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September 2004

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Dr. Robert L. Curry, associate professor of biology, working with a team of scientists, recently rediscovered the Cozumel Thrasher (Toxostoma guttatum), a bird not seen by scientists for almost a decade and thought by some to have become extinct.  The American Bird Conservancy and Conservational International announced the sighting made by a team of field biologists, which took place last June. The thrasher is now the single most critically endangered bird species in Mexico, according to Curry.

The Cozumel Thrasher is an endemic bird found only on the island of Cozumel off theYucatan Peninsula in Mexico. According to the biologist, it is a medium-sized songbird, a close relative to the American brown thrasher, about the size of a mockingbird, and a streaky reddish brown in color. The Cozumel bird population appears to have experienced a precipitous decline in 1988 after Hurricane Gilbert tore through the island.  Soon after, it became rare, but small numbers of the bird still existed until it was last recorded by scientists in 1995. Later that same year, Hurricane Roxanne devastated Cozumel and may have further contributed to the species’ decline. Scientists estimate as many as 10,000 birds once thrived on the island.

Curry, who has traveled to Mexico three times to search for the bird, has teamed up again with Juan Martínez Gómez, executive director of the Island Endemics Institute. Martínez, a native of Veracruz, Mexico, graduated from Villanova in 1996 with a master’s of science degree in biology. (Curry was his thesis advisor.)

The team of scientists that Curry assembled found the thrasher in June, virtually by bird watching on foot.  Based on an unconfirmed account by a tourist who reported seeing a thrasher, the Villanova alumnus and his field assistants went back to the location where it had been reported and then saw the bird several times.

“We had suspicions that the thrasher might not have been extinct,” added Curry, “because we had heard vague reports of other people having seen the bird, although nothing was scientifically documented.” 

Curry, who has not yet seen the bird himself, intends to travel to Cozumel again in January 2005 to rejoin the team to search for the species and to try to determine the size and range of its population.  “Even though we have documented proof of at least one bird being alive, there may be only one bird or just a few birds scattered across the island, which is almost 20 miles long and 10 miles wide,” he added. 

To protect this and potentially other birds from disturbance, the exact location of the discovery is not being disclosed to the public.  According to Martínez, there is a critical need to create a nature reserve in the island’s interior, not just for the sake of the thrasher, but to protect the large number of other unique animals residing there including two other endemic bird species, as well as other birds and mammals.