Cindy M. Hurtado

Species in the Order Carnivora are susceptible to habitat fragmentation, deforestation, and climate change because of their medium to large size, large spatial requirements, and other species-specific requirements , providing challenges to conservation and management. Understanding their distributions and occurrence in the face of these threats is...

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...

Reintroduction has become an increasingly common approach for conservation of endangered species. However, reintroductions can be logistically challenging and expensive, with uncertain outcomes, making it a priority to establish effective post-release monitoring techniques. In north-eastern Argentina, collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) have been lo...

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...

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...

Reliable maps of species distributions are fundamental for biodiversity research and conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps are widely recognized as authoritative representations of species’ geographic limits, yet they might not always align with actual occurrence data. In recent area of habitat (AOH) map...

Expert knowledge is used in the development of wildlife habitat suitability models (HSMs) for management and conservation decisions. However, the consistency of such models has been questioned. Focusing on 1 method for elicitation, the analytic hierarchy process, we generated expert‐based HSMs for 4 felid species: 2 forest specialists (ocelot [Leop...

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...

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 study of large and medium-sized mammals based on systematic methodologies and standardized tech-niques have covered few localities in the province of Guayas, a region characterized by accelerated urbani-zation, as is the case for Bosque Protector Cerro Blanco. Our objective was to assess the richness, relative abundance, and activity patterns o...

Los estudios de mamíferos grandes y medianos basados en metodologías sistemáticas y técnicas estandarizadas han abarcado escasas localidades en la provincia de Guayas, donde existen acelerados procesos de urbanización, fragmentación ecológica y presencia de especies introducidas, como ocurre en el Bosque Protector Cerro Blanco. Nuestro objetivo fue...

La cordillera Chongón Colonche (CCHC) forma parte del hotspot de biodiversidad Tumbes-ChocóMagdalena debido a la alta concentración de especies endémicas. La cordillera tiene una extensión aproximada de 95 km de largo por 10 km de ancho y se ubica entre 1 y 800 metros de altitud en sentido oeste-este. Presenta bosques húmedos de garúa, en la parte...

Knowledge of habitat suitability (HS) is required for effective conservation planning, yet it can be difficult to obtain. In the absence of local HS information, managers often use studies from other areas to guide their decisions, typically without local validation. We tested the hypothesis that HS is consistent across a species range, and thus re...

Isla Santay is an important Ecuadorian conservation area for native species, but with little information on mammals. Between August 2018 and January 2019, the rich-ness and abundance of medium and large mammals was studied in two areas with different land use: undisturbed, and disturbed. We used a combination of camera trapping, direct observation,...

The Tumbesian region of Peru and Ecuador, located within a global biodiversity hotspot, is home to a large number of endemic and little-known species. Endemic terrestrial birds (tinamous, cracids, and doves) are at increased risk of extinction due to restricted distribution and exposure to habitat conversion. In this study, we used 24 camera traps...

The establishment of protected areas (PAs) is a central strategy for global biodi- versity conservation. While the role of PAs in protecting habitat has been high- lighted, their effectiveness at protecting mammal communities remains unclear. We analyzed a global dataset from over 8671 camera traps in 23 countries on four continents that detected 3...

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 work summarizes recent knowledge regarding the diversity and distribution of 11 Orders of mammals from Peru. Species information is presented for the cou-ntry, ecoregions and, for the first time, by individual departments. Furthermore, we identified endemic species for the country and provided elevation ranges per species. To compile our infor...

This work summarizes recent knowledge regarding the diversity and distribution of 11 Orders of mammals from Peru. Species information is presented for the country, ecoregions and, for the first time, by individual departments. Furthermore, we identified endemic species for the country and provided elevation ranges per species. To compile our inform...

The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) is distributed from southwestern USA to northern Argentina; however, in some Argentinean localities it went extinct over 50 years ago. As part of a rewilding project, two peccary groups (one captive-bred family group and one mixed group formed by not genetically related individuals) were reintroduced to the Iber...

Land cover polygon layer for the Tumbesian region of Ecuador and Peru. The shapefile was obtained from a supervised classification of best available pixel composites from Lansat images (2015-2018). Land cover types: 1: Water 2: High density developed 4: Artificial ponds 6: Low density developed 8: Semi-deciduous & evergreen forest 9: Mangroves 10...

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...

Accurately quantifying species’ area requirements is a prerequisite for effective area‐based conservation. This typically involves collecting tracking data on species of interest and then conducting home‐range analyses. Problematically, autocorrelation in tracking data can result in space needs being severely underestimated. Based on the previous w...

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...

The number of Pithecia species has considerably increased in recent years. In the first comprehensive taxonomic revision for the genus, five species were recognized, among these, Pithecia irrorata, with two subspecies: P. irrorata irrorata and P. irrorata vanzolinii. These subspecies were elevated to full species in the most recent taxonomic revisi...

Species in the Order Carnivora are susceptible to habitat fragmentation, deforestation, and climate change because of their medium to large size, large spatial requirements, and other species-specific requirements, providing challenges to conservation and management. Understanding their distributions and occurrence in the face of these threats is c...

La Reserva de Biósfera del Noroeste (RBN) alberga por lo menos 22 especies de mamíferos medianos y grandes entre las cuales se encuentran los primates Alouatta palliata aequatorialis y Cebus albifrons aequatorialis. Los estimados previos de la densidad poblacional de A. p. aequatorialis varían de 2.3‒8.6 ind/km2 en 1983 a 17‒19 ind/km2 en 2005 y 20...

Peru is strategically located in South America, sharing borders with Ecuador, Bolivia, Co- lombia, Brazil, and Chile, where the Rufford Foundation has supported over 400 projects (Peru 91, Ecuador 46, Bolivia 44, Colombia 89, Brazil 122, and Chile 56). Since many Rufford-supported projects are conservation-driven, we took this opportunity for grant...

We detected a maternity roost of Eptesicus brasiliensis in a large liana at Cocha Cashu Biological Station (Peru). Our objective was to describe the roost and its surrounding habitat employing visual methods to estimate colony size and time of foraging. At least 10 adults (9♀, 1♂) and one juvenile used a cavity in a liana that hung across a small t...

The Pacific Tropical Rainforest and Equatorial Dry Forest are found only in southern Ecuador and northern Peru, and are among the most poorly known ecosystems of South America. Even though these forests are protected in Parque Nacional Cerros de Amotape (PNCA), they are threatened by fragmentation because of farming and agriculture. The aim of this...