Population density and potential habitat distribution of two endemic guans species (P. dabbenei and P. bridgesi) of the Southern Yungas of Argentina

TEJERINA SILVANA YANINA; RIVERA LUIS; BERNARDOS JAIME; ANNA PIDGEON; POLITI NATALIA

ACTA ORNITHOLOGICA

MUSEUM & INST ZOOLOGY

Lugar: Warszawa, POLAND; Año: 2022

0001-6454

Guans (Cracidae) are birds exclusive to the Neotropics and little is known about their population density and potential habitat distribution. Guans play a key role in the regeneration of forests in South America as seed dispersers, but guans are threatened primarily by habitat loss and hunting. We sought to determine the potential habitat distribution of two guan species in Argentina, Red-faced Guan (Penelope dabbenei) and Yungas Guan (Penelope bridgesi), and their population density in protected areas. We used occurrence records to model their potential habitat distribution. We also estimated their population density within four protected areas, based on data gathered in 75 1 km transects. The population density in the four protected areas of Yungas Guan was 0.19 ind / ha and for Red-faced Guan was 0.09 ind / ha. The estimated potential distribution of Yungas Guan was 28,262 km2 and 13% of this distribution is within national and provincial protected areas. For Red-faced Guan the potential distribution was 5,598 km2 and national and provincial protected areas includes 9% of its potential habitat. Red-faced Guan has lower density, a more restricted potential habitat distribution in Argentina, with a lower percentage of potential habitat in protected areas, so its conservation status would be more fragile than Yungas Guan. The results of this study contribute to an adequate categorization of the conservation status of both species of guans in the Southern Yungas and set a baseline to monitoring populations of both endemic species.