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Red-fronted Macaw Conservation Programme

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Monitoring and investigation

Population and breeding bird censuses. Censuses conducted during the 2008 breeding season (January-April) at 28 sites recorded a total of 472 individuals (Table 2), with the greatest number of nesting sites and individuals occurring on the Mizque River. The greatest concentration of macaws in the Mizque valley is found at San Carlos, the site of the Red-fronted Macaw Ecolodge and the recently created reserve. At each site, in addition to a population census, breeding birds are censused by recording the number of active nests. To facilitate monitoring, the location of active nests is documented with photographs.


table2

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Breeding cliffs are photographed to map the location of nests.

Breeding cliffs are photographed to map the location of nests.

Cenuses conducted during the non-breeding season recorded similar numbers of birds in each of the three regions. Foraging flocks ranged in size from about 80 individuals in the Caine area to as many as 250 in the Mizque region. Nearly all observations of forgaging during the non-breeding season occurred in peanut or maize fields.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the financial support provided by Naomi Lupka Trust and the Olewine Family, Ministero dell’ Ambiente della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare and WWF-Italy, Thomas Henry Wilson Sr. and Jr., Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Conservation des Espèces et des Populations Animales, forPlanet, Newquay Zoo, Twycross Zoo, Vogelpark Walsrode and Wendy’s Parrots. We thank the mayors and town councils of Omereque, Toro Toro and Saipina for their support of our efforts. Education activities in Julo Chico and Toro Toro were possible thanks to the support and collaboration of Eliana Flores and Jhonny Paredes of Food for the Hungry-Bolivia, the Toro Toro Guide Association and Toro Toro National Park. We are grateful to Gabriela Bascopé, Darwin Condortt, Silvana Suárez Sosa, Ricardo Bosco Da Sousa, Naira Campero Flores, Guina Nina Quenta and Daniel Manicho for vounteering their time and services to provide important medical and dental attention to the residents of Amaya, Perereta and San Carlos; and to Elibeth Pereda
Illegal trade. Armonía continues to monitor the illegal wild bird trade in the cities of Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, and in 2009 will begin a study to determine the extent of Red-fronted Macaw trade through the city of Sucre, located at the southern extreme of the species’ range.
Radio telemetry study. In 2008 Sebastian Herzog, Armonía’s Science Director, and ornithologist Anahí Paca initiated a radio telemetry study. The aim of the project Movement ranges and population connectivity of the Endangered Red-fronted Macaw in the southern Bolivian Andes is to determine: (1) daily and seasonal movement ranges and habitat use on breeding and wintering grounds; (2) relationships between land use cover at breeding cliffs and daily movement ranges of breeding macaws; (3) migration routes between wintering and breeding areas and the degree of winter site fidelity; (4) the degree of connectivity between breeding subpopulations. The study will not only elucidate unknown aspects of the spatial ecology of Red-fronted Macaw, but also will contribute greatly to a better understanding of the conservation challenges that it faces in the near future. Radio tracking of five birds fitted with transmitters has been on-going since August (See telemetry project interim report).

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