Distribution and habitat use of the endemic Yungas Guan (Penelope bridgesi) in the Southern Yungas of Argentina

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

BIRD CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2022

0959-2709

Identifying the factors that determine the spatial distribution and habitatuse of species of conservation importance is essential to developeffective conservation and management strategies. As seed dispersers,Guans play a key role in the regeneration of forests in South Americaand are threatened mainly by habitat loss and hunting pressure. TheYungas Guan (Penelope bridgesi), an endemic species restricted to theSouthern Yungas of Argentina and Bolivia, has been recently recognizedas a separate species. To determine the conservation status of YungasGuan, information on its distribution and habitat use is urgently needed.The objectives of our work were to 1) determine the potentialdistribution of the Yungas Guan in the Southern Yungas of Argentina and2) assess the influence of environmental and anthropogenic covariableson habitat use of the species. We used records of Yungas Guan to modelthe potential distribution of the species with MaxEnt software anddeveloped occupancy models to determine habitat use and influentialelements of the landscape (puestos, urban areas, roads, rivers, andelevation). We obtained data on the presence of Yungas Guan withcamera traps, with an effort of 6,990 camera trap-days. The totalpotential distribution of the species was 12,491 km2. We found that thehabitat use by Yungas Guan increased with proximity to rivers andstreams. The probability of habitat use was 0.27, with a range of 0.02-0.42. Of the total potential distribution area, 9,974 km2 (80%) had aprobability of habitat use greater than 0.2. This study is the first indetermining the potential distribution of Yungas Guan in the SouthernYungas of Salta and Jujuy provinces in Argentina and highlights theimportance of conducting analyses with occupancy models to assess theinfluence of environmental and anthropogenic variables and threats tocracid species