Reserva Natural Madhu

Mammals of Madhu

Mad Lab — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 04:36:37 +0000

Oncilla (Leopardus pardalis)

Private nature reserves can play an important role in increasing the total area devoted to biodiversity conservation and can be more effective in terms of conservation than a state-protected area, which is why conservation efforts through such reserves are a growing initiative worldwide.

For this reason, the creation of the Madhú reserve would not only contribute to increasing the number of protected areas in the region, but would also conserve part of one of the richest and most endemic ecosystems. This is why the Madhú Reserve can play an important conservation role in a region of great interest and priority in the country, such as the Andean forests.

Mammals are one of the best known and most studied groups of vertebrates in the world, including the most widely distributed animals on the planet, and it is also remarkable the great diversity of species and the high heterogeneity among them, not only in anatomy, but also in their biology, ecology and behavior; differences that are noted both at the level of orders and families, as well as genus and species.

Colombia is the fourth country with the highest diversity of mammal species in the Americas,

The latest list of Colombian mammals records 518 species, of which 52 are endemic, and 54 species are threatened with extinction.

Medium and large mammals are an ecologically important group for the balance of ecosystems. Large mammals play the role of predators and are perfect top consumers, thus regulating the functioning and dynamics of ecosystems by influencing prey populations (mostly herbivores) and, therefore, indirectly altering the abundance, composition, succession, dispersal and diversity of plants. And medium-sized mammals, although they have less impact on communities, are more diverse in their behavior, ecology and are more abundant than large mammals, can cause redistributions in prey and occupy unique roles that cannot be replaced by larger carnivores, such as when they are seed dispersers or controllers of seed-dispersing species. The reduction or loss of these key groups can lead to changes in the regime of food chains, thus altering the state of ecosystems and possibly losing part of their ecosystem services.

METHODOLOGY

Sampling sites

The Madhú Reserve is located in the municipality of Cerrito, department of Valle del Cauca, south of the Páramo de Los Domínguez.

Photo trapping cameras

In order to obtain information that indicates the presence of medium and large mammals in the study area, automatic movement detection cameras were installed at least one kilometer apart, each camera is counted as a single sampling station, which are located at crossroads, trails, existing roads, salt pans and bodies of water, in order to maximize the probability of detecting the species.

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Sub Andean Forest

Mad Lab — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 03:37:44 +0000

Sub-Andean Forest

In the sub-Andean strip, elements of the dry forest converge with species typical of this strip, which is characterized by higher levels of humidity and, therefore, tends to be more diverse, but just as threatened as the dry forest.

Normally located above 1,000 meters above sea level, and depending on the area up to about 2,000 or higher, around 2,400 meters. This strip corresponds to the coffee-growing zone and large areas that have been transformed into pastures, cultivated areas and villages, and is therefore a strip in constant transformation and deterioration.

In the reserve, the sub-Andean strip is mainly occupied by natural regeneration that is about 40 years old, small fragments that were heavily disturbed and then surrounded by regeneration and reconnected with the upper part, and riparian strips that have been recovering in terms of both structure and composition. Today they are the preferred habitat of the guacharaca (Ortalis columbiana). Here there is an abundance of intermediate pioneers such as the white balsos (Heliocarpus americanus), the balso tambor (Ochroma lagopus), guamos (Inga spp.) and a very high diversity of laurels and aguacatillos (Ocotea, Aniba, Beilschmiedia, Persea, Nectandra), among which the arenillo (Ocotea wittei), one of the finest woods of this intermediate strip, stands out.

This strip plays a very important role, since it facilitates the flow of species from below to above and vice versa, in search of resources. The natural processes here are faster than in the highlands, therefore, the regeneration of the species is faster because they have higher rates of development, likewise, the food supply is usually more abundant, since numerous species of intermediate pioneers offer food almost constantly. Their regulatory role is also key, in addition to the fact that they are highly diverse.

Andean Forest

In the Andean forest, stratification within the forest is much more complex; epiphytes tend to be one of the groups of greatest interest. These are represented by orchids, bromeliads, anthuriums, ferns and other less abundant species. Non-vascular epiphytes such as mosses and liverworts usually cover a good part of the branches and stems, and even the leaves, in places where humidity is higher, being important regulators of water in forests.

The diversity of plants is very high; among the trees, species such as the oak stand out, which can extend from the sub-Andean, or be located only in the upper part due to the elimination of the lower populations. Trees such as black cedars (Juglans neotropica), pink cedars (Cedrela montana), carisecos (Billia rosea), yolombo (Panopsis spp.), laurels (Ocotea, Nectandra), aguacatillos (Persea, Beilschmiedia), cominos (Aniba perutilis, Aniba spp.), wax palms (Ceroxylon spp.), and many other timber species are found in this strip, which historically has been heavily deforested for cattle ranching.

Plant densities within the forest are high,

and when the forests are in a good state of conservation there is abundant regeneration of canopy species.

Anthuriums (Anthurium spp.) are abundant growing in the understory or as epiphytes or hemiepiphytes at the base of trees. Water is abundant, and the gullies and riparian strips are usually very rich in shrubs and grasses, as well as bryophytes (mosses) that cover the rocks and trunks. These forests are very rich in fauna, as their diversity of species is also rich in fauna resources.

This is the most deteriorated strip within Madhú, since there is only a connection through an oak grove in the upper part; the other areas, which used to be pastures, are currently undergoing succession processes that allow for the reestablishment of an insipient connection, which is improving with time.

High Andean Forest

As you go up above sea level, you experience a decrease in temperature, and the vegetation begins to change. Above 2,800 meters the plants become lower, the large trees that were found in the Andean forest, which can reach up to 40 meters, in the high Andean strip do not exceed 15-20 meters, in the best of cases. The vegetation becomes denser, thinner and the stems twisted, and mosses begin to abound, both on the stems and on the ground, cushions of sometimes multicolored mosses such as those of the genus Sphagnum begin to appear.

If in the Andean forest fog is a key component in water dynamics, in the High Andean forest it is fundamental.

These forests are covered with fog most of the day, sometimes visibility is reduced to a couple of meters and the humidity in the atmosphere is very high. The plants of the high Andean forests have adapted to these conditions, and in order not to lose so much water through radiation, they have become hard, leathery, have developed, as in the páramo, covered with hairs and scales, and the margins of the leaves have curved inwards, while the size of the leaves has been reduced.

Epiphytes are concentrated at the base of trees, and many of them are capable of living on the ground on thick layers of leaf litter. Bromeliads are one such group of epiphytes.

Among the trees, the most outstanding are the encenillos (Weinmannia spp.), the chagualos or raques (Clusia spp.), the sietecueros (Tibouchina lepidota, Tibouchina grossa), hardy laurels such as the black laurel (Ocotea heterochroma), Colombian pine or rosemary on the edges (Podocarpus oleifolius), white aguacatillo (Persea mutisii), nigüitos (Miconia spp.), scandent shrubs or hemiepiphytes such as mortiños (Cavendishia, Psammisia, Thibaudia), canelo de páramo in the lower parts (Drimys granatensis), among many others.

As one ascends, the forest begins to become lower, and only outside the edges and exposed sites, the forest retains trees, which in some cases, when protected from the winds, can reach more than 15 meters in height and high diversities. In the ridge the trees disappear, only a few manage to stay, and there begins to be a change not so noticeable, it is a slow change, in a transition to colder ecosystems and conditions, stronger and icy winds, lots of fog, but little rain. Shrubs then replace the forest, some reaching 3-4 meters, with mosses only at the base, as well as large ear-shaped lichens or raised saplings forming tiny greenish forests.

The post Sub Andean Forest appeared first on Reserva Natural Madhu.

October Big Day 2020

Mad Lab — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 00:59:00 +0000

October Big Day, October 17, 2020, is 24 hours to celebrate birds near us and around the world. In addition, the objective is to help the Global Bird Weekend during October 17 and 18 to draw attention to the illegal trafficking of bird species.

The Global Bird Weekend is the brainchild of Tim Appleton, creator of England’s most famous nature reserve, RutLand Water. He is co-founder of the International Bird Watching Fair, and vice-president of the British Ornithologists’ Union, recognized by the British Order of the highest excellence for his work in conservation.

“In Colombia, so far, there are 275 species of migratory birds that make their transit through the country, through routes can be long distance latitudinal, transboundary and local, according to the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development…About 154 of these migratory species come from the northwest, central or eastern North America,”

The goal was to gather more than 25,000 observers by submitting lists to Ebird on October 17.

In the Madhú Nature Reserve we form a team of professionals with the purpose of recording and enjoying representative species, covering the entire altitudinal range of the reserve. In previous years, we participated prioritizing the number of species and the largest number of lists, this year we focused more on the search for representative species, not so common and to make a better photographic record of the birds inhabitants and visitors to the reserve.

On this occasion, the team was formed by:

Emilio Constantino
Manuel Espejo
Martin Mejia
Alejandro Escobar
Omar Botina
Bali Rodriguez.

On Saturday, October 17, at 5 a.m., we started with the song count at Casa Madhú at 1,200 m.a.s.l. You can feel the morning awakening with the abundance of songs from Little Tinamú, along the tetimocha trail. We stayed until 9:30 a.m. in the gardens of Casa Madhú. In front of Casa Madhú, in the pastures of Ingenio Providencia, a pair of Pyrocephalus is presented in reproductive behavior among a chiminango that is part of the biological corridor that the Madhú Natural Reserve intends to recover with the geographic valley of the Cauca River. In a Palma botella that has been occupied for generations by the Cocli (Buff necked Ibis), this time we found an individual possibly brooding in its nest.

We continue to Casa de Colores, to enjoy a snack and continue with the sighting in vehicles on the road. Feeding in one of the house’s drinking troughs, the Red Billed Emerald defends where we have been able to record its nest. Also the Short Tailed Hawk, being an uncommon raptor, descends from the top of the mountains making descending spirals, shows how the Casa de Colores is an excellent spot for raptor watching.

It was around 11 a.m. near the green gate, on a day with little activity, we began to see mixed flocks as we slowly climbed into the vehicles. We stopped when we heard another flock activity in the canopy. An explosion of little striped birds, arriving singing and happy, like new arrivals from North America in a feeding frenzy, a feast of insects. Among the warblers we distinguish Black and White Warbeler, Yellow Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, also Summer Tanager and Hepatic Tanager. Among all of them, the behavior of one in particular, which foraged among the dry leaves, attracted attention. It was a Cerulean Warbler. It was the start of a race to differentiate a female Cerulean Warbler with faded plumage that closely resembles a Blackburnian Warbler with an untrained eye. After half an hour of action and many warblers, the whole group managed to observe the Cerulean Warbler and we managed to get a photographic record of this important boreal visitor. They had seen just before among the silhouettes of the trees in the sky, the Ospreys and Mississippi Kite.

The Cerulean Warbler is the most rapidly declining Neotropical migratory bird, in addition to the many threats facing its wintering habitat in the northern Andes. The reinita depends on shade coffee during the winter, but this technique of coffee cultivation is disappearing due to fluctuating coffee prices that are driving farmers to change cultivation techniques to open field coffee. In the fragmented forests of the United States, it is vulnerable to parasitism by other birds, and populations of this bird are declining faster than all other North American warblers. By 2006 the population was only 20% of what it was 20 years ago.

Status and conservation.

American bird conservancy with the proaves foundation, work for the protection of the Cerulean warbler creating together the Cerulean Warbler Reserve, in San Vicente de Chucurí, Fundación Yotoco and Cerulean Warbler Wintering Ground Conservation Plan, CWWGP. Calling attention to promote alliances with these foundations for their protection and to obtain resources.

Another migratory warbler of interest is the Canada Warbler. It is a small boreal bird that spends summers in Canada and the northeastern United States and winters in South America. It is one of the last migratory birds to reach breeding grounds and is the first to leave. And they arrive in South America in late September and early October. It is a species included in several risk lists. Canadian warbler populations have declined by 70% in the last 50 years.

We arrived at around 12:30 to prepare some delicious sandwiches at Casa de La Brisas, while watching the now recurrent Schistes albigularis (Chocó Daggerbill) drilling the achiras and the Thlypopsis ornata (Rufous-chested Tanager) eating around the house, while the Rufous Collared Sparrow come in and out of the tall red aloe.

Following the afternoon hours, we started walking towards the circuit of the Bakery. There was a lot of stillness and silence, the birds did not sing much in the afternoon hours, but it was a beautiful hike, we enjoyed the neighboring trails, the rising mist and the silence on the mountain. Descending towards the Casa de las Brisas, as the sun was setting, we heard the song of the Golden-plumed Parrakeet landing on the giant Australian eucalyptus. Satisfied and grateful for the fruitful morning, and despite not having been focused on number of lists, we were able to place 1st in Valle del Cauca in number of birds for October Bird Day 2020 on Ebird.

To continue with the Global Bird Weekend, on Sunday, October 18, we headed to the highest sector of the reserve. Located next to a Cera Palm (Ceroxilum ventricuosum) that was in fruit. At this point is where we took the route up, the sky was clear and the sun was warming the morning, we identified a pair of White-rumped Hawks in courtship flight and a solitary Broad-winged Hawk, thus discovering that this is also a good spot for raptor monitoring.

When we arrived at Baño de Brujo, a boundary between oak forests and pastures, it has its name because it is a place where the fog rises and makes it difficult to identify birds, in a moment it clears and we discovered next to us a Ruffus-tailed Tyrant, which caught everyone’s attention for being a tyrannid with an intense red iris. This bird thrilled us, as it is a new species for the reserve and Lifer for the whole group.

We continue climbing to the Mirador Madhú viewpoint, where from the ridge we have a spectacular view of the valley between the mountains of the central mountain range, and at this point you can see the formation of clouds in the basin of the mountains. Further on we found more humid trail areas with lichens and sphagnum, orchids and bromeliads…Among this beautiful flora, a Golden-fronted Redstart (Miyoborus ornatus) took the time to perch and sing for a few minutes, close enough to make an expressive and dynamic record.

At the end of this hike up, at 2800 masl, in Cerro Corrientes, we heard the Andrean Pygmy Owl, a small owl that we had not seen for two years, this small predator that with its song alerts mixed flocks, also allowed itself to be photographed. Also, right on the ridge at the end of the ridge, in front of us, we could see a landscape of steep slopes and dense greenery, where we called out to the Black-billed Andean Toucan, who responded quickly to let the whole group see him perfectly.

We also achieved the first auditory records of birds in the Reserve with the following species:

We started the descent with a list of 43 species for the day, at a good pace through a threatening gray cloud, happy and grateful for a pleasant day.

Sierran Eleanie
Chestnut wood Quail
Rufous-chested Tanager
Andean Pygmy Owl
Black-billed mountain Toucan

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