Onça Pintada é encontrada na Estrada Parque

Na última semana, o João, um dos proprietários da Xaraés e o André, nosso motorista, dirigindo pela Estrada Parque, observaram um dos mais belos animais do mundo: a onça-pintada. Este é o terceiro maior felino do mundo e podemos encontrar apenas na América do Sul.

Last week, João, one of Xaraés owners and André, our driver, driving through Estrada Parque, saw one of the most beautiful animals of the world: Jaguar. This is the third biggest cat of the world and we can find only in South America.

Alguns animais que são encontrados no entorno da Xaraés

Quati (Nasua nasua)

Periquito Príncipe Negro (Nandayus nenday)

Carreirada

Arara Azul (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus)

É tempo de Verão!!!!!!!!!!

É tempo de Verão!

Com a chegada do outono e concomitantemente a época de seca, podemos observar agora o Verão (Pyrocephalus rubinus), uma linda e vermelha ave migratória que vem do sul para escapar do frio.

It´s time to Vermilion Flycatcher
Now is autumn, the dry season started and it´s a good time to see the Vermilion Flycatcher, a beautiful and reddish migratory bird that comes from the south to run away of the cold.

Árvores brancas
Preste atenção nos dormitórios das garças brancas grandes e das garças brancas pequenas. Com a chegada do cabeça seca e do colhereiro eles ficarão ainda mais bonitos.

Agradecimento especial para Patricia, Misi e outros hóspedes, pelas fotos.

White trees
Pay atention in the dormitories of Great Egrett and Snowy Egrett. Plus the Woodstorks and Roseate Spoonbill the dormitories will be much more beautiful.
Thanks to Patricia, Misi e other guests for the pictures

Gavião Belo (Busarellus nigricollis) (C) Mihály Bakó, misi at ngo.ro





A Pousada Xaraés agradece o biólogo Pedro Nassar, pelo texto.

RZSS PANTANAL INCIATIVE

The protection of wetlands and related biodiversity is considered of global importance. The Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland and in recent years it has become increasingly threatened by large development programmes and changes in land management practices. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland is currently supporting a Pantanal Conservation and Research initiative coordinated by wildlife biologist Arnaud Desbiez to provide scientific research to look for, implement and evaluate conservation actions and sustainable management strategies.
One of the main focuses of the RZSS Pantanal initiative is the development of a rapid method to evaluate and understand resource use of both domestic and wild herbivores. This is particularly urgent since ranching activities in the region are intensifying and destroying important wildlife habitat. RZSS in partnership with EMBRAPA Pantanal (Brazilian government agricultural research corporation in the Pantanal) are collaborating to create this method. They are in the process of completing software based interactive, illustrated key that will identify and characterize the epidermal cells of plant species found in the fecal samples of all plant eating animals. By understanding the botanical composition of plants consumed by both domestic and wild animals, researchers will understand herbivore foraging strategies and their nutritional needs. This information will be used to evaluate the impacts of land management on wildlife as well as to assess and recommend conservation land management strategies that will benefit both cattle and wildlife.

THE BRAZILIAN PANTANAL

The Brazilian Pantanal

The Pantanal is one of the largest continuous wetlands on the planet, covering approximately 160,000 km² of low elevation floodplain of the upper Rio Paraguay and its tributaries, in the center of the South American continent. The vegetation is influenced by four biomes: Amazon rainforest, Cerrado (predominant), Chaco, and Atlantic Forest. Summers (November-March) are hot and rainy and winters (April-October) are warm and dry. The main ecological factor that determines patterns and processes in the Pantanal is the flooding pulse, which follows an annual, monomodal cycle with amplitudes from 2 to 5 m and a duration of 3 to 6 months. The Pantanal is also subject to a multiyear variation of flooding intensity, with an alternation of high-flood years and significantly drier ones. The different patterns of discharge and sediment load of the Paraguay River and its tributaries, caused by the alternating dry and wet periods, have resulted in a mosaic of geomorphological formations covered by various types of vegetation. This complex mosaic of habitats, soil types, and inundation regimes are responsible for the great variety of vegetation formations and the patchy landscapes, which leads to a rich terrestrial and aquatic biota. Sixteen vegetation classes based on phytophysiognomy have been identified, the most important being grassland (31%), cerrado woodland (cerradão) (22%), cerrado (bush savanna) (14%), marshes (7%), semideciduous forest (4%), gallery forest (2.4%), and floating mats (2.4%).

The region is distinguished for its extraordinary concentration and abundance of wildlife. The Pantanal harbors large populations of charismatic South American species that are threatened by extinction outside this ecosystem, among which are some of the largest populations of the highly threatened Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus), marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus), giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), and jaguar (Panthera onca). In total, there are about 41 species of amphibians, 177 reptiles, and more than 260 fish, roughly 124 species of mammals, and approximately 463 species of birds, making it the richest single wetland site for birds in the world. Nationally, the Pantanal wetland has been recognized as a “National Heritage” by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, while globally several international conventions have recognized the biome as an important wetland (e.g. the Ramsar Convention, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Migratory Species, and the World Heritage Convention). These conventions stress the importance of non-commercial values of ecosystems and place the Pantanal in international networks with similar goals, facilitating the exchange of information and access to international funding and political support. The Pantanal is considered “globally outstanding” (ranked 1 out of 4) in terms of biological distinctiveness and “vulnerable” (ranked 3 out of 5) in terms of conservation, and has “highest priority” (ranked 1 out of 4) in regional priorities for conservation action according to a conservation assessment by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and the Biodiversity Support Program.

An Ecosystem under Threat

Currently, there is a total of 360,000 hectares under protection, corresponding to only 2.6% of the Brazilian Pantanal. There are three National Parks (Pantanal Matogrossense National Park, Chapada dos Guimarães National Park, and Bodoquena National Park) and two Ecological Stations (Taiamã Ecological Station and Serra das Araras Ecological Station) under governmental administration. These areas constitute a total of 264,300 hectares of strictly protected areas in the Brazilian Pantanal and the surrounding Cerrado. There are also a few state parks, environmental protection areas, highway parks, and private protected sites.
Historically, the Pantanal has not had much attention from the national governments of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, the three countries in which it is located. However, during the past few decades, expanding agricultural frontiers along with economic and political changes have brought the region to the forefront of developmental planning and discussion. The governments of all three countries have made major efforts to involve the region in their respective national economic development programs. This is particularly evident in Brazil, which holds approximately 85% of the area. In the mid-1970s, the Brazilian government started several large programs to develop the Pantanal region aimed at intensifying the utilization of its natural resources, and integrate it into the national development plan through the construction of roads and power lines. Since then, nine hydroelectric plants with a total capacity of 323MW have been built in the Pantanal; the project to establish the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline crossing the Pantanal from Corumbá to Campo Grande is in progress; and there is considerable pressure to change the course and canalize the Paraguay River in order to facilitate the inexpensive shipment of soybeans and minerals to the Atlantic Ocean (Paraguay-Paraná Waterway or hidrovia). Indiscriminate development and utilization of the area’s natural resources can lead to large scale, irreversible wetland degradation with adverse effects on the living conditions of wildlife and local human populations.

Another threat to the integrity of the ecosystem is that the traditional methods of low-intensity cattle ranching are rapidly being replaced by more intensive forms of exploitation. Over the past two centuries, low-intensity cattle ranching has been one of the principal economic activities in the Pantanal. Because it maintains the structure, function, biodiversity, and beauty of the landscape, it is considered a sustainable method of utilizing the Pantanal’s natural resources. Today, cattle-ranching still remains as the main economic activity in the region, with approximately 95% of the Pantanal being privately owned and fenced into ranches averaging some 10,000ha. However, increasing economic pressure has led traditional cattle ranchers to increase the number of animals per unit area in an attempt to increase the efficiency of beef production and the economic return of the ranches. The result has been overgrazing and an increased conversion of natural pastures into “artificial” pastures by introduction of exotic grasses (500,000ha of deforested land over the past quarter of a century). In 2000, the total area of original vegetation that had been replaced with exotic grasses was estimated at 12,200km². As a consequence, these activities are estimated to have affected 40% of the forest and savanna habitats of the Brazilian Pantanal.

The increasing concern for the future of the Pantanal has led several Brazilian organizations to establish conservation initiatives in the region. In this aspect, it is fundamental to gather more information and analyze the pros and cons of the various development alternatives, so as to be able to establish a long-term development strategy for the sustainable use of the Pantanal, which integrates the local population in the decision-making process. The establishment of the IPÊ’s long-term lowland tapir project in the Pantanal region will be a very important step in this process due to the key role tapirs play in maintaining critical ecosystem functions and because of IPÊ’s long history and experience in integrating local people into long-term strategic conservation plans. As an indicator species, the tapir is critical for the long-term conservation of the Pantanal.

Pantanal Cowboys

TAPIR CONSERVATION PROJECT

PROJECT SUMMARY


This project aims to investigate the conservation status of the lowland tapir population in a selected field site of the Brazilian Pantanal. The four tapir species are under threat of becoming locally or globally extinct as their numbers decrease in their areas of occurrence in Central and South America, and Southeast Asia. The lowland tapir - Tapirus terrestris - occurs through a wide geographic range from North-Central Colombia and East of the Andes throughout most of tropical South America, and the species’ survival is threatened primarily by habitat destruction and fragmentation, and hunting. The Pantanal is one of the largest continuous wetlands on the planet, covering approximately 160,000 km² of low elevation floodplain of the upper Rio Paraguay and its tributaries, in the center of the South American continent. Although species diversity is not particularly high and endemism is practically absent, the region is notable for its extraordinary concentration and abundance of wildlife. During the past few decades, economic and political changes have increased the pressure on the Pantanal, which has been leading to large scale, irreversible wetland degradation. For the past eleven years, the Brazilian Non-Governmental-Organization IPÊ - Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research) has been carrying out a long-term lowland tapir conservation project in the Atlantic Forests of the Pontal do Paranapanema Region, São Paulo State, Brazil. As a next step in terms of promoting tapir conservation in Brazil, we will be establishing a second “arm” of the project, a lowland tapir long-term conservation initiative in the Pantanal, where virtually no tapir research has ever occurred, and where the threats and conservation issues are very different. Specifically, population demography, habitat use and animal movement, genetic status, and health status will be evaluated in the perspective of establishing a long-term monitoring program. The main goals of this project are to use the data collected to assess the conservation status and viability of the lowland tapir populations in the Brazilian Pantanal, to design a specific set of recommendations for the conservation of lowland tapirs in the region, and to compare the data collected in the Pantanal with results obtained from the Atlantic Forest.



BACKGROUND INFORMATION


The Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris)

The Family Tapiridae along with Equidae and Rhinocerotidae are within the mammalian order Perissodactyla. There are four living tapir species found in Central and South America (T. terrestris, T. bairdii, T. pinchaque), and Southeast Asia (T. indicus). The lowland tapir has been classified as Vulnerable in the 2005 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (A1cd+2c+3c). Furthermore, the species is included on CITES Appendix II, and is also listed as Endangered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Tapirus terrestris occurs through a wide geographic range from North-Central Colombia and East of the Andes throughout most of tropical South America, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. It occurs mostly in tropical lowland rainforest but can also be found in seasonally dry habitats such as the Chaco of Bolivia and Paraguay.

Tapirs play a critical role in shaping and maintaining biological diversity, and function as an indicator species of the health of various tropical ecosystems, and are critical species to key ecological processes, for example, seed predation and dispersal, as well as nutrient recycling. Additionally, the tapir has been widely recognized as a landscape species and can help us investigate and interpret the landscape interrelatedness, and demonstrate the importance of protecting this mosaic of different habitat types found in a given ecosystem.

The IUCN/SSC Tapir Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan (Brooks et al. 1997) along with previous results from field projects suggest that lowland tapirs are threatened, primarily, by habitat degradation, and hunting. Both these factors work in synergy to reduce and isolate tapir populations. The small size of populations, associated with isolation, exposes them to increased demographic, genetic, and environmental pressure, dramatically increasing the probabilities of local extinctions. Population decreases and local extinctions can trigger adverse effects in the ecosystem, causing disruptions of ecological processes, and eventually compromising the long-term integrity and biodiversity of the ecosystem.

Tapir populations occur, mostly, outside of protected areas, where the more severe effects of habitat degradation are being felt. As such, the tapir is in particular danger, because the effects of isolation and the small population size are exacerbated by the tapir’s intrinsically low reproductive rate (inter-birth interval of two years; generally only one young per pregnancy; start breeding at an age of three years), making it harder for populations to recover.

Due to tapirs important role in shaping and maintaining biological diversity, their recognition as an important landscape species, and their threatened status, there is an urgent need to establish conservation projects aiming at developing and implementing long-term, integrated conservation and management plans for tapir populations in all ecosystems and countries of occurrence.

The Pantanal Project: Using the Experience of the Atlantic Forest to Bring New Insight into Tapir Conservation

Since 1996, the Brazilian Non-Governmental-Organization IPÊ - Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research) - has been carrying out a long-term lowland tapir conservation project in the Atlantic Forests of the Pontal do Paranapanema Region, São Paulo State, Brazil. This region includes Morro do Diabo State Park (35,000 ha), one of the last remnants of Atlantic Forest of significant size, and surrounding forest fragments (12,000 ha). The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. The original area covered by the Atlantic Forest when European colonization began in 1500 was ca 1,300,000 km² (12% of the Brazilian territory), stretching from Rio Grande do Norte state at the easternmost tip of South America to as far as Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost Brazilian state. Since that period, the Atlantic Forest has been cleared for timber, firewood, charcoal, agriculture, cattle ranching, and construction of cities reducing it to roughly 7.6% of its original extent, leading to the fragmentation of the entire ecosystem and creating a completely different landscape. These remaining “islands” are under severe anthropogenic pressure, but still harbor enormous levels of biodiversity, containing nearly 7% of the world’s species, many of which are endemic and/or threatened with extinction.

During the past eleven years, IPÊ’s lowland tapir project in the Atlantic Forest has successfully captured, radio-collared and monitored twenty-five (25) tapirs (13 females and 12 males), and has collected hundreds of samples of biological materials, which allowed us to gather a considerable amount of new information about tapir ranging behavior, demography, dispersal patterns, genetics, epidemiology, and feeding ecology. This was the first long-term tapir conservation initiative carried out in Brazil and has provided IPÊ with a detailed database of information about the conservation status and needs of tapirs in the fragmented landscape of the Pontal do Paranapanema Region. The main approach of this project has been to investigate tapirs under the landscape context, using these animals as landscape detectives in the process of identifying and mapping their principal dispersal routes and pathways in the landscape, and therefore the potential areas to be restored and conserved as wildlife corridors or stepping-stones. As a consequence, this project has allowed IPÊ to have a significant institutional impact in the process of restoring tapir habitat and reinforcing the public protection of existing protected areas and creating new protected areas in the region. Information obtained through this project was used to rank the priority forest fragments for tapir conservation in the region and, as a result, in June 2002, the Secretary of the Environment for the São Paulo State created the “Black-Lion-Tamarin Ecological Station” including four (4) forest fragments in the surroundings of Morro do Diabo State Park. Most importantly, this project generated the necessary pieces of information needed for the design of a Regional Action Plan for the conservation and management of lowland tapirs in the region. The development of this plan is under way and its implementation will be carried out over the next few years. This project has also contributed data for two Ph.D. Dissertations, two M.Sc. Dissertations, and two B.Sc. theses.

The next step IPÊ will be taking in terms of continuing to promote the conservation of lowland tapirs in Brazil is, therefore, to expand our research and conservation initiatives to other regions of the country, more specifically to other types of ecosystems. Lowland tapir research has expanded significantly over the past few years, and today, additional information continues to arrive from several field researchers and organizations carrying out a wide variety of research on and conservation initiatives for lowland tapirs. However, the information obtained about the ecology of the species in different countries and types of habitat demonstrate that tapirs in different areas present diverse ecological and management requirements.

Through the establishment of new lowland tapir research initiatives in different regions of Brazil, IPÊ aims to create a comprehensive, comparative perspective for the conservation of this species and investigate its ecology in ecosystems different from the Atlantic Forest. Results coming from other ecosystems will help us to better frame our results obtained in the Atlantic Forest, and likewise, using our previous experience and knowledge from the Atlantic Forest we will be much better equipped to interpret and make useful conclusions from our new data obtained in new field sites. Additionally, by comparing the information gathered about tapirs throughout different Brazilian ecosystems we will have a clear understanding about how tapirs behave in different ecosystems, and under different levels of disturbance and landscape matrices. Likewise, we will have a better understanding of tapir ecology and conservation needs, and we will be able to evaluate the importance and magnitude of the ecological factors affecting tapir populations throughout the country. Ultimately, we will then be able to promote the development and effective implementation of conservation and management strategies for specific tapir populations throughout their entire range.
With all these different aspects in mind, IPÊ has selected the Brazilian Pantanal as the next field site to be established. Firstly because are extreme differences between the Pantanal and the Atlantic Forest ecosystems in terms of ecological and landscape aspects, threats and conservation issues, as well as in terms of land use and social aspects create an exciting opportunity to compare results between both areas, and pose new and different conservation and management challenges. Secondly because virtually no tapir research has ever been carried out in the Pantanal.

PROJETO ANTA NO PANTANAL

Iniciativa Nacional de Conservação da Anta Brasileira - Uma Nova Abordagem para a Conservação da Anta no Brasil

Desde 1996, a bióloga da conservação Patrícia Medici e a organização não-governamental IPÊ - Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas - vêm desenvolvendo um projeto de pesquisa e conservação da Anta Brasileira na Mata Atlântica da região do Pontal do Paranapanema, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Esta foi a primeira iniciativa de longo-prazo para a conservação da espécie no Brasil. O Pontal inclui o Parque Estadual Morro do Diabo (35.000 hectares), um dos últimos remanescentes de Mata Atlântica do interior de tamanho significativo, e fragmentos de floresta do entorno. A Mata Atlântica é um dos biomas mais ameaçados do planeta e está atualmente reduzida e fragmentada a 7% de seu tamanho original. Durantes os últimos 12 anos, Patrícia capturou, equipou com rádio-colar e monitorou continuamente 25 antas na área de estudo da Mata Atlântica. Isto possibilitou à equipe coletar uma enorme quantidade de dados e centenas de amostras de material biológico, gerando um banco de informações sobre área de uso, demografia, genética, epidemiologia, ecologia alimentar e muitos outros aspectos, informações estas de suma importância para o desenvolvimento de um Plano de Ação Regional para a Pesquisa e Conservação da Anta Brasileira na Mata Atlântica. Este Plano de Ação está atualmente em processo de desenvolvimento e será implementado durante o decorrer dos próximos anos.

Patrícia está neste momento dando novos passos em termos de promover a conservação da Anta Brasileira no Brasil. Patrícia e sua equipe estão estabelecendo a Iniciativa Nacional de Conservação da Anta Brasileira e expandindo seu alcance em termos de pesquisa e conservação da espécie para outras regiões do país, especificamente para outros biomas. Através do estabelecimento de projetos de pesquisa sobre a anta em diferentes regiões do país, Patrícia tem como meta criar uma perspectiva compreensiva e comparativa para a conservação da espécie, investigando sua ecologia em biomas diferentes da Mata Atlântica. Comparar a informação coletada sobre as antas em diferentes regiões vai permitir à Patrícia e sua equipe obter um entendimento mais claro sobre como as antas se comportam em diferentes biomas, sob diferentes níveis de distúrbio e diferentes matrizes de paisagem. Com isso, a equipe terá um melhor entendimento sobre a ecologia da anta e suas demandas conservacionistas e será capaz de avaliar a importância e magnitude dos fatores ecológicos afetando diferentes populações da espécie em diferentes regiões do país. Como consequência, Patrícia e sua equipe poderão promover o desenvolvimento e implementação de estratégias de conservação da Anta Brasileira específicas para diferentes partes da distribuição geográfica da espécie. Com base em todos estes aspectos, Patrícia e o IPÊ escolheram o Pantanal Brasileiro como o próximo site de estudo a ser estabelecido. A equipe de Patrícia está neste momento em processo de selecionar três áreas de estudo para o novo Projeto Anta Pantanal como parte da Iniciativa Nacional de Conservação da Anta Brasileira, áreas estas que deverão representar três diferentes tipos de Pantanal. A Pousada Xaraés foi selecionada como a primeira destas áreas de estudo e Patrícia e sua equipe já estão dando início às suas atividades de campo na área. Os próximos biomas brasileiros considerados para o estabelecimento de projetos anta no futuro próximo são a Amazônia e o Cerrado.

Para maiores informações sobre a Iniciativa Nacional de Conservação da Anta Brasileira e sobre o IPÊ, por favor visite: http://www.ipe.org/

Para maiores informações sobre a conservação de antas em geral, por favor visite: http://www.tapirs.org/

PACOTE TURISMO-CIENTÍFICO

A Pousada Xaraés fez uma nova parceria com o Projeto Anta Pantaneira e lança novos pacotes para o acompanhamento das atividades de 27/05 a 14/06. Venha fazer parte desta equipe!!!