Cozumel, Q.R. — Three birds considered endangered were spotted near the archaeological zone of Cozumel Sunday. According to the Fundación de Parques y Museos de Cozumel (FPMC), three Hocofaisán (Crax rubra griscomi) were seen walking a road together.
“The good state of conservation of the jungle surrounding the Parador Turístico of the San Gervasio Archaeological Zone, administered by the Cozumel Parks and Museums Foundation (FPMC), has turned the site into a natural refuge,” they said in a statement.
On Sunday, three specimens of Cozumel’s Hocofaisán (Crax rubra griscomi), an endemic subspecies, a bird that is in danger of extinction, were seen. Juanita Alonso Marrufo, the former Mayor of Cozumel and now Director of FPMC, reported that “the sighting of the three hocofaisáns, two females and one male, was carried out by staff of the Parador Turístico, who documented the discovery through photographs and videos.
“These records were analyzed by the graduate in Natural Resources Management, Paulina Sabido Villanueva, head of the Conservation Directorate (CEA), and the biologist Héctor González Cortés, Deputy Director of the Punta Sur Ecotourism Park.
“The importance of this record lies in the fact that the Cozumel Hocofaisán is the only cracid (family of gallinaceous birds native to the jungle) present on the island and is currently listed as vulnerable on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in addition to being considered an endangered species according to NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010.
“The bird feeds mainly on plants, fruits, seeds and possibly small invertebrates that it finds in the leaf litter of the jungle. Its breeding season is from March to July, a period in which it lays up to two eggs in a nest that it builds with small branches and leaves.
“Although there are no recent studies, in 1998 the researcher Miguel Ángel Martínez Morales estimated a population of around 300 individuals of Crax rubra griscomi on the island, a species of bird that plays a crucial role in the germination and dispersion of seeds of plants such as sapote, caracolillo and ramon.”
