BIRDS AND MAMMALS AS INDICATORS OF THE CONSERVATION STATUS OF TROPICAL FORESTS IN THE ECUADORIAN CHOCO

In 2008 and 2009 I surveyed birds and certain mammals using the 'Multi Time-Window Transect-Mapping' (MTW) monitoring protocol sensu Jahn (in press), in order to determine the conservation status of particular sites within the privately-managed Awacachi Biological Corridor, Esmeraldas Province, northwestern Ecuador. Here I focus on the bird data for three (of a total of six) transects, whereas the results for mammals are only considered in order to assess the impact of hunting. The 1200-m transects were located within forest between 50 and 610 m a.s.l. Field work was performed during the rainy season in March and April 2008 (total effort 173.3 h, 20 man-days). With a total of 8049 observations, I detected 226 avian species, including 43 endemics, 17 globally threatened or near-threatened taxa, and 64 species listed in the same threat categories on the national level. Species richness was much higher in the disturbed lowland forest (AWAC1) than in the pristine foothill forest of AWAC3 and AWAC4, with 158, 125, and 124 bird taxa, respectively However, the remotest and least species-rich transect (AWAC4) had the highest bird community index value (BCIforest = 2.54) and also the highest proportions of endemics (24.2 %) and threatened species (world: 8.6 %; Ecuador: 35.5 %). In conclusion, avian species richness by itself is a poor indicator of the conservation value of study sites. Instead, the sites should be ranked on the basis of a detailed comparison of habitat preferences and threat status of their respective bird communities. In addition, the abundance of game species is a good indicator of the impact of hunting at the study sites, with larger mammals, such as Mazama americana and Cebus capucinus, and some sensitive game birds, viz. Penelope ortoni, Ara ambiguus, and Cephalopterus penduliger, only detected at the remote transects of La Carolina ridge.