maio, 13 2019

by Jorge Eduardo Dantas

The latest video from the “Residents of the Forest” series, promoted by WWF-Brazil since last year, focusses on two Amazonian birds: the White-Winged Trumpeter (Psophia leucoptera) and the Spix’s Guan (Penelope jacquacu). They are threatened by hunting, loss and degradation of their habitats and the illegal trade of wild animals.

The previously unseen images, obtained exclusively by WWF-Brasil, were captured in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (Resex), in the brazilian State of Acre. They show the birds within dense tropical forests, feeding, and at times sharing the screen with other animals such as monkeys and rodents.
 
See the video:
 
Social bird
 
The White-Einged Trumpeter (Psophia leucoptera) gets its name from the large white spot covering its back. It weights up to 1.5 kilos and measures between 45 and 52 centimeters in length. It is found to the south of the Amazon river and west of the Madeira river, all the way to Peru and Bolivia. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, but also includes insects, such as beetles, ants, and termites.
 
It is a very sociable animal, which lives in groups of between three and twelve individuals and uses a complex repertoire of sounds and noises to communicate. Additionally, it practices a rare type of mating called “cooperative polyandry” in which a dominant female mates with two or three males and gets all the adults from the group to help raise their offspring.
 
Relatives
 
The Spix’s Guan (Penelope jacquacu) is between 76 and 81 centimeters in length. The male can weigh up to 1.6 kilos, and the female 1.4 kilos. Besides Brazil, it can also be found in several other South America countries, such as Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guiana, Peru, and Venezuela. Its diet is composed mainly of fruits, but it also eats shoots, grain, and insects.
 
The bird is known as “Jacu” in Brazil, which is actually used for seven different species of bird, which we can say are distant relatives of the peacock, originally from Asia. The main characteristics of the Jacu are the whiteish edges on the head, neck, back, and breast feathers; and a type of red “beard” on its throat.
 
Residents of the Forest
 
The official WWF-Brasil channels have been screening the web series “Residents of the Forest” since last year. The videos show exclusive footage of the biodiversity found within the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (Resex).
 
Among the animals featured on the videos already released are the pacarana (Dinomys branickii), and the tapir (Tapirus terrestris), as well as some canids and anteaters from the Amazon.
 
The footage is taken by camera traps – normal cameras, fitted with technological improvements and suitable for the wild environment. They are hidden and tied to trees, and work using light sensors. Every time an animal passes in front of the equipment the camera is activated, to either take photos or begin recording video.
  
Effects of exploration
 
The work with camera traps is a partnership between WWF-Brasil and other institutions, such as the Community Forest Producers Cooperative (Cooperfloresta) and the Residents and Producers Association of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in Xapuri (Amoprex).
 
Its aim is to monitor the conditions of the existing biodiversity in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, which includes forestry management work and therefore coexists with the controlled extraction of timber.
 
The monitoring provided by the camera traps seeks to check what impacts this exploration has on the local fauna and what type of measures can be taken to reduce such impacts.
 
The conservation analyst from WWF-Brasil, Moacyr Araújo, affirmed that one of the main benefits of this work is the amount of information that it makes available. “Besides obtaining biological images and information about the species of wild Amazonian fauna, the series “Residents of the Forest” shows that even in a region with forest management, a high diversity of animals exists,” he explained.