Baseline for monitoring and habitat use of medium to large non-volant mammals in Gran Sabana, Venezuela

Stachowicz, Izabela; R., Ferrer-Paris José; Quiroga-Carmona, Marcial; Morán, Lisandro; Lozano, Cecilia

doi:10.12933/therya-20-891

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The vegetation type had the most significant role explaining the abundance pattern of both herbivores and carnivorous species in the study area (Table 3; Stachowicz et al, 2020). Most species modeled, except the crab-eating fox, were more abundant in areas with higher cover trees, which may correspond with forest and shrublands (Table 3).…”

Section: Current Pattern Of Wildlife Abundancementioning

confidence: 97%

“…We used data from a previous camera trap survey conducted between September 2015 -April 2016. The original sampling design was developed to optimize covering habitat diversity in order to evaluate how mammal species richness is related to habitat types, and is described in detail in Stachowicz et al (2020), but we provide here a brief summary of the initial setting and how we adapted data a posteriori for our analysis. Sampling design comprised six 50 km 2 blocks within the study area (B01-B06).…”

Section: Sampling Design and Camera Trap Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this study, we calculated tree cover, distance to nearest conuco and river as covariates of species abundance (Supplemental Information 1). Previous analysis suggested that most mammal species in the study area are more associated with forest habitat than shrubs or savanna (Stachowicz et al, 2020). We used mean tree cover (in percentage) as a quantitative variable correlated with these habitat types and consistent with metrics used for the sampling design.…”

Section: Predictive Variables: Tree Cover Distance To River and Distance To Conucomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As site covariates we used tree cover percentage around the camera trap (tree_buffer), distance to river (dist_river), and distance to nearest conuco (dist_conuco), all variables were standardized to zero mean and unit standard deviation. Since a couple of species might be associated with shrub habitat with intermediate values of tree cover (Stachowicz et al, 2020) we added a quadratic term (tree_buffer 2 ) to their models.…”

Section: Data Analysis: Testing Garding Hunting Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While in lowland Amazon the role and magnitude of external factors driving increasing hunting rates have been studied on local and regional scale (Peres, 2000;Zapata-Ríos, Urgilés & Suárez, 2009;Constantino, 2015;Gray, Bozigar & Bilsborrow, 2015), these patterns remain understudied in the northern, highland Amazon. This is particularly critical since prey abundance or density patterns in this region are poorly known (Hollowell & Reynolds, 2005;Lim et al, 2005;Stachowicz et al, 2020). Indigenous communities in Latin and Central America obtain dietary protein mainly through fishing and hunting (Bennett & Robinson, 2000), while shifting cultivation provides them with vegetables, tubers, and some fruits (Rodríguez, 2004;Smith, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shifting cultivation and hunting across the savanna-forest mosaic in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela: facing changes

Stachowicz

Sánchez-Mercado

2021

PeerJ

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Background Human encroachment and overexploitation of natural resources in the Neotropics is constantly increasing. Indigenous communities all across the Amazon, are trapped between a population rise and a hot debate about the sustainability of hunting rates. The Garden Hunting hypothesis states that shifting cultivation schemes (conucos) used by Amazon indigenous communities may generate favorable conditions, increasing abundance of small and medium wildlife species close to the ‘gardens’ providing game for indigenous hunters. Methods Here, we combined camera trap surveys and spatially explicit interview dataset on Pemón indigenous hunting scope and occurrence in a mosaic of savanna and forest in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela to evaluate to what extent the wildlife resource use corresponds to Garden Hunting hypothesis. We applied the Royle–Nichols model and binomial regression in order to: (1) assess whether abundance of small and medium wildlife species is higher close to conucos and (2) evaluate whether hunters select hunting localities based on accessibility to wildlife resources (closeness to conuco) more than wildlife abundance. Results We find mixed evidence supporting the Garden Hunting hypothesis predictions. Abundance of small and medium species was high close to conucos but the pattern was not statistically significant for most of them. Pemón seem to hunt in locations dominated by forest, where species abundance was predicted to be higher, than in close vicinity to conucos. Hunting scope was focused on the most abundant species located close to the conuco (Cuniculus paca), but also in less abundant and unavailable species (Crax alector, Tapirus terrestris and Odocoileus virginianus). Conclusions Our research provided the first attempt of a systematic sampling survey in the Gran Sabana, generating a quantitative dataset that not only describes the current pattern of wildlife abundance, but sets the base-line to monitor temporal and spatial change in this region of highland Amazon. We discuss the applicability of the estimates generated as a baseline as well as, environmental challenges imposed by economic, social and cultural changes such as mining encroachment for wildlife management.

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Section: Current Pattern Of Wildlife Abundancementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Sampling Design and Camera Trap Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Predictive Variables: Tree Cover Distance To River and Distance To Conucomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Analysis: Testing Garding Hunting Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shifting cultivation and hunting across the savanna-forest mosaic in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela: facing changes

Stachowicz

Sánchez-Mercado

2021

PeerJ

Self Cite

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Claws and Fangs: Carnivore Abundance and the Conservation Importance of Amazonia

de Oliveira,

Lima,

Fox-Rosales

2023

Amazonian Mammals

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Leveraging limited data from wildlife monitoring in a conflict affected region in Venezuela

Stachowicz,

Ferrer-Paris,

Sánchez-Mercado

2024

Sci Rep

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Efficient monitoring of biodiversity-rich areas in conflict-affected areas with poor rule of law requires a combination of different analytical approaches to account for data biases and incompleteness. In the upland Amazon region of Venezuela, in Canaima National Park, we initiated biodiversity monitoring in 2015, but it was interrupted by the establishment of a large-scale mining development plan in 2016, compromising the temporal and geographical extent of monitoring and the security of researchers. We used a resource selection function model framework that considers imperfect detectability and supplemented detections from camera trap surveys with opportunistic off-camera records (including animal tracks and direct sighting) to (1) gain insight into the value of additional occurrence records to accurately predict wildlife resource use in the perturbated area (deforestation, fire, swidden agriculture, and human settlements vicinity), (2) when faced with security and budget constraints. Our approach maximized the use of available data and accounted for biases and data gaps. Adding data from poorly sampled areas had mixed results on estimates of resource use for restricted species, but improved predictions for widespread species. If budget or resources are limited, we recommend focusing on one location with both on-camera and off-camera records over two with cameras. Combining camera trap records with other field observations (28 mammals and 16 birds) allowed us to understand responses of 17 species to deforestation, 15 to fire, and 13 to swidden agriculture. Our study encourages the use of combinations of methods to support conservation in high-biodiversity sites, where access is restricted, researchers are vulnerable, and unequal sampling efforts exist.

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Baseline for monitoring and habitat use of medium to large non-volant mammals in Gran Sabana, Venezuela

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

Shifting cultivation and hunting across the savanna-forest mosaic in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela: facing changes

Shifting cultivation and hunting across the savanna-forest mosaic in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela: facing changes

Claws and Fangs: Carnivore Abundance and the Conservation Importance of Amazonia

Leveraging limited data from wildlife monitoring in a conflict affected region in Venezuela

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