By
Alice Reisfeld, SAVE Brasil, 14 Aug 2016
A
routine check-up in 2010 revealed that only one Black-fronted Piping-guan was
left in the mountain range of Sierra do Mar, São Paulo. Wasting no time, the
team of SAVE Brasil built a huge enclosure camouflaged in the Atlantic Forest
to start a reintroduction programme. Six years later, the situation is being
reverted: the birds are adapting and the locals are making sure their homes
stay intact.
The Black-fronted
Piping-guan Pipile jacutinga is a globally threatened species
endemic to the Atlantic Forest of South America. As a consequence of poaching
and habitat loss, this species is now locally extinct in big part of its
original distribution, such as the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito
Santo and Bahia. Originally, it was found from South Bahia to Rio Grande do
Sul, Northern Argentina and Paraguay.
There
are many programmes that have been successful in breeding this species in
captivity, representing an opportunity for its reintroduction and population
reinforcement. Considering the significant threat that the Black-fronted
Piping-guan has been suffering throughout the years with substantial population
declines, SAVE Brasil (BirdLife
Partner)initiated its program “Conservation of Game
Birds in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Reintroduction and Monitoring of the
Black-fronted Piping-guan” in 2010.
The
project aims to implement a reintroduction and monitoring programme for
Black-fronted Piping-guans, increasing the species’ population through captive
management and release of individuals, thus raising the species conservation
status.
Projeto
Jacutinga began in 2010 when a census was conducted in Serra do Mar, in the
state of São Paulo, focusing on two bird families: Cracidae (chachalacas, guans
and curassows) and Tinamidae (tinamous and nothuras). Along 160 km of transects
covered during 1 year, only one single Black-fronted Piping-guan individual was
recorded. This was worrying, as this bird has an important ecological role,
since it swallows whole fruits and disperses seeds that can help the re-growth
of forests.
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