Title
Focal Species, New Records at the Sirapeje Cafetero, Ecoregion Colombia.
Author(s)
Saavedra, Carlos; Corrales Escobar, Juan David; Gil-Ospina, Raul; Ríos-Franco, Carlos; Rojas-Díaz, Vladimir
Published
2017
Abstract
The “Eje Cafetero Regional System of Protected Areas” (SIRAP-EC), comprises both slopes of the Central Cordillera, the eastern slope of the Cordillera Occidental and the Cauca -Magdalena rivers valleys of Colombia. The SIRAP-EC has identified six focal species to implement management and conservation plans that include actions such as the identification of new populations in the northeastern section of the system, to reduce biases in the explicit orientation of conservation actions. The aim of this study was to identify new presence localities for five focal species: four bird species (Leptopsitacca branickii, Hapalopsittaca amazonina, Andigena nigrirostris and Andigena hypoglauca) and one mammal species (Dinomys branickii). We build fundamental models for each species based on both ecological aspects and environmental variables of historical presence localities (i.e., ecosystem type, vegetation cover, topography and elevation). The sampling cost-efficiency balance for this study was increased overlying “suitability” areas >75% resulting from fundamental models for all species. Sampling for birds was carried out through ad libitum transects, at different vegetation types through 292 km and 15 localities sampled between 1600-3100 MASL. D. branickii sampling was carried out in 21 riparian forests with a sampling effort of 53.1 km. Signals of presence of D. branikii were found in seven transects. We identified four focal species at nine new locations. The fundamental model prediction values were variable and highly sensitive to the sampling areas with high potential presence for four species. Our results highlight the value of fundamental models to guide focal species populations search and their cost-efficiency for multi-species study when trained personnel carry out them. Both new and previous records allow to execute more effective conservation actions and to improve the development of more robust ecoregional species distribution models.

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PUB26873