scholarly journals Conservation status of threatened and endemic birds of New Britain, Papua New Guinea

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-450
Author(s):  
ROBERT A. DAVIS ◽  
GUY DUTSON ◽  
JUDIT K. SZABO

SummaryNew Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea supports 14 endemic bird species and together with New Ireland, forms an Endemic Bird Area that supports 38 restricted range species. Extensive conversion of lowland forest to oil palm plantations resulted in the loss of over 20% of forest under 100 m altitude between 1989 and 2000. However the rate of loss has subsequently slowed (2.2% loss across all altitudes between 2002 and 2014), and much forest remains at higher altitudes: 72% of New Britain remained forested (including secondary forest) in 2014. Despite the ongoing high threat and rich endemic bird fauna, the state of knowledge of the conservation status of birds in New Britain is very poor. We use an unprecedented dataset based on 415 hours of bird surveys conducted in oil palm plantations, as well as primary and secondary forests at all altitudes, to revise the IUCN status of New Britain’s birds. These data indicate that six species of elevated conservation concern are less dependent on old-growth forest than previously assessed. We recommend reduced population size estimates for one species, New Britain Kingfisher Todiramphus albonotatus. We recommend increased population size estimates for seven species: Pied Cuckoo-dove Reinwardtoena browni, Yellowish Imperial Pigeon Ducula subflavescens, Green-fronted Hanging Parrot Loriculus tener, Blue-eyed Cockatoo Cacatua opthalmica, Violaceous Coucal Centropus violaceous, New Britain Boobook Ninox odiosa and New Britain Thrush Zoothera talaseae. Despite our comprehensive surveys, Slaty-backed Goshawk Accipiter luteoschistaceus, New Britain Sparrowhawk Accipiter brachyurus, New Britain Bronzewing Henicophaps foersteri and Golden Masked-owl Tyto aurantia remain very rarely recorded and require further assessment. With ongoing habitat loss, particularly in lowland areas, New Britain’s birds urgently require more attention.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Tammisto

Tammisto, Tuomas 2016. Enacting the Absent State: State-formation on the oil-palm frontier of Pomio (Papua New Guinea). Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde 62: 51-68. In this article I examine the relationship between new oil-palm plantations and state-formation in Pomio, a remote rural district of East New Britain Province (Papua New Guinea). I am particularly interested in the kinds of spaces of governance produced by the new oil-palm plantations and how this contributes to state formation and territorialisation in Pomio.Plantations in Pomio do not became state-like spaces as a result of top-down processes alone, but also because of active worker initiatives. By contributing to state formation in this way, the inhabitants of Pomio also make claims on what the state should be like. While plantations become governable and statelike spaces, they do not produce simply governable subjects, nor do they produce a uniformly governable territory but an uneven space in which some places are more governable than others. The inhabitants of Pomio move between these places in their pursuit of different goals.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHARINA J. PETERS ◽  
SONIA KLEINDORFER

SummaryFloreana Island has the highest proportion of local land bird extinctions on the Galápagos Archipelago, and is home to the range-restricted and critically endangered Medium Tree Finch Camarhynchus pauper. We used acoustic surveys during 2004, 2008 and 2013 to compare the estimated population size of C. pauper and other land bird species in a remnant patch of Scalesia forest. First, we compared song in C. pauper and C. parvulus and the recently discovered Camarhynchus hybrid group to justify our use of acoustic surveys to detect population trends given contemporary hybridisation between C. pauper and C. parvulus. Song differed significantly between C. pauper versus C. parvulus and hybrid birds, but not between C. parvulus versus hybrid birds. Second, we compared population size estimates. Camarhynchus pauper declined by 52% between 2004 and 2013 (with a 10% increase since 2008); C. parvulus/hybrid increased by 45% between 2004 and 2013 (with 28% decrease since 2008). In 2013, there were ∼ 419 C. pauper males in the Scalesia forest (estimate for Scalesia habitat only) and ∼ 2,537 males on Floreana Island (estimate for the entire available highland habitat). Not all species showed a pattern of decline in the highland Scalesia habitat between 2004 and 2013: Dendroica petechia (+256%), Crotophaga ani (+254%) Geospiza fuliginosa (+23%), and Myiarchus magnirostris (+11%) increased, while the ground finch G. fortis (-76%) decreased. Understanding why C. pauper is declining while other land bird species are increasing in the same habitat requires continued inquiry and monitoring efforts.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G Miller III ◽  
John Lane ◽  
Randy Senock

Our research team worked with Nakanai land-holders in Papua New Guinea to perform the first survey of butterflies in the Lake Hargy caldera of West New Britain Province. Methods included modified Pollard transects quantifying sampling effort based on aerial netting and visual observations, as well as traps baited with fermenting fruit. Results were compared with surveys on the adjacent Hargy Oil Palm plantation. Our sampling yielded 312 specimens representing 73 species; of these, 50 were limited to primary rainforest, 12 to oil palm plantation and 11 species occurred at both sites. Four species are newly recorded for New Britain, including one potentially invasive species on Citrus. Singleton specimens made up the largest abundance class in the data set, representing 34% of records in primary rainforest. Sixty-two percent of the butterfly taxa recorded are regionally endemic to the Bismarck island chain or to New Britain in particular. Calculated levels of similarity between sites ranged from 0.151 to 0.262, suggesting the oil palm and rainforest habitats supported highly distinct species assemblages. Although rapid assessment data such as these are necessarily limited in scope, they can still aid in documenting the impact on biodiversity from conversion of primary tropical rainforest to oil palm monoculture.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina Gómez-Salazar ◽  
Hal Whitehead ◽  
Fernando Trujillo

Population size estimates of pink river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) are critical to assess the conservation status of this species and the impacts of increasing human stressors in freshwater ecosystems. Photo-identifications of Inia dolphins were collected between February 2007 and August 2009 in two locations of the Colombian Amazon and Orinoco river basins. Population sizes of Inia were obtained by using the closed (Petersen) mark-recapture model on photo-identifications. The total population size estimate for right/left side individuals was 129/71 Inia dolphins (CV=0.36/0.35) in the Amazon location and 125/58 Inia dolphins (CV=0.77/0.69) in the Orinoco location. The survey and analysis protocols were designed to try to meet mark-recapture assumptions. However, photo-identification was incomplete in both study areas, and there could be recruitment and unequal probabilities of capture due to preferences of individuals for certain areas. Further effort should be focused towards expanding the photo-identification catalogues and creating long-term monitoring programs.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Tammisto

In this article I examine the relationship between new oil-palm plantations and state-formation in Pomio, a remote rural district of East New Britain Province (Papua New Guinea). I am particularly interested in the kinds of spaces of governance produced by the new oil-palm plantations and how this contributes to state formation and territorialisation in Pomio.Plantations in Pomio do not became state-like spaces as a result of top-down processes alone, but also because of active worker initiatives. By contributing to state formation in this way, the inhabitants of Pomio also make claims on what the state should be like. While plantations become governable and statelike spaces, they do not produce simply governable subjects, nor do they produce a uniformly governable territory but an uneven space in which some places are more governable than others. The inhabitants of Pomio move between these places in their pursuit of different goals.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abu Abdul-Quader

BACKGROUND Population size estimation of people who inject drugs (PWID) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam relied on the UNAIDS Estimation and Projection Package and reports from the city police department. The two estimates vary widely. OBJECTIVE To estimate the population size of people who inject drugs in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam METHODS Using Respondent-driven sampling (RDS), we implemented two-source capture-recapture method to estimate the population size of PWID in HCMC in 2017 in 7 out of 24 districts. The study included men or women aged at least 18 years who reported injecting illicit drugs in the last 90 days and who had lived in the city the past six months. We calculated two sets of size estimates, the first assumed that all participants in each survey round resided in the district where the survey was conducted, the second, used the district of residence as reported by the participant. District estimates were summed to obtain an aggregate estimate for the seven districts. To calculate the city total, we weighted the population size estimates for each district by the inverse of the stratum specific sampling probabilities. RESULTS The first estimate resulted in a population size of 19,155 (95% CI: 17,006–25,039). The second one generated a smaller population size estimate of 12,867 (95% CI: 11,312–17,393). CONCLUSIONS The two-survey capture-recapture exercise provided two disparate estimates of PWID in HCMC. For planning HIV prevention and care service needs among PWID in HCMC, both estimates may need to be taken into consideration together with size estimates from other sources.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e76213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Capderrey ◽  
Bernard Kaufmann ◽  
Pauline Jean ◽  
Florian Malard ◽  
Lara Konecny-Dupré ◽  
...  

1963 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Paloheimo

Techniques of estimating population size, level of fishing, and the degree of dependence of fishing success on environmental factors are examined on the basis of tagging, catch and effort data. A new method is developed to estimate population size from catch, effort, and temperature data when the catchability varies with temperature.The methods of estimation discussed are applied to data collected from a number of lobster fisheries on Canada's Atlantic coast. Analysis confirms a relationship between the catchability of lobsters and bottom temperature. Differences in this relationship are found between areas and between tagged and untagged lobsters within areas. It is suggested that these differences are attributable to the differences in densities as well as to aggregations of lobsters and fishing. The effect of these aggregations on population size estimates is considered.Calculated average catchabilities at comparable temperatures are different for different areas. These differences are correlated with the numbers of trap hauls per day per square miles fished. It is suggested that the differences in the catchabilities might be due to interactions between units of gear not predicted by the customary relationship between catch and effort.


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
ESTEBAN BOTERO-DELGADILLO ◽  
NICHOLAS BAYLY ◽  
CAMILA GÓMEZ ◽  
PAULO C. PULGARÍN-R. ◽  
CARLOS ANDRÉS PÁEZ

SummaryThe Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner Automolus rufipectus is one of 19 endemic bird species found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM) in northern Colombia but until recently it was considered a sub-species of the Ruddy Foliage-gleaner Automolus rubiginosus. Consequently, published information on its distribution and ecology is lacking, and while it is classified as near- threatened, this designation was based on limited quantitative data. To improve our knowledge of the Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner’s geographical distribution, elevation range, population density, habitat use and conservation status, we analysed both historical and recent site locality records and carried out variable distance transects within forested habitats and shade coffee plantations. We modelled the environmental niche of the species and subsequently estimated its extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, as well as population size. Our results consistently showed that the distribution of the Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner is more restricted than previously considered, both geographically and by elevation (we redefine elevation range as 600–1,875 m). This suggests that the species is more at risk of habitat transformation and combined with our estimates of population size (< 10,000 individuals), it is likely that the species will be uplisted to a higher threat category. More positively, and contrary to published accounts, we found that approximately 40% of the species’ range lies within protected areas. Nevertheless, we recommend the implementation of strategies to maintain forest cover on the western flank of the SNSM and further research to better define the species’ habitat needs and population dynamics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (sp1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Finkl ◽  
Christopher Makowski

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