Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

Cerulean Paradise‐Flycatcher Not Extinct: Subject of the First Cover Lives

2006; Wiley; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00430.x

ISSN

1523-1739

Autores

Tony Whitten,

Tópico(s)

Genetic diversity and population structure

Resumo

Long-time readers of Conservation Biology may recall that the cover of the very first issue in May 1987 was a painting of a pale blue bird with long whiskers. It accompanied a paper entitled “One or More Extinctions from Sulawesi, Indonesia?” (Whitten et al. 1987b). We reported there were no recent records of that bird—the Cerulean Paradise-Flycatcher (Eutrichomyias rowleyi), a monotypic genus known from a single specimen caught on Sangihe Island in 1873—or of a number of other Sulawesi endemic birds and fishes. None of the species we discussed in the paper was mentioned in the Red Data books (as they were called back then), and none was protected. There was a possible sighting of the flycatcher in 1978 in a patch of forest in the south of Sangihe, but bird surveys in 1985 and 1986 failed to confirm its existence; indeed, finding any forest at all was difficult (Whitten et al. 1987b). I am pleased to report that, 20 years (and 100 journal issues) later, this possibly extinct species is in fact extant and being actively conserved. Sangihe forms roughly half of the Sangihe-Talaud group of islands, lying between northern Sulawesi and the Philippines. Most of the small island is covered with long-established mixed plantations, but there are some 940 ha of mixed primary and old secondary forest on the steep upper slopes of Mt. Sahendaruman. This is now a “protection forest,” which was established in 1994 to safeguard the area's watershed. This status does not confer specific protection measures for wildlife (e.g., hunting is not prohibited; BirdLife International 2004). The small area of remaining forest is extremely vulnerable to further clearance for subsistence cultivation and for timber. Knowledge of the fauna of Sangihe and Talaud started to improve in 1995 when a student expedition, Action Sampiri (a joint effort of the University of York and the Sam Ratulangi University in Manado), arrived on the islands to conduct ornithological surveys. In 1996 participants started to integrate their research with a community-based conservation education program (Riley 1997). The slopes of Mt. Sahendaruman are particularly notable because they support three critically endangered species (BirdLife International 2004) that are found nowhere else (Cerulean Paradise-Flycatcher, Sangihe Shrike-Thrush [Colluricincla sanghirensis], and Sangihe White-eye [Zosterops nehrkorni]) and two endangered species (BirdLife International 2004) that are also endemic to the island (Sangihe Hanging-Parrot [Loriculus catamene] and Elegant Sunbird [Aethopyga duyvenbodei]) (Lambert & Rasmussen 1998; Rasmussen et al. 2000; Riley & Wardill 2001). No other site in Indonesia supports more than one critically endangered bird species (Jepson 1999; BirdLife International 2003), and Sangihe is one of the sites identified by the Alliance for Zero Extinction (http://www.zeroextinction.org). All three of the critically endangered species are confined to the forest, whereas the endemic sunbird, hanging-parrot, and the Scops Owl (Otus collari; a species of least concern) (Lambert & Rasmussen 1998) occur in both forest and agroforestry areas. Sangihe is thus a great place for birders to add species to their life lists, and a small tourism industry has developed (Jepson & Ounstead 1997; Jepson 1999; Wardill & Riley 1999). Jon Riley and Jim Wardill of Action Sampiri moved to Sangihe in 1997 and worked hard to build a constituency of concern and to survey the forests for the endemic birds. In June 1998 the Action Sampiri team made a confirmed sighting of the Cerulean Paradise-Flycatcher. The bird is known as burung niu in Indonesian, a name that honors the local farmer, Pak Niu, who told the team of his first sighting. The population of the flycatcher is not known precisely but probably is 30) in the Sahendaruman watershed, that requires each village to have such a regulation and that the process be participatory and inclusive. The project itself does not have the funds to develop sustainable livelihoods to reduce pressure on natural forest, but it has helped communities devise sensible plans and find funds. One source of funding is Seacology, which aims to “save the world—one island village at a time” (Seacology 2005). In addition to the birds of Sangihe and Talaud, our 1987 paper also drew attention to a number of fish species endemic to Sulawesi. Remarkable collections of fishes in the late 1980s and since have resulted in a doubling of the known endemic Sulawesi species from 25 to more than 50 (Kottelat 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1991; Kottelat et al. 1993; Kottelat & Whitten 1996; Meisner 2001). Most of these were found in the Malili lakes of eastern South Sulawesi, but new species were also found in Lake Poso. The endemic goby Webergobius (now Mugilogobius) amadi (Larson 2001) had not been found, and it is suggested this is because of diseases and parasites introduced by alien fish species (Kottelat 1990b). Two more new Lake Poso fish species have been described from collections in 1995 and earlier (Parenti & Soeroto 2004), and although some of the endemic species were still present 10 years ago, the peculiar duck-billed rice fish (Adrianichthys kruyti) illustrated in our original paper has not been collected since 1983. Both M.amadi and A. kruyti are considered critically endangered (FishBase 2005). In the late 1990s the area of lakes Poso and Lindu was subject to terrible ethnic and religious violence, and the only recent work seems to have been a collection by the local university, which found one of the new Xenopoecilus in reasonable numbers and a few individuals of a congener. So, 20 years later there is some good news to report. The Cerulean Paradise-Flycatcher lives on and along with its fellow rarities is getting the attention it deserves. Even so, the flycatcher is still critically endangered, but through the efforts of BirdLife Indonesia and its local partners there is a good chance its status may improve before long. A cause for concern now is that the newly recognized Sangihe White-eye may be in the same position the flycatcher was in 1987. The white-eye was seen twice in 1996 (Rasmussen et al. 2000) and sound-recorded in 1999; it appears not to have been seen since, despite numerous trips in the last 5 years by experienced birders to the small patch of forest where it occurred. Perhaps this is now Asia's rarest bird. All the areas mentioned in the 1987 paper are now known to contain more species than before, but most of the species are severely threatened and many are critically endangered. There is no conservation action directed at the outstanding freshwater biodiversity and no organization or agency has shown any interest in addressing the threats to their survival. In the same way Whitten et al. (1987a, 1987b) helped stimulate interest in the Cerulean Paradise-Flycatcher 20 years ago, I hope this update finally brings some well-deserved attention to the threatened, endemic freshwater biodiversity of Sulawesi.

Referência(s)
Altmetric
PlumX