Critically Endangered
Sulu Hornbill
Anthracoceros montani
Sulu Hornbill is a bird in the family Bucerotidae (order Bucerotiformes) — Anthracoceros montani, recorded as Critically Endangered.
The bird
Sulu Hornbill is a bird in the family Bucerotidae (order Bucerotiformes) — Anthracoceros montani.
Range and habitat
It is endemic to the Sulu archipelago in the Philippines, with the remaining populations in Tawi-Tawi with it believed to be hunted to extinction on Jolo. Its natural habitat is tropical moist forests. It is threatened by habitat loss as well as potential harvesting for food.
It has gone extinct on the island of Jolo with the last record in 1930s, due to hunting and the remaining populations in Tawi-Tawi are threatened by habitat destruction through logging and slash-and-burn farming.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Diet is mainly fruit but also feeds on insects, small mammals and reptiles. Recorded in pairs All hornbills are monogamous and mate for life.They are cavity nesters and rely on large dipterocarp trees for breeding.
The female seals itself within the tree cavity and the male is in charge of gathering food for its mate and chicks. The male stores food in a gular pouch and regurgitates it to feed its mate and chicks.
In crisis
In 2019 it was reported that only 27 mature individual hornbills are still believed to be alive in the wild, making it one of the most endangered animals in the world. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed this bird as critically endangered. In 2019, it was reported that only 27 mature individual hornbills are still believed to be alive in the wild.
While the exact numbers are unknown, this is still undoubtedly the most endangered hornbill and one of the most endangered animals in the entire world. Conservation actions proposed were to improve the estimates on population and understanding of its ecology.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Sulu Hornbill is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Sulu Hornbill, Wikidata item Q570664. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
