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Published on: November 20, 2017
Quantifying spatial patterns of game vertebrate abundance in Amazonian forests through local ecological
Ricardo Sampaio1,2, Ronaldo G Morato1, Mark I Abrahams3
1Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Mamíferos Carnívoros (CENAP), Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), Atibaia, São Paulo, Brasil.
Summary
Local ecological knowledge (LEK) effectively assesses wildlife abundance, especially for large, hunted species in the Brazilian Amazon. This low-cost method complements camera trapping, proving valuable where conservation efforts are limited.
Area of Science:
- Conservation Science
- Tropical Ecology
- Wildlife Management
Background:
- Assessing anthropogenic impacts on tropical forest wildlife is crucial for conservation in low-governance areas.
- Local ecological knowledge (LEK) and camera trapping (CT) are common wildlife sampling methods.
- Comparing LEK and CT effectiveness in community-based resource management is needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the effectiveness of LEK and CT in assessing hunting impacts on wildlife in the Brazilian Amazon.
- To evaluate how species traits influence LEK and CT data.
- To determine the utility of LEK for wildlife abundance assessment in data-scarce regions.
Main Methods:
- Conducted interviews with 187 subsistence hunters to gather LEK on 17 focal species occurrences.
- Deployed 631 camera traps (CT) to collect wildlife data across 70 community catchments.
- Correlated species occurrence distances from communities derived from LEK and CT data.
Main Results:
- LEK estimates showed stronger correlations with species abundance than occupancy.
- Large-bodied, harvest-sensitive species (e.g., tapir, peccary, curassow) were depleted >15 km from communities.
- LEK precision improved with independent data on local game species abundance.
Conclusions:
- LEK is a valuable tool for assessing local wildlife abundance, particularly for large species vulnerable to hunting.
- LEK provides reliable data in regions lacking alternative sampling methods and conservation resources.
- LEK and CT provide complementary data for understanding human impacts on tropical wildlife.
Keywords:
biodiversity measurementcaceríadefaunacióndefaunationgame managementgestión de caceríamedición de la biodiversidadmodelos de ocupación multiespeciemultispecies occupancy modelingsubsistence huntingsustainable‐use protected areasáreas protegidas de uso sustentable动物灭绝可持续利用保护地多物种占域模型狩猎管理生物多样性测量生计狩猎
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