Rediscovery of Southern Horned Curassow Pauxi unicornis koepckeae in Cerros del Sira, Peru.

63 Southern Horned Curassow Pauxi unicornis, formerly considered Vulnerable to extinction, was upgraded to Endangered, in 2005, based on new information on hunting threats, habitat destruction and a more restricted range than previously thought. Recent studies have revealed that the former assumption that the species would be found throughout the foothills of the Andes from central Peru to central Bolivia was incorrect. Recent research demonstrates that P. u. koepckeae is isolated in Peru and P. u. unicornis occurs only in Bolivia, with a gap of over 1,000 km between them. In autumn 2003, Armonía (BirdLife in Bolivia) commenced a project to investigate the status of Peruvian P. u. koepckeae by conducting local information surveys. Prior to this, this form was known solely from two specimens collected in 1969, in the isolated Cerros del Sira, dpto. Huánuco, central Peru, and a possible sighting at Távara, in southern Peru near the border with Bolivia. The first phase of the project located 30 indigenous people around the isolated Cerros del Sira with some knowledge of the species, including 14 able to describe it perfectly without prior information, providing the first evidence of the species’ persistence in Peru for 34 years. Indeed, some local people reported hunting the species recently. This phase also confirmed that the observer in Távara considered his observation to be unconfirmed and, after failing to find any local people familiar with the species in the area, concluded the species was unlikely to exist in this region of Peru. At the onset of the second phase, which is reported here, no physical evidence of P. u. koepckeae had been uncovered for 35 years and it had never been observed alive in the wild other than by local hunters or guides. In order to conserve the species, it is important to assess the population size and confirm the species’ distribution. The aim of the field work was thus, to make the first scientific observations P. u. koepckeae in the wild and obtain evidence of its continued existence in Peru.