Their incredibly fascinating social way of life even enable Amazonas’ indigenous people to keep trumpeters as pets. They take eggs from nests and let them incubate by hens in their villages. Trumpeters then accept the human people as their own group and are extremely tame. They even show the same submissive behavior towards humans, which can be observed in the wild. Often trumpeters are kept as “guard dogs”, for example together with domestic fowls. By imminent danger, caused by foreign persons or dangerous animals, they warn with loud shrilling and penetrating calls. As “sheepdogs” they keep whole animal herds together, e.g. by chasing escaped animals back to their herd. They even take over the job as a “nanny” by


26 BIRD SCENE


protecting native children while playing. Trumpeters are not classified as


endangered, however their population is decreasing. The main reason is habitat loss caused by continuous deforestation. Trumpeters are also hunted due to their delicious meat. In a very tricky way, many hunters imitate the territorial calls of the birds, which enable them to locate and catch several bird groups at the same time. Worldwide three different trumpeter bird species exist: The grey-winged trumpeter (Psophia crepitans), the white-winged trumpeter (Psophia leucoptera) and the green-winged trumpeter (Psophia viridis). All three species exist only in the Amazonas. The grey-winged trumpeter is widespread among the northern part of


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