Selina el al • HELMETED CURASSOW DENSITY 
319 
TABLE 2. Effective band widths of transects used to 
detect Helmeted Curassows in Tama National 
Park. Colombia. 
Model Estimate %CV 95% Confidence interval 
Half-normal cosine Adjustments order 2 
AIC 186.75816 
ESW(m) 7.988 30.07 4.398-14.508 
Density 4.8 41.40 2.11-11.56 ind/knr 
eggs, chicks, and juveniles from TNP (Franco- 
Mava and Alvarez 2002, Selina et al. 2008). 
The Helmeted Curassow is considered rare and 
locating individuals requires a large sampling 
effort in sub-Andean forest. The sub-Andean 
topography varies and is challenging to traverse: 
it can be difficult to encounter curassows along 
established transects. One of the six transects (1.6) 
had no visual records. Curassows likely avoided 
this transect because it was along the forest edge 
near human settlements. Observations on other 
transects occurred during the dry season and were 
inside the forest. The study area borders a stretch 
of the Margua River, which is an important 
resource for humans and wildlife during the low- 
water season. Studies of phenology, food avail¬ 
ability, and additional surveys are needed in other 
areas to identify important areas for Helmeted 
Curassows. 
The TNP administration should consider 
strengthening their educational programs and 
initiating a process of learning about conservation 
biology with residents of the buffer zones of the 
park. Our study suggests there may be an 
important population of Helmeted Curassows in 
TNP. but activities such as egg extraction and 
poaching may he affecting the reproductive rate 
and consequent population stability of Ihe species. 
It is also necessary to strengthen inter-institutional 
agreements between the administration of TNP 
and academic institutions to generate knowledge 
of the species to improve conservation efforts. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We thank the Cleveland Zoo, Conservation International. 
Omacha Foundation. University of Pamplona, Tama 
National Park, and the administrative unit of the Natural 
Parks for financial support. Bird Exchange and IdeaWild 
donated equipment for field work. We are grateful to the 
staff of TNP. especially Cesar Leal and Henry Meneses. 
Dan Brooks and Victor Setina are research associates of the 
1UCN/SSC Cracid Specialist Group (CSG). and acknowl¬ 
edge the scientific and technical support of this group. L. F. 
Silveira was supported by FAPESP and CNPq, and is an 
Associate Researcher of ihe World Pheasant Association 
(UK). We thank Saul Hernandez for being our field guide 
and Erika Guerrero for his support during manuscript 
preparation. We appreciate the comments of Ross MacLeod 
and Clait Braun, which helped improve the quality of this 
manuscript. 
LITERATURE CITED 
Akaike. H. 1981. Likelihood of a model and information 
criteria. Journal of Econometrics 16:3-14. 
BirdLife International. 2011a. Important bird areas 
factsheet: Parque Nacional Natural Tama. Cambridge, 
United Kingdom, http://www.birdlife.org 
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 
Perpendicular distance (m) 
FIG. 5. Detection probability curve of Helmeted Curassows in Tama National Park, Colombia using DISTANCE 5.0. 
