Looking at the role of local communities for wildlife conservation

Peter Damerell, a recent masters degree graduate from Imperial College London has recently arrived in Pucon. Peter intends to use a variety of research techniques including participatory film making to investigate the relationships that local people have with their environment. An additional study which looks at some of the past outreach work is designed to help future outreach programs maximize their potential influence.

Capacity building event for ecoturism guides

A training seminar was held in the Municipality of Pucon, 2, 5 and 6 July 2009 to develop capacity for sustainable tourism in the region of Araucania. Nico Galvez presented a comprehensive presentation on local biodiversity, particularly focusing on recognition of wildlife signs, such as tracks in the case of mammals and bird calls. The seminar was organised by environmental consultants, Camina, as part of the development of a network of ecotourism ventures, in which our field station in Pichares and the Kod kod restaurant are participating.

Güiña project is the project of the month at the IUCN Cat specialist group

Our Güiña project (Leopardus guigna) is the project of the month at the Cat Specialist Group of the IUCN.

You can access and see more at http://www.catsg.org/catsgportal/project-o-month/20_potm/home/index_en.htm

Puma (Puma concolor) predation verification workshop with SAG Officials of the Araucanía / Taller de verificación de predación por Puma (Puma concolor

On June Fourth, a workshop was held with Wildlife Service officials of the Araucanía Region as a capacity building activity for recognition of signs of Puma predation on livestock.  Fauna Australis together with  Fauna Andina went over Puma ecology, human dimension and management.  A key part of the workshop was a detailed description of diagnostic predation signs of Puma compared to dogs as well as a verification protocol.

El 4 de Junio, se realizó un taller con oficiales representantes de todas las oficinas SAG de la Araucanía sobre verificación de denuncias y reconocimiento de predación de Puma al ganado doméstico.  Fauna  Australis y Fauna Andina describieron las investigaciónes en curso relacionadas con la ecología, percepción humana y manejo del Puma en la Araucanía.  Parte importante del taller describió los signos característicos de predación por Puma, como también, una propuesta de protocolo de verificación.

Puma Density Study Underway

Good puma management requires knowledge of puma population density. Given their low densities and cryptic and crepuscular nature, biologists have long struggled with the challenges of censusing puma populations and have only overcome this problem through long-term radio telemetry studies that attempt to mark all the animals in the population. However, recently Kelly et al. (2008) developed a camera trapping methodology to successfully census pumas in Central America and a forested environment in South America. Currently, no reliable estimate exists for puma populations in temperate rainforest, nor have puma densities been estimated outside of a national park or reserve using camera traps. Considering the Darwin Initiative´s extensive experience with camera trapping, we are ideally placed to assess puma density in the Araucanía Lake Region. Camera trapping work began on April 20th and will continue until July 20th.

Subhira plays concert in aid of the Cañi Sanctuary

11 Feb 2009. Chilean singer-songwriter Subhira played tracks from his album "Cañi" to a full house at the Kod kod restaurant/bar. The event raised $CLP 100.000 towards improving infrastructure in the Cañi Sanctuary, a private land conservation initiative to protect an ancient landscape of Araucaria trees, a short (but steep) hike uphill from the restaurant.

Field station restaurant opens for summer season 2009

The new restaurant and bar, Kod kod, at our field station site in Pichares, Pucon opened for the summer season to the public on 12 January 2009. The restaurant is aimed at bringing tourists in closer contact with the local environment and the issues affecting its conservation. We had a very successful and lively summer with live music 4 nights per week. Our organic vegetable gardens, woodland walk, and adventure playground are a unique part of the Kod kod experience, which looks set to establish itself as an important new tourist destination in the future 

Fauna Australis hold birds-of-prey seminar

17 November 2009. II International Seminar on Medicine and Conservation of birds of prey was held in Santiago, organised by Fauna Australis. The meeting compared experiences from around Chile related to diseases affecting birds of prey, their impacts on pests and human disease vectors as well as their conservation needs.

FPA Guiña project wins prize

The work on guiña undertaken as a joint project between the CONAMA Fondo Proteccion Ambiental (Environmental Protection Fund) won an award from its co-sponsors CONAMA for the best project in its 2008 round. The project included a wide range of activities aimed to increase public awareness of the kod kod cat, its conservation needs and the positive contribution it makes to the control of rodents.

Temperate rainforest wildlife photography exhibition

A portable exhibition of wildlife photography arising from the Darwin project has been created. The show spent the summer season in the Kod kod restaurant in Pichares, and is now on tour, starting with the Villarrica campus of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in March 2009. The images are available

Global Amphibian Decline Symposium held in Santiago

Simposio Declinación Global de Anfibios el caso de la rana de Darwin. Fauna Australis co-organised the first symposium on Darwin’s frog, in Santiago in September 2008, attended by 200 participants. The symposium the importance of taking urgent action to understand and to protect this unique amphibian and its natural habitat.  http://www.bio.puc.cl/caseb/simposio/

Guiña awareness workshops

Workshops were held with groups of campesinos in five parishes in our study area: Pichares, Coilaco, Carileufu, Palguin bajo and Relicura. Approximately 30 people attended each one. The purpose of the workshops was to evaluate the level of knowledge in the communities about carnivores and carnivore ecology, in particular the kod kod cat. Knowledge and images gained through our camera trapping work were presented to highlight the positive benefits of carnivores, in particular their role in the control of Hanta virus, which is vectored by rodents, and prevalent in the area.

Training programme in Conservation Studies

28 and 29 of April 2008 . A workshop was held on Conservation and Wildlife Survey Techniques for CONAF park rangers working in the protected areas system surrounding our study area. The course involved the deployment of camera traps and mist nets.

Camera trapping thesis published

September 2008, Imperial College student, Vanessa Coldwell successfully completed her MSc thesis, An Analysis of Methodologies used to study Medium and Large Mammals in theValdivian Temperate Rainforests of central-southern Chile. Vanessa L. Coldwell. The project, supervised by Marcus Rowcliffe, Institute of Zoology, London and Cristian Bonacic, Fauna Australis, Pontificia Universidad Catolica, helps make sense of the considerable challenges to understanding the ecology of cryptic forest-dwelling mammals. (pdf) 

Ethics, religion and wildlife conservation

Dr Bonacic gave a talk on the ethics and practice of wildlife conservation to a group of church authorities at a special conference -  the first environmental "Pastoral" in Villarrica, October 2008.  This presentation drew extensively from our experience of conservation science in the Villarrica catchment.

Relationships between fragmentation, botanical composition and structure of temperate rainforest

Undergraduate student Isabel Rojas successfully completed her thesis on relationships between fragmentation and species composition, vegetation structure and an index of human impact. Her work was presented in a Forestry Conference in Chile this August. 

Evaluation of the presence, abundance and health status of the kod-kod (Leopardus guigna)

Felipe Hernandez has been working as part of the team in Pucon on his thesis on kod-kod cats. This study has the specific objectives: Determine the relative abundance (or presence) of kod-kod in continuous forest and forest fragments; Evaluate and compare the physiological condition and incidence of parasites in kod-kod in continuous forest and forest fragments.

Undergraduate Architecture student, Manuel Rios, successfully completed his thesis on designs for the Centre for Biodiversity.

Computer-generated impression of the accommodation block at the Centre for Biodiversity designed by Manuel Rios for his architecture thesis.