Helmeted Curassow

Helmeted Curassow
Mérida Helmeted Curassow, Pauxi pauxi pauxi
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Cracidae
Genus:	Pauxi
Species:	P. pauxi
Binomial name
Pauxi pauxi Linnaeus, 1766
Subspecies
Pauxi pauxi gilliardi Wetmore & Phelps, 1943 Pauxi pauxi pauxi Linnaeus, 1766

The Helmeted Curassow or Northern Helmeted Curassow', (Pauxi pauxi) is a large (up to 91 cm long) terrestrial black curassow with a small head, large bluish grey casque on forehead, red bill, white-tipped tail feathers, greenish glossed mantle and breast feathers, and white below. Both sexes are similar. The male, at 3.6 kg (8 lbs), is larger than the female, at 2.6 kg (5.8 lbs). Some rare rufous morph female has a black barred and reddish brown plumage. For some time, it also contained the Horned Curassow taxa as subspecies. Nowadays its southern congener is considered a distinct species P. unicornis.

One of the largest birds in its habitat, the Helmeted Curassow is distributed in the eastern Andes of Venezuela and Colombia. The diet consists mainly of seeds, fruits, insects and small animals. The female lays two cream colored eggs and incubates it for about 30 days.

The Helmeted Curassow is listed on Appendix II of CITES. Formerly classified as an Vulnerable species by the IUCN^[1], recent research shows that its numbers are decreasing more and more rapidly. It is consequently uplisted to Endangered status in 2008^[2].

Taxonomy

There are two subspecies:

• Mérida Helmeted Curassow, Pauxi pauxi pauxi

Cordillera de Mérida into Cordillera Oriental, Colombia

Casque larger, egg-shaped

• Perijá Helmeted Curassow, Pauxi pauxi gilliardi

Serrania del Perija

Casque smaller, less bulbous, rather cylindrical in shape.

Their evolutionary history is not well researched compared to other curassows. The helmeted curassows probably are a lineage of Late Miocene (Tortonian-Messinian, about 8-7 million years ago) origin. This species' present-day distribution suggests that it became isolated some 6 million years ago as its mountain range uplifted^[3]. It is not known when gene flow between the subspecies ceased.

Footnotes

1. ^ BLI (2004)
2. ^ BLI (2008)
3. ^ Pereira & Baker (2004)

References

• BirdLife International (BLI) (2004). Pauxi pauxi. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 1 November 2006.
• BirdLife International (BLI) (2008): [2008 IUCN Redlist status changes]. Retrieved 2008-MAY-23.
• Pereira, Sérgio Luiz & Baker, Allan J. (2004): Vicariant speciation of curassows (Aves, Cracidae): a hypothesis based on mitochondrial DNA phylogeny. Auk 121(3): 682-694. [English with Spanish abstract] DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0682:VSOCAC]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract HTML fulltext without images

External links

• ARKive - images and movies of the Helmeted Curassow (Pauxi pauxi)
• BirdLife Species Factsheet