now the only place where the bird is known. A few may survive in relict forest tracts in southern Bahia, although the last record, a specimen, was collected in 1944. The specimen from eastern Bolivia which Gyldenstolpe assigned to this species was certainly a variant of C. globulosa. On a recent trip to Brazil we found that almost all the forest in north-east Espirito Santo, where this curassow formerly occurred, had been cleared, much of it within the year. Dr Augusto Ruschi (pers. comm.) confirms that the rate of forest destruction, mainly for charcoal, has accelerated markedly in the past decade. The main sources for information on the species are Prince Maximilian of Wied and Sick.