Kill or curassow?

Wattled curassow by Ellen Hobgood www.ellenhobgoodgallery.com

What now,
Wattled curassow?
Whither with your
Unique beacon beak?
We wonder how
You’ll find a refuge
From the human deluge
Ripping through
Your pristine pad.
Too bad there’s
No room for you
On the redrawn maps.
See cracks appearing,
Watch Crax disappearing
Through the gaps.
A once intact
Amazonian tract
Man fractured
Beyond repair.
So where now,
Curassow?

© Tim Knight and timknightwriter, 2014

Species profile: Wattled curassow

IUCN Red List Category: Endangered

Wattled curassows are confined to the flooded riparian forest and overgrown shores of rivers in the Andean lowlands and Amazon basin, where they feed mainly on small fish and crustaceans. Widespread human colonisation has resulted in severe fragmentation of the curassow’s habitat and exposed it to the threat of commercial and subsistence hunting, often with shotguns. Populations have declined alarmingly in recent years.