Zoo will be first in U.S. to attempt breeding rare birdBy Shawn Clubb, Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis
January 30, 2007
Mike Brady knows a horned guan he saw in the distance may be
the only time he ever sees the bird in the wild.
The Ballwin resident has made a handful of treks over the
past few years into the mountains of southern Chiapas, Mexico,
where he had one encounter with a single horned guan. He saw it in an area that
is quickly becoming fragmented as coffee and banana plantations encroach on the
forest.
"As inaccessible as the cloud forests of Mexico and many
pristine areas of the world seem to be, unfortunately, they never seem to be
far enough away from the machete, ax and chainsaw," Brady said.
That's why Brady, a member of the Webster Groves Nature
Study Society, is excited about the efforts of the Saint Louis Zoo, which has
made horned guan conservation an initiative of its WildCare Institute. The zoo
is the first zoo outside of Mexico
to receive a pair of horned guans for display and breeding.
Michael Macek, curator of birds at the Saint Louis Zoo, said
other groups are working toward reversing the trend of cutting cloud forests to
grow coffee. He said the Wildcare Institute is concentrating its efforts on
collecting basic information about the birds.
Guans are poultry-like birds, similar to turkeys. They live
in Central and South America. Guans are
closely related to curassows and chachalacas, which all belong to the family
Cracidae in the animal kingdom. Cracidae are the most endangered family of
birds in the Western Hemisphere.
"In the neotropics, of the 50 or so odd birds in the
Cracid family, 32 or so are listed as critically endangered," Macek said.
"They were often hunted. In many cases, that has been the main reason for
endangerment, as well as habitat loss."
The zoo has been working on its horned guan effort through
the Wildcare Institute for about a year. Horned guans are now known to exist in
two separate populations. They are in the state of Chiapas,
Mexico, and in the region of
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Macek said there are
estimated to be just 1,000 horned guans in the wild. He said researchers are
looking to see if the bird can be found elsewhere in the region.
The populations were probably contiguous at one point, Macek
said, but encroachment by plantations and timber harvesting has fragmented the
habitat. He said hunting is less of a threat than before.
The WildCare Institute is focusing on doing a census to
determine an accurate population of the species. It is also trying to discover
the bird's diet in nature and whether horned guans might play a role in seed
distribution, Macek said.
Last year, staff collected samples of 18 of the 64 plants
the horned guan is known to feed on in the wild. Macek said they would go back
two or three more times this year to collect more samples.
Macek said they also need to observe the bird more in the
wild. He said horned guans tolerate observation and will sit in a tree above
someone for more than a half an hour sometimes before moving off. Macek wants
to track the birds by radio telemetry. Researchers can find them by hearing
them call in breeding season, but Macek said they otherwise are difficult to
find.
About 50 horned guans are in captivity in 10 Mexican zoos.
Three of the zoos have successfully bred the species.
The Saint Louis Zoo received its two horned guans from the
Africam Zoo in Peubla, Mexico, which manages the horned
guan species survival plan for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The Saint
Louis Zoo was picked to receive the guans because of its experience with
cracids in the field, including piping guans in Trinidad and razor-billed
curassows in Columbia,
Macek said. The zoo also developed artificial insemination techniques for
cracids using the piping guan as a model.
The zoo's horned guans - a 4-year-old male and a 2
½-year-old female - arrived in the U.S. more than two months ago. They
had to remain in a 30-day federal quarantine in Miami and then a 30-day quarantine at the zoo
before going on public display three weeks ago.
Macek said the birds have begun to show reproductive
behaviors. Captive horned guans breed from January through May. They lay two
eggs, which hatch in about 37 days. The zoo will breed the birds according to
the requirements of the species' survival plan.
"They need to get their numbers up right now,"
Macek said.
Brady expects horned guans to be absent from the area where
he saw one within the next five years because of habitat destruction.
"It's not all gloom and doom by any means, but there's
a mass land grab going on right now, especially in Guatemala, unless the Guatemalan
government starts trying to preserve the habitat," Brady said.
While the zoo's efforts focus on gathering information and
breeding the bird, Brady said groups including Pro-Natura are promoting ways
for the native people in the region to earn a living without destroying the
cloud forest. He said the group has hired some Mayan farmers to guard the
areas, lead bird hikes and kept people from practicing slash-and-burn
farming.
Republished with permission of the Suburban Journals of
Greater St. Louis
Copyright 2005 Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis
Courtesy of suburbanjournals.stltoday.com
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