ISSN 1809-127X (online edition) © 2011 Check List and Authors Chec List Open Access | Freely available at www.checklist.org.br Journal of species lists and distribution PECIES S Western Andes, Valle del Cauca, Colombia OF Chiroptera, mid-Calima River Basin, Pacific Slope of the 1, 2 * 2 ISTS Carlos A. Saavedra-Rodríguez and Vladimir Rojas-Díaz L 1 Universidad del Valle, Departamento de Biología, Grupo de Investigación en Ecología Animal. Calle 13 # 100 - 00. Sede Meléndez. A.A 25360. Cali, Colombia 2 Wildlife Conservation Society Colombia Program. Carrera 25 # 4 - 39, Cali, Colombia * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: compile a bat species checklist recorded for the Basin and describe the bat diversity patterns found in the mid-Calima Basin (the gradient The from Calima 300 River– 1,400 Basin m a.s.l.).is part The of the checklist Chocó comprisesBiogeográfico 55 batEcoregion species in for the the Pacific Basin. Coast In the of Colombia.mid-Calima, Here, 31 batwe species occur (permanently or seasonally). Our results show complementary diversity patterns of bat assemblages living species coexists. The sampled area is located where the Chocó and the Andes biogeographical regions are connected. The Calimabelow and River above Basin 1,000 has highm. We bat also richness, identified high an variation overlap inzone species between composition 800 – 1,200 along m a.s.l.the elevational where at least gradient, three pairsand harbours of sister threatened and endemic species, highlighting its importance for conservation. Introduction 1970-2000 (i.e. Alberico 1981). The sector of the Calima River Basin that we will call ‘mid-Calima’ was sampled with larger effort during the 1980’s in order to evaluate of north-westernThe Chocó Biogeográfico Ecuador and is athe very Caribbean wet region Coast which in the environmental impacts of the hydroelectric building Panamá.includes theThis whole region Pacific (usually Coast called of Colombia Ecoregion) and ahas portion been project ‘Calima III’ (EPSA, CVC unpublished data). Some specimens from the area had been deposited in collections Winter 1983; Olson and Dinerstein 1998; Myers et al. in Colombia and around the world (see Muñoz-Saba and 2000)identified with as high a global levels biodiversity of endemism hotspot in diverse (Terborgh biological and Alberico 2004). groups (Gentry 1986; Faner-Langerdoen and Gentry 1991). There are multiple proposals about the limit where Calima an ‘overlap zone’ where highland and lowland Chocó and Andean faunas are overlapped based on a speciesBased could on this occur background, syntopically. we Our identified aim with into this the study mid- is set of environmental variables and suggesting different to describe the bat diversity pattern along the elevational elevational limits (i.e. Galvis and Mojica 1993; Poveda-M. gradient in the mid-Calima River Basin and to highlight the et al. 2004). importance of this region. The knowledge about the bat assemblages from the Materials and methods efforts in localities below 300 m a.s.l. (see Mantilla-Meluk Study area andChocó Jiménez-Ortega Biogeográfico 2006is mainly), with based few onstudies short examining sampling The Calima River Basin is located at the western slope localities at mid-elevation (Alberico and Orejuela 1982; of the Cordillera Occidental, into the Valle del Cauca Cadena et al. 1999; Dávalos and Guerrero 1999; Ospina- Department, Colombia. The watershed encompasses ca. Ante and Gómez 1999). Therefore, there are many gaps in 1,400 km2, and has more than 120 km in length. The River our understanding of species distribution (Mantilla-Meluk source is located over 3,600 m at the Cerro Calima, initially and Jiménez-Ortega 2006) and diversity patterns at local and regional scales. In the Ecoregion, when accepting 800 m a.s.l. as superior elevational limit, almost 100 species of untilflowing it reaches south theand San then Juan turning River atwest ca. 50a mfew a.s.l. kilometers from the bats have been recorded (Muñoz-Saba and Alberico 2004; borderbefore thebetween Calima Valle river del dam. Cauca From and this Chocó point, Departments. it flows west Mantilla-Meluk and Jiménez-Ortega 2006), representing The watershed comprises two administrative units called 58% of the bat fauna reported for Colombia (Alberico Municipios (Calima-Darién and Buenaventura) (Figure 1). et al. 2000). Sixty two out of these almost 100 species There are multiple ecosystems present in the region: very belong to the leaf-nosed bat family (Phyllostomidae), wet tropical (50 m a.s.l.), wet (800 m a.s.l.), and premontane which represents 52%, of the phyllostomids registered rain forest (1,300 m a.s.l.). Average rainfall ranges from for Colombia (Alberico et al. 2000; Mantilla-Meluk et al. 7,000 to 8,000 mm/yr in very wet tropical forest, from 2009). 3,000 to 4,000 mm/yr in wet forest, and 1,000 to 2,000 The Calima River Basin is a portion of the Chocó mm/yr in premontane rain forest. Rainfall is highest in October in very wet tropical forest, but in wet tropical and Department, Colombia. The lowlands in the Calima River premontane rain forest the highest precipitation occurs Basin,Biogeográfico near the SanEcoregion Juan River, into were the sampled Valle indel the Cauca early in November. The precipitation tendency is similar year 1900´s (Chapman 1917) and later during different periods round in wet tropical and premontane rain forest, while Check List | Volume 7 | Issue 2 | 2011 166 Saavedra-Rodríguez and Rojas-Díaz | Chiroptera, mid-Calima River Basin, Colombia in very wet forest there is more contrast between months from bat collections made on the known portion of the (CVC 1988 – 1991; Figure 2). Calima River Basin (60 – 1,400 m a.s.l.), and a list obtained The Calima River Basin still contains large forest tracts that had been protected because they are important to existing collections from lowlands belong to the Estación the hydroelectric power generation. The forested areas Agro-Forestalduring fieldwork Bajo developed Calima (4°0’2.304” into mid-Calima. N, 76°56’55.399” Most of the encompass elevations from 60 m a.s.l. (Estación Agro- W) located at ca. 60 m a.s.l.. This site is separated by 30 km Forestal Bajo Calima) to 1,400 m a.s.l. (Calima power dam reservoir), and further up to the páramo area at 3,600 The bat diversity was assessed in the mid-Calima which m a.s.l.. encompassesfrom Río Chancos three (the sites, first covering sampling a section site in approximately mid-Calima). despite the middle elevation area of a basin in a strict sense 19 km in length and a 1,000 m elevation range from 300 to should referHere to we a higher need to elevational introduce range a clarifying (around sentence: 1800 m, 1,400 m a.s.l.. The sites were chosen in mature forest, near in this case), because of the background and the regional use, most people is familiarized with the mid-Calima area River: 1) Río Chancos (RC) lower elevation, 300 to 400 m starting at the power dam (1400 m) running through Río a.s.l.,the confluences 3°57’30.681” of N,three 76°43’56.700” river tributaries W, 2) Ríoof theAzul Calima (RA), Chancos area (300 m), which corresponds to the surveyed piedmont, 600-700 m a.s.l., 3°55’57.484” N, 76°40’32.182” area for this work. Additionally, the portions of the mid W and 3) Río Bravo (RB), lower montane, 1,300-1,400 m Calima between 800 – 1,200 m a.s.l. has been recognized a.s.l., 3°53’11.346” N, 76°35’24.606” W. as an Important Bird Area (Birdlife International 2006), and part of the forest block above 2,200 m a.s.l. has been Analysis included into the El Duende Regional Reserve highlighting We used the bat species list for the Calima River Basin the ecological importance of the region. Some portions of reported by Muñoz-Saba and Alberico (2004) to compare the Basin had been transformed by multiple agricultural uses and logging between 0-200 m a.s.l. and 1400-2,200 m a.s.l.. This spatial context makes the Basin a pin point fromwith ourspecimens field data; deposited this is the in onlynational bat list and from international the Chocó scenario to explore the diversity patterns into the region. collections.Biogeográfico We with updated records the from taxonomy the Calima following Basin Simmons obtained We analyzed two data sets to gain insight into the (2005), Velazco (2005), McCarthy et al. (2006), Mantilla- diversity patterns of bat assemblages: a checklist compiled Meluk et al. (2009), Oprea et al. (2009), Velazco and Figure 1. Calima River Basin and sampling sites. Covertures shape from IDEAM et al. (2007). Check List | Volume 7 | Issue 2 | 2011 167 Saavedra-Rodríguez and Rojas-Díaz | Chiroptera, mid-Calima River Basin, Colombia Gardner (2009), and Velazco et al. (2010). Although we reviewed recent species designations (i.e. Mantilla-Meluk and Baker (2006), Oprea et al. (2009), Velazco and Gardner (2009)) captures because more than 90% of the individuals were we decided to keep the field identification of our Januaryreleased 1997 alive coveringin field. a consecutive rainy and dry season (FigureThe 2).fieldwork We did wasnot sampledeveloped in August from andApril November 1996 to 1996. During the sampling periods, the three sampling sites (RC, RA and RB) were visited eight times (once a month, four days per site). We used ten mist nets (12 m long and 36-mm mesh) set at ground level following standardized Figure 2. Rainfall average from 1988-1991 at the mid-Calima, Colombia.