318 
THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vul 124. No. 2. June 2012 
35 
FIG. 4. Number of individual Hclmeted Curassows 
detected in different strata of the forest in Tamd National 
Park, Colombia. 
RESULTS 
Forty visual records of Helmeted Curassow 
were obtained during 2 years along 490 km of 
line transect surveys with a sampling effort of 
588 hrs, a detection rate of 0.06 records/hr, and 
an encounter rate of 0.08 individuals/km. Only 
single birds were observed. Birds were seen in 
all transects except L 6. at perpendicular 
distances ranging from 1.2 to 30 m. More 
contacts were made on transects L I and L. 3 
(Fig. 2). No individuals were recorded by 
sound: 52.5% of the detections were obtained 
in the morning, and 47.5% during the afternoon 
(Fig. 3). Thirty-two individuals were observed 
on the ground during the census, seven were in 
the subcanopy, and one was observed in the 
canopy (Fig. 4). 
We obtained a density of 4.8 individuals/km 2 ; 
the model Half-normal cosine adjustments order ~> 
was the lowest Akaike Information Criterion 
(Table 1) with an effective band width (ESW) of 
7.988 m (Table 2). We truncated detections 
>14 m perpendicular to the transects to obtain 
an adequate detection curve (Fig. 5) 
DISCUSSION 
This study is the first to documenl the 
distribution of Helmeted Curassows in Colom¬ 
bia. Reports on the population density ol 
Helmeted Curassow in Venezuela range from ] 
to 8 individuals/km 2 (Silva and Strahl 1191 
Our study reports a density of 4.8 individual 
knr, the first for TNP. and is in the range m 
densities estimated for the species. However 
there were differences within the methodologies 
used, scale of sampling, and type of analyses, 
which can affect density estimates (Strati' and 
Silva 1997) 
Franco-Maya and Alvarez (2002) estimated a 
population of Helmeted Curassows between .-,850 
and 15,400 individuals in Colombia, based on a 
potential area of 1,925 km 2 and an estimated 
population of 2-8 individuals/km 2 reported by 
Silva and Strahl (1991). If the potential habitat 
of the species is occupied and has the density 
reported in our study, the population would be 
9,240 individuals in Colombia, indicating here 
may be an important population in TNP Tie 
number of individuals may be lower considering 
30% of the habitat is estimated to have been lost 
due to agricultural expansion in the Andes 3nd 
hunting pressure in TNP (Franco-Maya and 
Alvarez 2002). Additional work is needed to 
assess the current potential distribution in Colom¬ 
bia. as well as information about the subspecies 
Pauxi p. gilliardi in the Serrania del Perijan 
identify the current status of populations in 
Colombia. 
There is no clear information on habitat use and 
behavior of the Helmeted Curassow. Visual 
detections obtained in our study indicate roc** 
individuals were in the lower strata of the loro 1 
(floor and sub-canopy); hunters take advantage 11 
curassows using the lower strata to harve- 
individuals (Setina et al. 2010). Poaching 
common in the dry season as well as haru-- : - 
TABLE 1 Detection models for Helmeted Curassows in Tama Na 
Model I 
National Park. Colombia. 
Model 2 Model 3 
Value likelihood (Ln) 
Akaike Information Criterion 
(AIC) 
-91.379085 
-90.889244 
187.07147 
186.75816 
187.77849 
