Behind every crane top red is a door-killing tragedy.

In recent years, among the smuggled wildlife products seized by customs in China and Southeast Asia, in addition to the familiar pangolins, pythons and bear paws, there is also a colorful and strangely shaped thing with yellow sharp horns and a red base under the sharp corners.

Do you know what this is? Picture: iflscience.com

Most people don't know what it is, but it comes from a rare and strange bird, today's protagonist, the helmeted hornbill Rhinoplax vigil.

Helmeted hornbill. Picture: animalia-life.club

Rhinoceros horns grow on the head

Hornbills belong to the Bucerotidae family of the hornbill family Bucerotiformes. There are only 50 species in this family, and their exaggerated beaks are usually quite impressive. The helmet hornbill is the only species of the genus Rhinoplax of the hornbill family. The generic name Rhinoplax comes from the Greek words rhinos (nose) and plakos (flat top), meaning the front end of the helmet process on its beak is truncated, and the species name vigil comes from Latin, meaning vigilant.

The beak of the helmet hornbill is red and yellow. Picture: Michaela Koschova

The Chinese name of the hornbill comes from the fact that there is a specially shaped helmet process above its huge beak, which looks like the horn of a rhino. Compared with the slightly downward curved beaks of other hornbills, the beak of the helmeted rhinoceros is straight. The helmet process of the hornbill is close to a cylinder in shape, forming a plane at the front, which is yellow in part and red as a whole, which is stained by red wax secreted by the tail fat glands.

However, not all hornbills have helmet processes, and some species are extremely inconspicuous or even disappear, such as the brightly colored brown-necked unhelmeted hornbill.

Brown-necked unhelmeted hornbill without helmet protrusion. Picture: Dibyendu Ash / wikipedia

The hornbill family is distributed in tropical regions of Asia and Africa. African species are flat in color, mainly black, white and gray, while Asian species are relatively colorful and larger than most African species. Because hornbills are mostly distributed in the tropics, most Chinese are not familiar with them, but in fact, there are five species of hornbills in southwestern China. Although China does not have a helmeted hornbill, its distribution is not narrow. It can be seen on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Kalimantan in Southeast Asia.

The brown-necked helpless hornbill is probably the most beautiful kind of hornbill. Picture: naturephotographysimplified.com

Hornbill is very large, some species can be more than 1m long, and the smallest species is about 30cm. In the whole hornbill family, the size of the helmed hornbill is second only to the two species of the African ground hornbill, and the double-horned hornbill is the largest hornbill in Asia. Although it is not the largest, it is the longest in the rhinoceros family, reaching 110~120cm, not including the extension of its tail feathers up to 50cm. Helmet hornbill is also very heavy, the male is above and below 3kg, the female is slightly smaller, about 2.7kg.

The double-horned hornbill is also the largest hornbill in Asia. Picture: Angadachappa / wikipedia

Is it beautiful or ugly?

Some hornbills have a laryngeal pouch of different colors, and the size of the laryngeal pouch is particularly exaggerated, occupying almost the entire front of the neck. Laryngeal pouch is exposed skin, no feather attachment, there are a number of oblique backward and lower folds. The laryngeal pouch of the male is a dirty dark red, while the female looks slightly better, blue and white.

The laryngeal pouch of a helmeted rhinoceros has exposed skin. Picture: Doug Janson / wikipedia

The helmet hornbill has brown cheeks, most of its feathers are dark brown, its abdomen, wing and flying feather tips are all white, and its tail feathers are mostly white, with only a black spot near the tip. The shape of the tail feather of the helmeted hornbill is different from that of other species of the hornbill family. The central tail feather is particularly extended, up to 1 meter, which is much longer than other tail feathers.

Flying helmet hornbill, notice that its central tail feather is very long. Picture: Michelle and Peter Wong / orientalbirdimages.org

Unlike the adaptable small hornbills in Africa, Asian hornbills are relatively demanding on the living environment, and almost all species are highly dependent on mature tropical rain forests, and helmet hornbills are no exception.

Although the helmet hornbill has huge wings, it is not good at flying. The hornbill flies with extra difficulty, its wings are slow and clumsy, and its speed is even more indescribable. Fortunately, it has a long tail to control the direction and is flexible enough.

Although helmet hornbills belong to climbing birds, in fact they are not good at climbing. Their feet are disproportionately short and almost have the ability to grasp and cannot walk, so they often stay in one place.

Helmeted hornbill that lives in the forest. Picture: Tim Laman / naturepl.com

Like other large hornbills, helmeted hornbills are omnivores, mainly plant-based foods. Although plant fruit can fully meet daily needs, the helmeted hornbill is not satisfied with this. It spends half its time searching for small animals such as lizards, snakes, squirrels and birds, but because of its clumsiness, it often has little effect. I can't catch much prey for half a day. In addition, the helmeted hornbill uses its thick, straight beak to peck open the bark to look for insects in the trunk.

It's not easy to have a baby.

As the Southeast Asian rainforest is rich in food throughout the year, helmeted hornbills can breed throughout the year. Hornbills are more demanding of their mates, but once they mate, they remain for the rest of their lives unless one partner dies. Helmeted hornbills usually nest in holes in tall trees. after finding a suitable nest site, the female lays 1 or 2 eggs, and then uses excrement to mix soil branches from the hole, closing the hole, leaving only a vertical hole.

The male armoured hornbill feeds the female in the cave. Picture: Tim Laman / naturepl.com

During this period, most of the feathers of the female will fall off and no longer come out of the hole, and the male will feed the female and the young every day. The female will break the wall and change her feathers soon after the young hatch. after the female leaves the nest, the young will seal the hole again and then be fed together by their parents. The helmeted hornbill is a large bird with a breeding period of up to four months, during which males travel to and from nests and foraging grounds until the chicks leave the nest. Helmeted hornbill the eyes of juvenile birds are gray dead fish eyes and the eyes of adult birds are reddish brown.

During the non-breeding period, helmeted rhinoceros move in pairs and stay in the same territory all the year round. Males guard the territory, and when the same species invade, they bump into each other with helmet protuberances on their beaks, a unique way for hornbills to fight. Because of this unique use, the helmet process of the hornbill also has a different structure from other hornbills.

The inner part of the helmet process of most hornbills is a loose bone fiber, which is relatively light, while the helmet hornbill is not. Although its helmet process is also full of similar structure, it is wrapped in a dense and heavy horny shell. The weight of the helmet process can reach 10% of the body weight.

Loose bone fibers on the inside and horny shells on the outside. Picture: scienceblogs.com

Where is the future of ivory in birds?

However, it is this unusual helmet process that has killed the helmeted hornbill. The helmet of the hornbill is golden in color, similar in texture to ivory and easy to carve. It has been a good material for making handicrafts since ancient times. In the collection world, the helmet process of the hornbill is a collection as famous as rhinoceros horns and ivory. It is called Crane Top Red because of its ruddy red color. It is precisely because of the pursuit of countless collectors that a large number of helmeted hornbills are hunted and their skulls made into toys.

"exquisite" sculptures. Crane top red products are common in the literary game market and hand strings. The cover of this article is from a literary game transaction post. Picture: bombasticborneo.com

The helmeted hornbill, accustomed to a comfortable life, simply cannot afford such a high intensity of hunting. Since the 20th century, the number of helmeted hornbills has declined sharply, and as human claws go deeper and deeper into the rainforest, remote habitats cannot serve as a barrier to their survival. Because hornbills generally inhabit the canopy dozens of meters high, hunters cannot see clearly on the ground, which leads to many other species of hornbills being shot down as well.

The implicated Malay hornbill. Picture: Rhinoceros Hornbill / Flickr

Southeast Asia, where there are more Asian hornbills, is also the region with the worst rainforest damage in the world. With large tracts of primeval forests being cut down, there are fewer and fewer trees suitable for hornbills to survive and breed. This is undoubtedly adding to the disaster for the helmeted hornbill, which is already facing extinction.

Because the population declined so rapidly, IUCN adjusted the helmeted hornbill directly from NT to CR in 2015. The artificial population of the helmeted hornbill is very small, when the last helmeted hornbill is hunted, that is, when the species disappears from the earth.

A large number of helmeted hornbill skulls seized by Indonesian police. Picture: phys.org

Helmeted hornbill is listed in Appendix Ⅰ of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is equivalent to the protection of animals at the national level in China. Even so, Chinese customs intercepts a large number of smuggled hornbill skulls every year, ranging from dozens to hundreds. Behind each piece is the result of a helmet hornbill being swallowed by people's greed. Perhaps many collectors do not know that what is hidden behind the golden carving is a shocking blood red.