Spatial Ecology and Conservation of the Endemic and Endangered Red-Fronted Macaw (Ara Rubrogenys) in the Bolivian Andes
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Spatial ecology and conservation of the endemic and endangered Red-fronted Macaw (Ara rubrogenys) in the Bolivian Andes Diploma Thesis Presented by Carsten Meyer born in Braunschweig, Germany Centre for Nature Conservation Faculty of Biology Georg-August University Göttingen 2010 First reviewer: Prof. Dr. Michael Mühlenberg Second reviewer: PD. Dr. Michael Kessler Day of thesis delivery: 20 Oktober 2010 Last day of oral exams: 30 April 2010 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank PD Dr. Michael Kessler for his supervision of my thesis and his help throughout the last two years. I am deeply grateful for his support with regards to establishing the contacts with Armonía, fundraising, preparation, data analysis and the writing of the thesis. I also want to thank Prof. Dr. Michael Mühlenberg his second review of my thesis and for assuming the official first review as head of the Centre for Nature Conservation. Third, I want to thank Dr. Sebastian Herzog, the coordinator of the project, for his trust and support throughout my field work and for allowing me to use the additional data from the telemetry project. I am grateful to numerous people in Göttingen who helped me with the data analyses. First, I want to thank Dr. Dietmar Zinner for insights in data analysis considerations and the use of ArcGIS. I also want to thank Dr. Eckhard Gottschalk for his initial advice on home range analysis. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Hartmut Oldenbürger for his tireless help with statistics. Numerous friends in Göttingen helped me with the realization of this work. In particular, special thanks to Patrick Weigelt for his technical support with numerous computer programs and other queries, and to Felix Norman for his review of my script. Thanks to Rodrigo Soria-Auza for his corrections of the Spanish abstract, to Michael Mathe for help with coordinate calculations, to Matthias Klapproth for satellite imagery, and to Björn Thöne for help with the formatting of the text. I am grateful to numerous people who have contributed to this work by helping me with the realization of the fieldwork in Bolivia. Thanks to Anahi Paca and the other members of the Red-fronted Macaw Conservation Programme for their effort in this project. Special thanks to Steffen Reichle and Andreas Langer for housing and logistic support in Santa Cruz and Pampagrande. Finally, thanks to all my friends from the Quinta and Santa Cruz who own a pig part in making my stay in Bolivia successful and exciting. I want to thank the DAAD for financial support in the form of a 4 months grant and my parents and grandmother for additional financial support. Table of contents Abbreviations........................................................................................................... iii Abstracts ................................................................................................................... 1 Abstract ...................................................................................................... 1 Resumen .................................................................................................... 1 Zusammenfassung ..................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction........................................................................................................... 4 1.1. Natural history of the Red-fronted Macaw ............................................... 4 1.1.1. Identification...................................................................................... 4 1.1.2. Evolution........................................................................................... 4 1.1.3. Feeding............................................................................................. 4 1.1.4. Behaviour.......................................................................................... 5 1.1.5. Distribution........................................................................................ 6 1.1.6. Spatial ecology ................................................................................. 6 1.2. Conservation ........................................................................................... 6 1.2.1. Conservation of parrots..................................................................... 6 1.2.2. Conservation of the Red-fronted Macaw........................................... 7 1.2.2.1. Legal status................................................................................ 7 1.2.2.2. Conservation status.................................................................... 7 1.2.2.3. Population trend ......................................................................... 8 1.2.2.4. Threats....................................................................................... 8 1.2.2.5. Conservation measures under way............................................ 9 1.3. Justification of this study ......................................................................... 9 2. Study area ........................................................................................................... 11 2.1. Location................................................................................................. 11 2.2. Climate .................................................................................................. 11 2.3. Topography, hydrology and geology ..................................................... 11 2.4. Vegetation ............................................................................................. 12 2.5. Flora ...................................................................................................... 13 2.6. Biological significance of the inter-Andean dry forests .......................... 13 2.7. Degradation of habitat ........................................................................... 13 3. Methods ............................................................................................................... 15 3.1 Field work............................................................................................... 15 3.1.1. Baiting and trapping........................................................................ 15 3.1.2. Radio-tracking................................................................................. 16 3.1.3. Estimation errors............................................................................. 17 3.2. Data analysis......................................................................................... 19 3.2.1. Home ranges .................................................................................. 20 3.2.2. Sufficiency of the number of locations for reliable range estimates 23 3.2.3. Migration......................................................................................... 24 4. Results................................................................................................................. 25 4.1. Baiting and trapping .............................................................................. 25 4.2. Measurements of radio-tagged birds..................................................... 25 4.3. Radio Tracking ...................................................................................... 26 4.4. Independence of the different macaws’ locations.................................. 27 4.5. Home range estimation ......................................................................... 29 4.6. Vegetation types in the seasonal home ranges..................................... 30 i 4.7. Comparison of the 2008 and 2009 seasonal feeding and daytime roosting areas (SDFRAs) in Pampagrande .................................................. 31 4.8. Night roosts ........................................................................................... 32 4.9. Minimum daily covered distances.......................................................... 33 4.10. Migration.............................................................................................. 33 4.11. Flock sizes........................................................................................... 34 5. Discussion........................................................................................................... 35 5.1. Discussion of the results of the telemetry study .................................... 35 5.1.1. Spatial ecology of the Red-fronted Macaw ..................................... 35 5.1.1.1. Radio telemetry ........................................................................ 35 5.1.1.2. Triangulation ............................................................................ 36 5.1.1.3. Home ranges............................................................................ 37 5.1.1.4. Night roosts.............................................................................. 38 5.1.1.5. Minimum daily covered distances ............................................ 39 5.1.1.6. Migration and site fidelity.......................................................... 39 5.1.2. Flock sizes...................................................................................... 42 5.1.3. Implications of this study for conservation and future research ...... 42 5.1.3.1. General movement patterns..................................................... 42 5.1.3.2. Connectivity between subpopulations ...................................... 43 5.1.3.3. Telemetry ................................................................................. 43 5.2. Discussion of published