Justification Hunting pressure and habitat loss are suspected to be causing ongoing rapid declines across the extensive range of this species. Trends for the species are now calculated over a period of 34 years (three generations), using new information on generation lengths, and declines over this period both past and future are suspected to have been sufficiently rapid for the species to require uplisting to Vulnerable. If these declines are found to be even greater than is currently suspected it may require further uplisting to Endangered.

Family/Sub-family Cracidae

Species name author Linnaeus, 1758

Taxonomic source(s) AOU checklist (1998 + supplements), SACC (2005 + updates), Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993), Stotz et al. (1996)

Population estimate

Population trend

Range estimate (breeding/resident)

Country endemic?

10,000 - 60,000

decreasing

662,000 km²

No

Range & population Crax rubra has a wide but now highly fragmented distribution from San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas and the Yucatán peninsula, Mexico^2,3,6, south through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to west Colombia (Pacific lowlands east to the Gulf of Urabá and the upper Sinú valley) and, very rarely, west Ecuador^9,10. The distinctive race griscomi is restricted to Cozumel Island off Mexico, where an estimated 300 individuals remain⁵ and it is thought to have declined¹¹. It has undergone a considerable (and continuing) decline, becoming uncommon to rare or locally extinct throughout much of its range. In Ecuador there are perhaps fewer than 100 individuals¹³. Healthy populations occurred in the Chimalapas region of Oaxaca, but the effects of extensive fires in 1998 on the species are unknown⁸. However, it has recovered or remains relatively common in areas with legal protection or where it is not hunted, and populations are still stable in Guatemala and Nicaragua⁴.

Important Bird Areas Click here to view map showing IBAs where species is recorded and triggers any of the IBA criteria.

Ecology: It is restricted to undisturbed humid evergreen forest (also seasonally dry forest in some areas) and mangroves. It is primarily a lowland species but has been recorded at altitudes of up to 1,900 m in Panama.

Threats It is widely hunted for food (and legally in Belize⁷), and further threatened by severe habitat loss and fragmentation^1,4 in Ecuador (annual deforestation rate of 3.8% within the breeding range), Honduras (3.1% per year nationally), El Salvador (1.7%), Colombia (unprecedented deforestation rates in the Colombian Chocó), Guatemala (1.3% annual deforestation) and Nicaragua (1.3%)¹⁴. It rapidly disappears when logging roads are built into previously inaccessible forests⁴. Extensive fires, such as those in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1998, may be a threat, and some birds are captured as pets. Additional potential threats to race griscomi include hurricanes and the introduction of invasive species¹¹.

Conservation measures underway CITES III in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras and Colombia⁴. It occurs in a number of protected areas including Santa Rosa, Rincón de la Vieja and Corcovado National Parks in Costa Rica⁴. A captive breeding and reintroduction project is taking place in secondary forest on the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica with 94 birds released between 2000-2004¹².

Conservation measures proposed Survey populations and ascertain trends at known sites. Effectively protect national parks where the species occurs. Enforce hunting restrictions (and ban hunting in Belize), and introduce educational campaigns to reduce hunting pressure.

References 1. Arguedas et al. (1997). 2. F. González-García in litt. (1998). 3. Howell and Webb (1995a). 4. del Hoyo (1994). 5. Martínez-Morales (1996). 6. M. Martínez-Morales in litt. (1998). 7. Miller and Miller (1997). 8. A. G. Navarro in litt. (1998). 9. R. S. Ridgely in litt. (1998). 10. Sibley and Monroe (1990). 11. Caballero and Martínez-Morales (2006). 12. Zepeda (2006). 13. J. Freile in litt. (2009). 14. O. Jahn in litt. (2009).

Text account compilers Phil Benstead (BirdLife International), Isabel Isherwood (BirdLife International), Andy Symes (BirdLife International)

Contributors Dan Brooks (Houston Museum of Natural Science), Juan Freile (BirdLife International), Fernando González-García (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Olaf Jahn (Aves & Conservación and Fundación EcoCiencia), M Martínez-Morales, A. G. Navarro, Robert S. Ridgely (American Bird Conservancy), Margarita Rios, Luis Sandoval (Unión de Ornitólogos de Costa Rica)

IUCN Red List evaluators Jeremy Bird (BirdLife International), Stuart Butchart (BirdLife International), Andy Symes (BirdLife International)

Recommended citation BirdLife International (2009) Species factsheet: Crax rubra. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 10/2/2010

This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004) Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.

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