La redécouverte du Carnifex de Minton dans la forêt atlantique

The Atlantic Forest stretches from north-east Brazil south along the Brazilian Atlantic coastline just into coastal Uruguay, and inland into north-east Argentina and eastern Paraguay. Once covering an estimated 1,477,500 km2, centuries of deforestation have seen the Atlantic Forest become the second most threatened biome in the world after Madagascar. Today only 7% of the original forest area remains, an area of 100,000 km2, and only an estimated 2% is still primary forest. Lots of animals and plants have nearly disappeared, and good news are rare. The last records of Micrastur mintoni in Atlantic forest were obtained in 1972 (museum specimens) and the literature suggests that it could have been extinct from the easternmost part of its geographic distribution. In the december 2013 issue of the Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, José Eduardo Simon and Gustavo Rodrigues Magnago have presented a documented record from Reserva Natural Vale, municipality of Linhares, obtained on 29 July 2012 confirming the rediscovery of the species from northern Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil. The loss of habitat, the natural rarity and furtive behavior of this falcon seem to explain why it remained unrecorded for 40 years in the Atlantic forest.