Three are only two species of cariamas found in the world today and both live in South America. But the cariamas are related to giant flightless birds which walked about the South American continent more than forty million years ago. The largest of these ancient carnivorous birds, Phororhacos, stood five feet tall and had a bill fifteen inches long. Cariamas are also distantly related to Diatryrna, the huge seven-foot- tall bird which lived in North America during the Eocene Period. Scientists have been able to determine that these birds were related by studying their fossil remains and comparing their various body structures with those of present-day cariamas.
One species of cariama is called the crested; the other is called Burmeister’s. The crested cariama lives on the grasslands of western Brazil and northern Argentina. It spends most of its time walking on the ground and runs rapidly, instead of flying to escape from its enemies. At night it roosts in low trees. It generally travels with one other cariama or with a small flock. It eats fruit, berries, insects, lizards and snakes. Sometimes farmers capture young cariamas and put them with their chickens in order to keep their farmyards free of snakes.
Cariamas begin mating in the spring and the males strut, giving strange dog-like yelping calls in an effort to impress the females. The crested cariarnas nest on the ground. The females lay two brown-spotted eggs. The parents take turns incubating the eggs which hatch in about three and a half weeks. The young are covered with down when they emerge from the egg.
Like the crested cariama, the Burmeister’s cariama has long legs and grayish- brown feathers but it is slightly smaller. It lives in brushland areas instead of open grasslands, and builds its nest in low trees. Cariamas are said to have the odd habit of giving loud calls if they sense danger from afar only to become perfectly silent when danger is near. At the last minute they put their heads down and swiftly run away. They can fly, but not as well as most birds.
Cariamas are classified as belonging to the order Gruiformes, which includes the cranes, rails, and bustards. Some ornithologists think that this very old order of birds, which now contains only twelve families, is on its way out. Many species in it have recently become extinct or are, like the whooping crane of North America, on the verge of extinction.
The cariamas resemble the bustards of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia more closely than they do any other bird in the order. The bustards, like the cariamas, live on grassy plains and in brushland, and have brownish-grey feathers. The great bustard of Europe is about three and a half feet tall; the cariama stands about two feet tall.
Cariamas Pictures
