Blazing the Biodiversity Trail in Brazil
Location
Brazil: Campo Grande
Description
Expedition Summary
Help Earthwatch scientists preserve Brazilian biodiversity by studying how jaguar, puma, and other key species move across the agricultural landscape around Emas National Park.
Expedition Details
The Araguaia River corridor is a natural connection between the highly fragmented and threatened cerrado and the vast wilderness of the Amazonian rainforest, a stronghold for many species. Along the river lies Emas National Park, where species such as the jaguar, puma, maned-wolf, tapir, and giant anteater roam. Youre needed to help find out how these species are using the land around the Park. This is especially important now, as the recent introduction of sugar cane in the area may work as a barrier for these animals as they move through the corridor.
You'll record and map the occurrence of the indicator species, and analyze these data to understand which factors influence the presence of these species in this region. You'll help install camera traps around the sugar cane plantations to record the species that use these areas. (The odds that you'll see a jaguar in person are very, very slim.) In addition, we will use specially trained scat-detector dogs to seek out feces of the species of interest.
If you're lucky, you may have the opportunity to help equip individual animals with radio transmitters to monitor their movements and learn about their spatial demands and habitat use - however animal handling such as this this occurs rarely, and cannot be guaranteed during your expedition.
Volunteers who enjoy working directly with dogs will have plenty of opportunities to help with the care of the trained dogs used by the project.
Meals and Accommodations
You'll be housed at a range of possible field sites as you move along the river. At Emas National Park, accommodations are provided in a comfortable house, bordering the park. The house has hot showers, flush toilets, electricity, a full kitchen, and laundry. In Baliza, Barra do Garças, Luiz Alves, and Aruanã, towns along the Araguaia River, you'll stay at small local hotels, all with electricity and hot water. Some of these small towns might also provide internet access, small shops, etc.
When staying at Emas National Park, meals will be prepared by a local cook in the well equipped kitchen at the field station. When staying in the small towns along the river, youll take your meals in the hotels. Most basic food items will be available, and there will be a large variety of tropical fruits and vegetables, though it may be difficult to accommodate absolutely all special dietary requirements, depending on area supplies. A typical Brazilian meal might consist of rice and/or beans, with perhaps beef, chicken, or fish. In general, your lunches will be packed field lunches consisting of sandwiches, pastries, fruit, snacks, etc.
About the Research Area
Emas National Park is part of the Pantanals Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO Human Heritage Reserve. Situated in central Brazil in the extreme southwest of Goiás state, the park contains large tracts of grassland plains, small patches of shrub fields, marshes, and riparian forest grassland. With 132,000 hectares, it is one of the countrys largest Cerrado National Parks and probably the last to protect relevant resident populations of grassland jaguars, pumas, maned wolves, bush dogs and hoary-foxes in this biome. The area is in the range of 17 carnivore species, of which eight are listed as endangered. The Park is one of the best places to spot fruit-eating vertebrates such as the tapir and many birds, including toco toucans, macaws and rheas. To be in the home of the ostrich-like rheas, scarlet macaws, pampas deer, giant armadillos, herds of peccaries, giant anteaters, foxes, tapirs, jaguars, and other uniquebut often elusivecreatures will be an unforgettable experience.
Located in the Park's immediate surroundings are the springs of the Araguaia River, one of the largest rivers of central Brazil. The relatively well preserved habitats along its course make it an important and extensive corridor for central Brazils biodiversity. For the jaguar and many other species living in and near Emas National Park, the fragmented landscape around the springs of this river provides an extension of their home ranges and a potential connection with other populations of their kind. This expeditions study sites are located within the Park and along the banks of this magnificent river.
At certain times of yearthe beach season of July and August-- large sandy beaches form on the river banks, and you may have a chance of observing giant river otters and Amazon river dolphins from these beaches, which also host local music shows and sport-fishing events. Near the Luiz Alves research site is the Trilha do Brito, a 4km nature trail, which you may be able to enjoy depending on the availability of local guides.
In Emas National Park, the landscape is characterized by a grassland plateau with fragmented Cerrado habitat in the surroundings of the park, where crop fields and exotic pastures predominate. The terrain is largely flat, with rolling terrain only in the valley areas. Other research areas are also predominantly flat since they are located in the Araguaia river valley; at these sites the open Cerrado vegetation is being replaced with more forest vegetation along the rivers path.
Highlights
One of the biggest threats to biodiversity is the fragmentation of natural habitat and the resulting isolation of small populations of animals. Small populations face greater risks of extinction, as they generally suffer from reduced genetic diversity, and inbreeding makes them less adaptable to changing conditions and more vulnerable to illnesses. Isolate, inbred populations are more susceptible to succumb entirely to catastrophic events.
The establishment of habitat corridors that provide individual animals with the opportunity to move between habitat patches, thus allowing for genetic exchange between populations, has been cited as one of the most important tools for biodiversity conservation. Large mammals, and especially large, mobile, wide-ranging predators, are particularly dependent on such wildlife corridors. The central Brazilian savannah biome the Cerrado has been largely converted to agricultural land over the last four decades. Its large mammals including maned wolves, jaguars, pumas, tapirs, and many others are currently suffering from the effects of habitat fragmentation and population isolation.
With a length of 2,115 km (1,314 miles), the Araguaia River is one of the main watercourses of central Brazil. With a string of 13 state and federal reserves, plus 5 lands controlled by indigenous communities, along its course the Araguaia has the potential to be a natural connection between the fragmented Cerrado and the vast wilderness of the Amazonian rainforest, a stronghold for many tropical species like the jaguar. The Araguaia has been identified as one of the best remaining options for providing a protected wildlife corridor to preserve Brazilian biodiversity. Despite the influence of hydroelectric dams, highways, and a number of cities and towns that border it, the Araguaia still demonstrates a relatively low degree of environmental disturbance across a wide range of habitats.
In fact, the Araguaia and its riverine habitats are home to roughly 1260 Brazilian vertebrate species; 57 of them are listed on the IUCN Red List. Several top predator species, such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), the giant Piraba catfish (Brachyplatystoma filamentosum), Amazon River dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), and black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) live in or along the Araguaia. Demanding large areas of high quality habitat and a stable prey base to feed on, these species are among the first to disappear with habitat degradation. Therefore, establishing their population and distribution levels is essential to any assessment of the overall health of the Araguaia Rivers health and the potential of the river valley to be a functioning wildlife corridor.
In a first phase of this project, Drs. Leandro Silveira and Anah como, who have been studying the carnivore communities of Emas National Park for more than 15 years along with many Earthwatch volunteers, will collect the data necessary to evaluate the current status of the Araguaia River and its biodiversity. Later stages of the project will involve recommending and implementing environmental management polices along the corridor as indicated by these early results.