The healthier ecosystems, often areas of the peninsula with the strictest land protections, such as Corcovado National Park, held a greater diversity of animals as well as larger species like tapirs, jaguars, and pumas.
Places with more human activity had fewer species of animals, and those animals were often smaller, more common species like opossums and agoutis. Some of these smaller animals, opossums in particular, were more abundant in disturbed sites than in healthy forests.
Overall, human activity drives large animals out and allows fewer species of smaller creatures like rodents to thrive.
“The results were maybe not surprising,” John Poulsen an associate professor of ecology at Duke University who was not involved in the study said, “but contribute an important data point to a pantropical phenomenon – humans have an immense effect on animal communities, favoring smaller species, and dramatically reducing the distribution and abundance of large species.”
Just outside of Corcovado National Park, this male ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) prowls through the rainforest. Photo by Osa Camera Trap Network.
The largest of America’s tapir species, this Baird’s Tapir (Tapirus bairdii) passes in front of a camera trap on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. In the Osa, the success of this herbivore, crucial to seed dispersal and forest structure, will depend largely on the conservation efforts outlined in the publication. Photo by Osa Camera Trap Network.
On the outskirts of Corcovado National Park, a jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) moves through the forest. Unlike most of the other big cats, it hunts mostly during the day. Photo caught by Panthera Costa Rica’s camera trap. Photo by Osa Camera Trap Network.
This group of collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) wades through a river outside of Corcovado National Park. Photo captured by Osa Safaris camera trap, courtesy of Osa Camera Trap Network.
In the 1990s, there were almost no pumas, tapirs or peccaries outside of parks, said Whitworth, a co-author of the study. Now, according to their findings, many species have recovered completely in the forest reserves around Corcovado National Park, and some of those species have even moved out of the peninsula onto the mainland.
“This is the first kind of real study on an ecosystem-wide scale for almost 30 years, and what we actually see is that for many species, there’s a huge recovery.” Whitworth said. “This shows us that the parks and protected areas … they are working.”
The Osa Peninsula has more than 70% forest coverage and lots of protected areas, “but you can still see the effects of disturbance at the edges of the forests,” Juan Vargas Soto, a Costa Rican scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, told Mongabay. Hunting, roads, and human disturbance are still threats to the forest and the species that live there. “So, it’s very delicate.”
“This study is impressive because of its large scale, both geographically and in terms of the number of species evaluated,” Poulson told Mongabay. “Conducting a study of this magnitude is a logistical nightmare, but they could pull it off because of their strong relationships and collaborations … with local organizations and communities.”
Just outside of Piedras Blancas National Park at Saladero Lodge, Osa Conservation Botanist Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya trains local community members on camera trap monitoring. Photo by Osa Camera Trap Network.
More than a year before the camera traps were put in place, the core group of researchers began talking to landowners and community members across the peninsula to ask for permission to access their land.
“There is a history of conservation in the region, but that doesn’t mean that everyone was on board,” study lead author Vargas-Soto said. “It’s a process.”
The research team worked with existing community organizations and held meetings to explain the goals of the project, train people to use the camera traps, discuss ownership of the data and images, and teach the benefits of wildlife monitoring. Places that rely on ecotourism, for instance, see a benefit from using real photos of animals on their property to draw in visitors.
“When you get a big cat on a property, you can just see how the landowner sort of changes inside,” Flatt said. “They become more proud of their property.” And sometimes, she and Whitworth both said, this changes a landowner’s mind about conservation.
Just outside of Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula, a jaguar (Panthera onca) prowls the old-growth rainforest. While the publication showcases the conservation success of the Osa region, it also highlights areas of concern where conservation and restoration efforts need to be focused in order to preserve key megafauna, including the jaguar. Photo by Osa Camera Trap Network.
Osa Conservation now monitors wildlife activity near Osa Peninsula’s major roads to help guide conservation efforts. Map from Osa Conservation.
Now, Osa Conservation and others are focused on expanding this recovery by creating and protecting wilderness corridors, akin to forested highways where jaguars and other roving species can roam and grow. Osa Conservation has been running camera traps along highways to try to identify suitable areas to install overpasses or underpasses where wildlife can cross safely. They are also engaged in forest restoration along these corridors.
“There are still challenges for those big apex species that need a lot of room, but what kind of conservation story doesn’t have its challenge?” Whitworth said. “I do think it’s very rare that we see this kind of progress in a conservation story.”
Citation:
Vargas Soto, J. S., Beirne, C., Whitworth, A., Diaz, J. C. C., Flatt, E., Pillco-Huarcaya, R., … Molnár, P. K. (2021). Human disturbance and shifts in vertebrate community composition in a biodiversity hotspot. Conservation Biology. doi:10.1111/cobi.13813
Banner image of a jaguar in the Osa Peninsula courtesy of Osa Conservation.
Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay. Find her on Twitter @lizkimbrough_
Editor’s note: This story was supported by XPRIZE Rainforest as part of their five-year competition to enhance understanding of the rainforest ecosystem. In respect to Mongabay’s policy on editorial independence, XPRIZE Rainforest does not have any right to assign, review, or edit any content published with their support.
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Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Camera Trapping, cameras, Citizen Science, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Protected Areas, Rainforest Animals, Rainforest Biodiversity, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforests, Sensors, surveys, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildtech
Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America
Source link : https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/massive-camera-trap-study-shows-conservation-efforts-are-working-on-costa-ricas-osa-peninsula/
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Publish date : 2021-12-13 03:00:00
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