Alvaro García-Olaechea

Centro de Investigación Biodiversidad Sostenible - BioS · Ecología y Conservación

The Pampas cat Leopardus colocolo occurs in a variety of habitats from northern Ecuador to southern Argentina, yet the species has been poorly studied. There is scant information about its northern distribution or about populations in desert and dry forest. We aimed to determine the presence of the Pampas cat in the Sechura Desert and seasonally dr...

The coexistence of sympatric species is determined by differences in their ecological niche. Thus, for taxonomically and ecologically similar species to coexist, they must segregate in at least one of the three most important dimensions of the ecological niche: space, time or diet. The Pampas Cat Leopardus colocola and the Sechuran Fox Lycalopex se...

We present evidence of plasticity in habitat use and range extension of the striped hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus semistriatus) in Brazil. We first compiled literature records of C. semistriatus across its known distribution (N = 390), added new records from primary data (N = 10), and compared the main landscape composition (forest, savannah, grasslan...

Knowledge of species diversity is essential for ecological research and conservation planning, especially in overlooked ecosystems, such as the Sechura desert (SD) and the Tumbesian dry forest (DF) of Peru and Ecuador. Little is known about mammal richness in these Threatened ecosystems and thus, we quantified the richness of medium to large-sized...

Peru has 55 primate taxa (including all species and subspecies), a third of which are threatened. The major drivers of habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation are grazing, forestry, agriculture and transport infrastructure. Other activities such as hunting exacerbate these threats. We assessed the threats from degradation and fragmentation faci...

The Sechura fox (Lycalopex sechurae) is a little-studied species despite being common in northwestern Peru and listed as Near Threatened internationally. This study presents the home range, habitat preference, and activity patterns of L. sechurae in two locations of the Sechura Desert: The Mangroves of San Pedro de Vice (MSPV) and the Illescas Nati...

Camera traps became the main observational method of a myriad of species over large areas. Data sets from camera traps can be used to describe the patterns and monitor the occupancy, abundance, and richness of wildlife, essential information for conservation in times of rapid climate and land‐cover changes. Habitat loss and poaching are responsible...

In May 2022, the First Small Wild Cat Working Groups Meeting of the Neotropics was sheld in Piura, Peru. In this meeting, seven Working Group WG leaders presented their threat mitigation activities on behalf of the conservation of 10 species of small wildcats distributed in Latin America. Because threats are similar for all small cats co-occurring...

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia is a megadiverse region given its remarkable number of species and endemism. Despite being a priority region for biodiversity conservation, the role of protected and unprotected forest remnants for long-term species conservation is unknown. Here, we unveil the main patterns of occurrence and distribut...

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In...

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropica...

This report summarizes the discussion that emerged at the second international Small Wild Cat Conservation Summit held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 6 to 11 Decem- ber 2019. Thirty one conservationists from 16 countries gathered to share and discuss the conservation status of the world’s small wild cats. They shared their research and conservation ex...

The presence of the Jaguarundi, Herpailurus yagouaroundi, west of the Peruvian Andes have not been considered in recent studies due to lack of evidence. We document its presence in the Laquipampa Wildlife Refuge, on the western slope of the Peruvian Andes, using camera traps. The closest previous record was approximately 129 km north, in a montane...

Xenarthrans—anteaters, sloths, and armadillos—have essential functions for ecosystem maintenance, such as insect control and nutrient cycling, playing key roles as ecosystem engineers. Because of habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting pressure, and conflicts with domestic dogs, these species have been threatened locally, regionally, or even across...

Xenarthrans—anteaters, sloths, and armadillos—have essential functions for ecosystem maintenance, such as insect control and nutrient cycling, playing key roles as ecosystem engineers. Because of habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting pressure, and conflicts with domestic dogs, these species have been threatened locally, regionally, or even across...

If the spring-summer arrival of migratory Nearctic waders influences the increase in richness and abundance of bird assemblages in coastal wetlands then both the richness and abundance of this group of birds will decline by the fall. To verify this, the San Pedro de Vice mangrove was used as a model of study where it was established that the fall i...

The presence of Sechuran fox (Lycalopex sechurae) in the Ramsar Site San Pedro de Vice Mangrove (RSSPVM) Piura, Peru was indicated. However, was not consider population size because of the difficulty of investigating this species, and discarded the use of footprints as an estimator due to of soil characteristics. One way to estimate carnivore's pop...

Manglares San Pedro de Vice Ramsar Site is located in northern Peru. Between October 2006 and January 2011, we recorded 13 new species of birds for this area: Dendrocygna autumnalis, Nyctanassa violacea, Bubulcus ibis, Buteogallus meridionalis, Pluvialis dominica, Limosa fedoa, Tringa solitaria, Calidris melanotos Calidris himantopus, Calidris canu...

We report the Dark-faced ground tyrant (Muscisaxicola maclovianus) for the first time for the departments of Piura and Lambayeque and we expand the known distribution in Perú 438 km north. Aditionally, we add another species to the Isla Foca birdlist.

On October 1st, 2006, at the Mangroves San Pedro de Vice –MSPV (Sechura, Piura - Peru) the first visual record of Leopardus pajeros was made in the southern part of the area (05°31’09” S, 80°53’28” W). Subsequently, between August and December of 2010, different tracks were recorded. On December 4th, 2010, the first photographic record was taken at...

The high diversity of Peruvian carnivore species may pose problems when deciding to which taxa and topics new research efforts should be directed. In this publication, we evaluated the research effort made on each taxa -by assessing the number of publications per species-, point out the knowledge gaps that are important to the conservation of each...

La alta diversidad de especies de carnívoros del Perú puede generar problemas al momento de decidir los taxa y temas sobre los que deben dirigirse los esfuerzos de investigación. En este trabajo se evalúa el esfuerzo de investigación en base al número de publicaciones realizadas para cada familia y especie de carnívoro en el Perú. Asimismo, se seña...

Reporte de actividades, investigación y educación ambiental en los manglares San Pedro de Vice en Sechura (Piura - Perú)

Isla Foca, guía de fauna silvestre es el resultado de más de cinco años de estudios y observación. Una información que se presenta de manera sencilla para que todos podamos conocer y disfrutar de las distintas especies que habitan en esta isla. Su buen estado de conservación y las condiciones ambientales que la caracterizan, la han convertido en un...