Bats and Shade Coffee

Kim Williams-Guillen, our director of conservation science, has been studying fragmented wildlife habitat and conservation corridors in the coffee-growing regions of Chiapas, Mexico. Like many others, she's been testing the theory that shade-grown coffee plantations help ensure greater biodiversity in neighboring forests than do traditional cultivation methods, where coffee is grown more intensively in deforested areas (they do). Unlike scientists who've measured biodiversity before her, Kim's focus has been on aerial insectivorous bats.

Using acoustic monitoring and live captures, Kim and co-author Ivette Perfecto have been measuring the feeding activity and biodiversity of bat populations in open and forested areas. Their findings suggest that shaded coffee plantations provide more valuable foraging habitat and that several species of bats commute through low-shade coffee monocultures. Providing valuable ecosystems services (as pollinators and pest controllers), bats are as important to managed habitats as managed habitats are to bats. Kim and her co-author conclude with a reminder that "multiple social, political, and ecological considerations influence which model best suits a region when planning the integration of agricultural areas into landscape-scale conservation plans."

You can read the paper she's just published here.

Leatherback hatchlings

Do you remember the Leatherback who nested at Brasilon Beach? We have watched as 38 of her eggs have hatched so far! We hope to count several more over the next day.

Doing Away With Disposable Plastics

We've just received a press release from our friend Wallace J. Nichols:

As ocean pollution experts meet in Hawaii, disturbing new report chronicles effects of decades of plastic pollution on sea turtles—and what we can do about it.
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Experts on plastic pollution from around the world, determined to solve this growing problem, have gathered this week for the Fifth International Marine Debris Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, a mecca for green sea turtles.  

Now, in a recent editorial published in the Marine Turtle Newsletter, marine biologists Colette Wabnitz, PhD, of the University of British Columbia and Wallace "J." Nichols, PhD, of the California Academy of Sciences, lay out the entire disturbing history of plastics in the ocean, from the first scientific report to the latest surveys, to call attention to the concerns from 1972 to today. The report is grim, but provides a ray of hope in the form of proactive steps that can and should be undertaken to curtail overproduction and careless discard of single-use plastics.

The authors were careful to acknowledge that certain plastics have done much good in the world. The report firmly lays the blame at the feet of so-called "disposable" plastics: commonly used beer cups, water bottles and caps, grocery bags, plastic utensils, and so forth, intended to be used just once and thrown away. While these plastics are cheap and convenient, they are also durable and buoyant—making for a potent and deadly combination in the water.

Though plastics like these do break down from exposure to sunlight and other elements, the molecules of plastic never fully biodegrade—they just break into smaller and smaller pieces but never completely disappear. Eventually, many of these small particles get blown or washed into tributaries that feed rivers which flow to the ocean where plastics coalesce in ocean currents. Here they swirl in the eddying currents forming a sort of plastic soup where they float virtually forever and are often—the whole pieces and broken bits—ingested by the creatures of the sea. Once in the guts they can do great harm, or even kill, animals such as sea turtles.
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"Sea turtle researchers and conservationists have a unique role to play in our cultural evolution away from plastic pollution, as we have watched the havoc the surge of plastic has caused first hand", notes Dr. Colette Wabnitz of the University of British Columbia.

"Sea turtle researchers from around the world have been submitting photos of interactions with plastic to the Image Library on Seaturtle.org. Given the amount of disposable plastic I see alongside the road everyday and the garbage my kids pick up whenever we go to the beach, the results are not surprising", added Dr. Michael Coyne, founder and director of SeaTurtle.org.

Learn more: http://www.seaturtle.org/plasticpollution/

Vampire Bats

Kim Williams-Guillén, our director of conservation science, has shared another gigapan image, this one from a vampire bat cave.

Click here to visit the Gigapan page and zoom in and out.

Waves of Change

Liza Gonzalez, Paso Pacifico's national director, has received a scholarship from the Ocean Conservancy to attend the Fifth International Marine Debris Conference in Hawaii later this month.

Liza will represent Nicaragua at this annual symposium which brings ocean conservationists together from around the world to:

• Heighten global understanding and appreciation of the threats posed by marine debris, the cost to coastal communities and marine biodiversity, and the sources of marine debris 
• Highlight recent advances in marine debris research 
• Encourage sharing of strategies and best practices to assess, reduce, and prevent the impacts of marine debris 
• Provide an opportunity for the development of collaborative solutions to real problems, including specific bilateral or multi-country strategies 
• Emphasize the importance of individual behavioural change in preventing marine debris

Liza is well suited to represent Central American concerns at this conference. A trained ecologist, before she came to Paso Pacifico, Liza helped develop strategies for the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor project and managed all of Nicaragua's national parks and protected areas. As our national director, Liza overseas beach cleanups and ocean conservation programs on both of Nicaragua's coasts.

Jaguar Conservation

Threatened throughout its range and long considered locally extinct across wide areas of the western slope of northern Central America, the jaguar (Panthera onca) is a top priority for our habitat restoration and wildlife corridor efforts. Teaming up with wildlife biologist, Miguel Ordeñana, Paso Pacifico is working to mitigate the loss of jaguars resulting from hunting and human-wildlife conflict in the Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor in the Rivas province of Nicaragua.

Over the past six months, Paso Pacífico has documented the presence of multiple jaguars in the Rivas province through camera traps and track surveys. We have captured photos of a male individual and documented tracks of a female with four cubs. We have also conducted over fifty interviews with local people across Rivas, receiving multiple reports of a melanistic jaguar (also known as a black panther) in the area, with the most recent sighting in June 2010. Ocelots, Jaguarondi, and Puma have also been documented through tracks, interviews, and photos across the isthmus.

Ranching is one of the primary agricultural activities in the area where we work, and cattle deaths attributed to jaguars have led to ranchers killing jaguars. Hunting pressure on big cats is increased by the trade in pelts. While the wildlife trade and the hunting of endangered cats are illegal, Nicaraguan law enforcement does not have the resources to respond to threats to wildlife. To protect jaguars, it is necessary to develop direct relationships and with local people and locally-based hunters.

East of Paso del Istmo lies another corridor of concern, connecting to the Jaguar Conservation Unit of Nicaragua's Indio Maiz Biological Reserve. South of the Paso del Istmo corridor is the Jaguar Conservation Unit of the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica. We hope to strengthen big cat populations by creating a buffer through the expansion of conservation efforts across the international border.

You can help us increase protection and improve connectivity for jaguar populations (Panthera onca) in southwestern Nicaragua and the Jaguar Conservation Unit of northern Costa Rica, by donating to our jaguar conservation efforts.