Sunday, September 18, 2011

Biodiversity Assessment Survey Round Up


Phase 113 at Jalova has officially come to a close, after 10 weeks of hard work two sets of 5 week volunteers, 4 sets of two week volunteers and a single 10 week volunteer (Oh and not to mention many mosquito bites) we can reveal our findings of the BASS surveys we have been running. This phase has been highly successful for the BASS project (Biodiversity Assessment Survey). We ran a total of 66 BASS surveys over the past 10 weeks covering 8 different trails obtaining 1529 records and identifying 133 separate species. North Trail mile 16 – 15 produced the most recordings with 760 of which 46 separate species were indentified. However South Trail proved to be the most diverse with a total of 55 different species identified and 398 recordings. The Coconut Plantation provided 264 recordings with 53 separate species. North Trail mile 17 – 16 produced 246 records with 46 different species. From the North Boundary trail 107 records we made with 35 different species. And finally South Boundary produced 75 recordings with 38 separate species identified.

Two new trails were added to the BASS project this phase, Kingfisher Trail and Juana Lopez both of which have produced significant results over the last 10 weeks. Kingfisher Trail provided 70 records with 34 separate species, and Juana Lopez produced 111 recordings with 30 separate species. Previously these transects were solely recording mammal presence but combining mammal tracks with BASS has allowed us to collect more data from these trails.

Mammal track recordings were integrated into the BASS surveys providing more data from all the trails on ground mammal activity. A total of 68 tracks were recorded with 14 individual species identified. South Boundary which previously received no mammal track analysis provided us with 11 separate mammal species and 22 records.

Another improvement made to the BASS project this phase was the extension of three trails, South Boundary, North Boundary and South trail. An example is the South trail extension which now incorporates outer edge of the rainforest and the river mouth providing data on shore bird presence and species which use the edge of the rainforest.

There were multiple rare sightings this phase of few of which included; Jaguar (First recording on a BASS survey), White-nosed Coati, Red Brocket Deer, Three-toed Sloth, Red-Capped Manakin, Black River Turtle, Fer-de-lance, Northern Tamandua and Red-eyed Treefrog.

Finally none of this data collection would have been possible without the help of all our volunteers over the past 10 weeks. Thank you all for your hard work with trail maintenance and performing BASS surveys considering the hot conditions!!!


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