Northern Helmeted Curassow

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Helmeted Curassow

Probably Mérida Helmeted Curassow,
Pauxi pauxi pauxi

Conservation status

Vulnerable (IUCN)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Cracidae
Genus:	Pauxi
Species:	P. pauxi

Binomial name

Pauxi pauxi
Linnaeus, 1766

Subspecies

2, see text

The Northern Helmeted Curassow, Pauxi pauxi is a large (up to 91cm 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 female is smaller than male. Some rare rufous morph female has a black barred and reddish brown plumage. For some time, it also contained the Southern Helmeted Curassow taxa as subspecies and was simply known as the Helmeted Curassow.

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.

There are 2 subspecies:

Pauxi pauxi pauxi Linnaeus, 1766 - Mérida Helmeted Curassow

Cordillera de Mérida into Cordillera Oriental, Colombia

Casque larger, egg-shaped

Pauxi pauxi gilliardi Wetmore & Phelps, 1943 - Perijá Helmeted Curassow

Serrania del Perija

Casque smaller, less bulbous, rather cylindrical in shape.

Their evolutionary history is not well researched. The helmeted curassows probably are a lineage of Late Miocene (Tortonian-Messinian) origin. This species' present-day distribution suggests that it became isolated some 6 mya as its mountain range uplifted.(Pereira & Baker 2004) It is not known when gene flow between the subspecies ceased.

Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and hunting in some areas, the Helmeted Curassow is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Pauxi pauxi. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 1 November 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable

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