The Trinidad Piping Guan

The Trinidad piping-guan Pipile pipile, also known locally as the Pawi, is Trinidad’s only endemic bird. It is a large, glossy black, turkey-like bird with white wing coverts, red legs and a blue cere and dewlap. It can be recognized also by its thin piping call, for which it is named, (although it does use several other vocalizations) and a loud wing drumming while in flight.

Although it was fairly common in the early 20th century and reported to be found through out the country in dense forests from the mountains to sea level, it now appears to be restricted to the eastern portion of the Northern Range where inhabits both dense forest as well as fairly disturbed habitats.
This drastic decline in range seems to have been accompanied by a population decline as well; the last population estimate being less than 200 individuals. The decrease in both range and population size is believed to be due mainly to increasing habitat disturbance/ destruction and illegal hunting. Fortunately, while these factors still threaten the species today, there seems to be a renewed interest in the protection of this bird and a change of attitude towards it by many of the communities within its range due to an emphasis on community education on the importance of its conservation and on the newly realized ecotourism value of the bird.
The Pawi is currently listed by IUCN as Critically Endangered and is also banned for international trade by Appendix 1 of CITES. In addition it is locally protected by its designation as an Environmentally Sensitive Species by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) of Trinidad and Tobago and by the designation of the Matura National Park Environmentally Sensitive Area which encompasses a large area of its known habitat.

As part of the government’s effort to protect this species, a UWI postgraduate student has also been hired to collect information of this rare and elusive species to support the creation of a management plan. There is much we have to learn about the Pawi, for although we know some basic facts on its general ecology, we still have much to learn about its breeding behaviour such as habitat range; courtship rituals, nesting behaviour, clutch size and parental care; and other social behaviour. The greater our understanding of the bird the more effective we will be in creating an appropriate species management plan.

It is hoped that the work WPA is doing with the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the EMA to create this management plan along with increased local recognition of the need to protect the Pawi, will increase the recovery chances of this unique bird and allow others to enjoy its presence in the future.