The Development and Improvement of Instructions
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE ECOLOGY OF THE LOWLAND TAPIR IN MADRE DE DIOS, PERU: USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO STUDY LARGE RAINFOREST MAMMALS A Dissertation by MATHIAS WERNER TOBLER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2008 Major Subject: Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences THE ECOLOGY OF THE LOWLAND TAPIR IN MADRE DE DIOS, PERU: USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO STUDY LARGE RAINFOREST MAMMALS A Dissertation by MATHIAS WERNER TOBLER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Co-Chairs of Committee, Rodney L. Honeycutt Raghavan Srinivasan Committee Members, William E. Grant Ben X. Wu John P. Janovec Head of Department, Thomas E. Lacher, Jr. May 2008 Major Subject: Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences iii ABSTRACT The Ecology of the Lowland Tapir in Madre de Dios, Peru: Using New Technologies to Study Large Rainforest Mammals. (May 2008) Mathias Werner Tobler, M.S., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Rodney L. Honeycutt Dr. Raghavan Srinivasan The objectives of my research were twofold: 1) to evaluate new technologies (camera traps and a new type of GPS collar) for studying large mammals in tropical forests, and 2) to study the ecology of the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) in the Peruvian Amazon. Camera traps proved to be an efficient tool for mammal inventories in tropical forests. They recorded 24 out of 28 terrestrial medium and large sized mammal species with a survey effort of 2340 camera days. Camera traps were also able to reveal important information on habitat use, activity patterns and the use of mineral licks for five Amazonian ungulate species. There was a high spatial overlap between all the species with the grey brocket deer being the only species that was restricted to terra firme forest. White-lipped peccaries, tapirs and red brocket deer frequently used mineral licks, whereas collared peccaries and grey brocket deer were hardly ever observed at licks. A new type of GPS collar (TrackTag) tested in this study performed well under the dense canopy of a tropical forest. Position success rates of 87% for stationary collars and 48% for collars placed on tapirs were comparable to data obtained with GPS collars in temperate forests. The mean location error for stationary collars inside the forest was 28.9 m and the 95% error was 76.8 m. GPS collars placed on six tapirs for seven to 182 days showed home range sizes of 102 to 386 hectares. Tapirs were mainly nocturnal and areas used for foraging during the night differed from resting sites used during the day. Tapirs could walk up to 10 km to visit a mineral lick. Visits were irregular at intervals of a few days up to 36 days. iv The analysis of 135 tapir dung samples showed that tapirs ingest seeds of over 120 plant species. Seeds were found throughout the year but monthly species diversity was related to fruit availability. The size distribution of ingested seeds was related to availability. Most seeds were less then 10 mm wide, but seeds up to 25 mm were found. Both camera traps and TrackTag GPS collars greatly increased the possibilities for studying large rainforest mammals. The two technologies collect complementary information and each one is suited for a different set of questions. v DEDICATION To Javier Huinga and Dario Cruz Jr. who worked as hard as I did to make this work possible and to my family vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all I would like to thank my friend and colleague John Janovec, who first invited me to Peru and who supported my work and led the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program (AABP) throughout these years. Without his continuous help and advice, this research would not have been possible. I am also very grateful to Louise Emmons for all the advice she gave me with regard to study design, captures, and logistics and for all the inspiring discussions that led to new questions and ideas for this project. A special thank you goes to my two field assistants Javier Huinga and Dario Cruz Jr., who during the last three years, worked at my side in the forest catching and tracking tapirs, checking cameras, collecting samples, and teaching me about the forest and the local culture. Their dedication and hard work made this research possible. I would like to thank all the veterinarians who helped me with the tapir captures, anesthesia protocols, and the health study: Carlos Sanchez, Valeria Moreno, César Calderón Ormeño, Paola Güímac Tapia, Christine Fiorello and Mery Enciso. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is thanked for funding this research and my Ph.D. studies through a generous grant to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT). Thanks to all the BRIT staff and especially the AABP team, Keri McNew, Amanda Neill, Fernando Cornejo, Tiana Franklin, Jason Best and Asha McElfish for all the help they provided to make this project work out. I am also grateful to the whole WWF Areas team and especially George Powell for all the logistical support that was crucial for my work. All camera trap work was carried out in collaboration with the WWF Areas project. The following people are thanked for helping with the camera trapping: Renate Leite Pitman, Rafael Mares, Angel Balarezo, Darío Cruz, Dario Cruz Junior, Alberto Escudero, Rene Escudero, Ernesto Gamarra, Lucas Huaymana, Javier Huinga, Armando Mendoza, Emeterio Nunoca, Juan Racua, Jhin Pierr Solis and Vicente Vilca. vii Thanks to Nigel Pitman, Jorge Herrera, Jesús Ramos, Juan Carlos Flores and the rest of the ACCA staff for providing us with an excellent infrastructure and support at the Los Amigos Research Center and who made living there a very pleasant experience. I am grateful to my committee at Texas A&M, Rodney Honeycutt, Raghavan Srinivasan, William Grant and Ben Wu, who understood the special circumstances of my work in Peru and gave me the freedom to pursue my research in a very independent way. Thanks to Jennifer Baker from Wildlife and Fisheries who helped me tackle all the administrative requirements while I was in the field. Without her help I probably would have missed several deadlines. I would like to thank Peter Brown from NAVSYS for his great support with the TrackTags and his interest in finding new methods of adapting the TrackTags for tracking large mammals. Grant MacLean invested a lot of time into improving the signal processing algorithm for our difficult conditions under dense canopy. Julie Rosenberg and Chris Kochanny from Advanced Telemetry Systems led the development of the first TrackTag collars. The Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales (INRENA) is thanked for granting permission for my research. This research was carried out under the following permits: 032-2005-INRENA-IFFS-DCB, OO63-2006-INRENA-IFFS-DCB, 029C/C-2007- INRENA-IANP and 014-2006-INRENA-IFFS-DCB. I would also like to thank the long list of researchers who worked at Los Amigos during the last couple of years and who, with interesting discussions and wild parties, made life in the field a lot of fun. Thanks to everybody who helped us out with the tapir captures and other activities. Thanks to all the members of the Tapir Specialist Group for many interesting discussions and the inspiration and motivation they gave me for my work. The following persons are thanked for providing valuable input to various chapters of this dissertation: John Janovec, Louise Emmon, Kery McNew, Tiana Franklin, Amanda Neill, George Powell, Andrew Noss and Christine Fiorello. viii I would like to thank my parents Verena and Werner Tobler for giving me the opportunity to pursue an academic career and for always encouraging my work in many parts of the world. Thanks to my mom for providing me with the perfect environment for writing this dissertation at her house in Switzerland. Last but not least I would like to thank Samia Carrillo-Percastegui for her love, her patience, and for all her help in the field and during the time of analyzing the data and writing this dissertation. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1 Dissertation Outline and Objectives............................................... 1 New Technologies for Research on Neotropical Mammals........... 2 The Lowland Tapir......................................................................... 5 Mineral Licks and Geophagy in Large Herbivores........................ 8 Study Area...................................................................................... 10 II AN EVALUATION OF CAMERA TRAPS FOR INVENTORYING LARGE AND MEDIUM-SIZED TERRESTRIAL RAINFOREST MAMMALS...........................................................................................