Macaw Research Publication summaries

A summary of a publication by Donald J. Brightsmith, Director of the Tambopata Macaw Project: Title: Rainforest Expeditions and Earthwatch as funding partners for macaw (Ara spp.) Research in southeastern Peru Ecotourism has been touted as an effective way to conserve natural areas by providing employment for local people and generating income for conservation. However, ecotourism can also effectively support scientific research. In addition, working with paying volunteers can provide funding and manpower for research projects. I examined the effectiveness of ecotourism and volunteers as mechanisms to facilitate conservation research through a case study of the Tambopata Macaw Project, an ongoing macaw and parrot ecology research project in southeastern Peru. Over the past 7 years the project has worked closely with Rainforest Expeditions, a for-profit ecotourism company, and the Earthwatch Institute, an NGO that uses volunteers to fund scientific research. Rainforest Expeditions hosted the project at their lodge, the Tambopata Research Center, and provided the project with about $40,000 per year worth of salaries, donations, transportation, food, lodging, and logistics. Since 2001, Earthwatch has provided 328 volunteers and $18,000 per year in research funding. The logistics of using volunteer-based funding and working in an ecotourism lodge poses unique challenges. The combination of ecotourism and volunteer groups has great potential and should be considered for research projects using labor intensive methods to conduct long term monitoring and basic natural history studies of charismatic species like macaws and parrots. Complete article published in ORNITOLOGIA NEOTROPICAL 19, 2008, pp1-9. A summary of the article entitled: The roles of soil characteristics and toxin adsorption in avian geophagy by Donald J. Brightsmith, John Taylor, Timothy D. Phillips Geophagy, the intentional ingestion of soil, is a widespread phenomenon whose function is still debated. Recent studies suggest that consumed soils adsorb dietary toxins and provide sodium. However, quantification of soil choice has been absent from most studies, prohibiting the direct comparison of soil use and characteristics. To determine correlates among bird use and soil characteristics, we analyzed physical structure, mineral composition, and alkaloid adsorption (14 soil characteristics in total) for 22 soil samples from a riverbank “clay lick” used by macaws and parrots (family Psittacidae) in Amazon lowland forests in the Tambopata region of southeastern Peru. We quantified bird preferences through photographic mapping. Mineral concentrations were determined using analyses designed to approximate the mineral availability in the vertebrate stomach. The sodium levels in the soil were much higher than in food plants consumed by parrots in this region. Both adsorption of quinine, the model alkaloid used, and sodium concentration correlated significantly with bird use. Sodium explained a much higher percentage of the variation in bird use than quinine adsorption. However, the analyses were complicated by the high degree of correlation among soil variables: clay percentage and sodium concentration were highly correlated with each other and with bird use, making it impossible to determine which of these may have the greater contribution to bird preference. The results suggest that the soils consumed provide an important source of dietary sodium and adsorb alkaloid toxins.