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Louette MS Birds Ecotourism KAOW

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Louette MS Birds Ecotourism KAOW Is it important to study tropical African bird species? * By Michel Louette ** Footnote * : Presented on 24 May 2011 Footnote ** : Member of the Academy / Head of Department « African Zoology », Royal Museum for Central Africa, B-3080 Tervuren Keywords: Ornithological study; Africa; Multidisciplinary research: Socio-economical importance Summary Bird-watching is an important component of ecotourism, an economical growing activity worldwide. The results of modern multidisciplinary ornithological results combining range modelling, phylogeny, functional morphology and ecology can contribute to the documentation, general interest and local participation, three conditions needed to stimulate ecotourism, also in Africa. As an example of my personal research to elucidate biological aspects, Frances Sparrowhawk Accipiter francesiae will be treated. This species lives only on Madagascar and on part of the Comoro archipelago. Any birdwatcher is highly interested to observe these remarkable species himself in the field and can contribute to science. Is het belangrijk tropische Afrikaanse vogelsoorten te bestuderen? Trefwoorden: Vogelstudie; Afrika; Multidisciplinair onderzoek; Socio-economisch belang Samenvatting “Birdwatching”, een belangrijke component van het ecotourisme, is wereldwijd van groeiend economisch belang. De resultaten van het moderne multidisciplinair ornithologisch onderzoek op gebied van areaal-modelling, fylogenie, functionele morfologie en ecologie kunnen bijdragen tot de documentatie, algemene interesse en lokale betrokkenheid, drie randvoorwaarden om ecotourisme te stimuleren, ook in Afrika. Als voorbeeld van eigen onderzoek in die disciplines wordt één enkele vogelsoort besproken, namelijk de Madagascarshikra Accipiter francesiae (die ook op de Comoren- archipel voorkomt), waarbij onvermoede biologische aspecten aan het licht komen. De “birdwatcher” is geïnteresseerd om dergelijke boeiende vogelsoorten met eigen ogen in de natuur gade te kunnen slaan en kan wetenschappelijke gegevens vergaren. Est-il important d’étudier des espèces d’oiseaux tropicaux en Afrique? Mots-clés: Etude ornithologique; Afrique; Recherche multidisciplinaire: Importance socio-économique Résumé “Birdwatching” est une composante importante de l’écotourisme, une activité économique en croissance mondialement. Les résultats de la recherche ornithologique multidisciplinaire moderne sur les enveloppes écologiques des distributions, la phylogénie, la morphologie fonctionnelle et l’écologie peuvent contribuer à la documentation, à l’intérêt général et à la participation locale, trois conditions pour stimuler l’écotourisme, aussi en Afrique. Comme exemple de notre recherche personnelle dans ces domaines, une seule espèce d’oiseau sera traitée, l’Epervier de Frances Accipiter francesiae (qui existe à Madagascar et aussi sur l’archipel des Comores), afin d’indiquer des aspects biologiques insoupçonnés. Le “birdwatcher” est très intéressé de pouvoir observer ces oiseaux passionnants avec ses propres yeux et peut contribuer à la science. Introduction The “father of ornithology”, Ulysses Aldrovandi (1599) mentioned explicitly the joy of watching birds. But it is especially in the second half of the twentieth century that interest in wildlife grew, thanks to increased leisure time and growth in concern about the environment. Most birds are well documented in books and multimedia and attract attention, which in turn stimulates the interested persons to visit biologically important (and accessible) sites, in many countries. The identification of birds in the field was also greatly improved by the appearance of so-called field guides over the last decades. Nowadays, the numbers of birdwatchers are impressive. For the UK, Dickie et al. (2006) mention that 2,850,000 people go bird-watching (in their own country); Carver (2009) gives the figure of 48,000,000 bird-watchers in the USA in 2009. He concludes that the socio-economic interest of bird-watching is appreciable; according to his report, these bird-watchers contribute more than $ 36,000,000,000 in one year to the country's economy. This figure concerns domestic revenue only. Non-residential bird-watching, a component of ecotourism, is also developing steadily. The resulting economic (and social) benefits are important for third-world counties. It is not exaggerated to use the term “ecotourism industry” (bird guides, drivers, lodging and catering, etc…). A specialised literature discusses pros and cons of ecotourism in development (see e.g. Tapper 2006). In Africa, bird-watching potential is high in countries with long bird-lists or high endemism rate (such as South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia,), but there is also a bird-watching potential for areas with biologically interesting and peculiar birds, such as islands (Heinzel & Hall 2000). Here, I will threat the Comoro islands, a circum-African archipelago in the western Indian Ocean (Figure 1). Bird-watching, conservation and science Research, ecology, economy and ecotourism have multiple links (see reviews in Sekercioglu 2002, Zahedi 2004). Ecotourism development has to consider long-term issues, none the least conservation in situ . Sekercioglu (2002) states that bird-watchers (the largest group among ecotourists) contribute much to community-based conservation. In a case study from Africa, Naidoo & Adamowicz (2005) compared the costs and benefits of maintaining avian biodiversity in a rainforest reserve in Uganda and found that “biodiversity markets” can play a positive role in tropical conservation strategies. Charismatic “flagship” bird species (together with local community involvement) are important predictors of sustainability in ecotourism (Krüger 2005). Science can make good use of bird-watchers’ activities: in many countries the public participates in the gathering of scientific data; as an example I mention a scheme named “Citizen Science” introduced by Cornell University (USA), which proves highly successful: e.g. more than 60 scientific papers have used Cornell citizen-science data since 1997 (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ , consulted on 23 August 2011). The data gathered by birdwatchers help to improving the knowledge of the biology of many tropical birds (who in general are still poorly known, due to lack of field workers and logistical difficulties); in Africa these data are used for atlasing in several countries (http://www.ei-tz.com/files/TanzaniaBirdAtlas.pdf , consulted on 23 August 2011). Many birders testify that atlasing became, for them, a more rewarding form of their hobby because it had a clear and a larger purpose. Both the concept and the activities of the atlas helped them to see birds and their hobby in the context of broader ecological issues (Harrison et al. 2008). Conversely, the scientist provides bird identification material, bird lists and taxonomical papers to the bird-watchers. It must be admitted that until now the majority of birdwatchers are interested in making a life list; i.e. the taxonomic aspect of biology is the most rewarding for them. They also preferably use the phylogenetic species concept, which “upgrades” many taxa formerly classified as subspecies to the species rank (Moss 2005). I here advocate publishing preliminary studies on the biology of some African birds by the scientist in order to capture the attention of bird-watchers. Hopefully, they will go out to look for birds with a particular biology or morphology (e.g. on islands), make their observations available and ultimately will contribute to better knowledge of biodiversity. Methods, results and discussion Because raptors are favourites for birdwatchers, I choose as subject from my own published work on Africa, as an example of multidisciplinary research: Frances’ Sparrowhawk Accipiter francesiae Smith, 1834. This is a resident small raptorial bird, occurring on western Indian Ocean islands, each with distinct subspecies, as follows: • Madagascar: A. f. francesiae Smith, 1834 • Grand Comoro: A. f. griveaudi Benson, 1960 • Anjouan: A. f. pusillus (Gurney, 1875) • Mayotte: A. f. brutus (Schlegel, 1866) Four aspects of the biology of this species were studied on the Comoro islands: distribution, ecological parameters (habitat selection, density), phylogeography and functional morphology (proportions, plumages). 1. Distribution. For each Comoro taxon a distribution map was produced (Louette et al. 2008, for the three western islands and unpublished, for Mayotte); see Figure 2. The method of atlasing and ecological envelopes was applied, using on the one hand field observations, and on the other hand modelling with GIS data on altitude, forest cover, rainfall, distance to roads, villages… In sum: • Grand Comoro: the bird is restricted to the rainforest belt on the flanks of mount Karthala, the highest, southern volcano, descending to the wet coastal area on the southwest near. It is curiously absent from La Grille, the northern volcano. • Mohéli: absent. • Anjouan: rather widespread. • Mayotte: widespread, common in the humid northwest, rarer in the east, absent from islets. No explanation could be found as to its absence from La Grille and Mohéli. Only the result of haphazard colonisation or the small size of the island of Mohéli could be invoked and similarly the small size of the forest on La Grille, which is separated by more dry vegetation from mount Karthala (less than 10 km only, however) The altitudinal profile shows that this is a generalist in altitude, being absent only from the very high altitudes on Grand Comoro (mount Karthala rises
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