January 2016: Birds Count!

CONSERVATION IN ACTION

Earlier this month, we held our Second Annual Christmas Bird Count in coordination with the National Audobon Society. This annual citizen science birding event helps scientists to detect long-term trends in bird populations.

This year we observed 3939 birds of 163 different species. Bird species included long-distant migrants like the peregrine falcon, likely visiting from North America.

This year we had the help of 71 volunteers who used their birding skills to make this a success.We were especially grateful to be joined by Dr. Eric Olson of Brandeis University and also by Paso Pacifico board member Frank Joyce and members of his family. Junior Rangers were an important part of the volunteer observers, and this year we had 35 of them who used their growing birding skills to add to the bird count.

This event is made possible thanks to the generous support of IADB-Multi-Lateral Investment Fund, Loro Parque Fundacion, and the US Forest Service - International Institute for Tropical Forestry and members of the Private Reserve Network. Photo: Adelayde Rivas

IN THE NEWS

We just received the great news that Paso Pacífico has been selected a winner in the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. This contest called on the global community to harness the power of science and technology to address wildlife-trafficking related issues. National Geographic included our project in its recap of the contest and its winning projects.

The award was granted for our design concept for an artificial egg that will allow us to track the movement of sea turtle eggs by wildlife traffickers. This technological solution seeks to reduce the sea turtle egg trade that is widespread throughout Central America. Our Director of Conservation Science, Dr. Kim Williams-Guillen came up with the idea and the concept was further developed by Paso Pacifico staff with support from engineering professor David Bothman from UC Santa Barbara.

This spring our Managing Director Eduardo Boné will launch a prototype of the design together with the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge team at the SXSW Interactive in Austin Texas.

Photo: Hal Brindley/Travel for Wildlife

PARTNERS MAKE IT POSSIBLE

This month we would like to highlight our most important partner: the local communities! Their support makes this work possible. They give us access to their land to monitor wildlife, actively participate in workshops, commit to reforestation and new agroforestry practices, and give input to our programs. They also support our work by taking leadership and organizing themselves to protect their forests, rivers and fisheries.

We are especially grateful to the families that support their children in the Junior Ranger program. The enthusiasm of these children gives our team the energy to continue our work each day. The above video of Junior Ranger Esdra Nataniel reciting the poem "Nicaragua" by Rubén Darío gives you a window into their spark and their love for their natural world.

TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

We are thrilled to have new ornithologists join the Paso Pacífico team: Orlando Jarquín and Jose Martín Vallecillo. These two work together to protect Nicaragua's last remaining population of the critically endangered Cyanoptera scarlet macaw (Ara macao cyanoptera), a project made possible through support from Loro Parque Fundacion

Orlando is a biologist who graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma in León and who has a passion for bird conservation. He has worked on a range of bird projects across the country, and just this month received an award for his distinguised work using e-Bird. (Congratulations Orlando!)

Jose Martín has a degree from Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon where he studied as a SEED scholar. He is a leader in his home town of Potosi where he coordinates the community tourism association there.

Together these two are a dynamic duo, working long days to track and monitor the scarlet macaws of Reserva Natural Cosigüina.

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IN GRATITUDE

We are very grateful to Wilfredo Abreu-González who came as a volunteer to train our parot biologists and technicians in the management of nest cameras that are placed in nests to provide streaming video of nesting behavior. Wildfredo climbed trees and spent long days educating our team. This new technology support our Yellow-Naped Amazon parrot project which is made possible by Loro Parque Fundacion. Wilfredo works with the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program of the USFWS and we are so grateful for his generosity in sharing his expertise so that we may learn more about this threatened species.

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