Potential distribution of and priority conservation areas for the Endangered Caatinga howler monkey Alouatta ululata in north-eastern Brazil ROB ÉRIO F REIRE F ILHO and J ORGE M. P AL MEI R IM
Abstract The Caatinga of north-eastern Brazil is the largest and most diverse seasonally dry tropical forest in the Americas and is home to numerous endemic species. However, only 1.2% of the area is under full protection, and given the ongoing decline of this biome there is an urgent need to expand the protected area network. The Endangered Caatinga howler monkey Alouatta ululata is almost endemic to the Caatinga, and is a potential umbrella species for the protection of its biodiversity. Using all avail- able distribution data and our own surveys we applied Maxent and Zonation spatial modelling to identify the range of A. ululata, and priority conservation areas for the species, maximizing habitat quality and connectivity, and minimizing conservation constraints. The top 10% priority areas cover 34,400 km2 and mostly coincide with good rem- nants of Caatinga. Only priority areas in the northern part of the species’ range are protected, so it is essential to create new protected areas in the centre and south of the range. Maxent modelling indicates that the species depends on good tree cover, but even inside protected areas we observed recent deforestation, illustrating the urgency to improve management. Maxent also indicated that aridity limits the species’ range, and therefore the ongoing aridification of the Caatinga is a threat to its future. The protection of A. ululata requires establishing new protected areas in priority locations and improving management of existing protected areas. Preservation of priority areas for the Caatinga howler monkey also represents an opportunity for the conservation of other important biodiversity in the region.
Keywords Alouatta ululata, Brazil, Caatinga, Caatinga howler monkey, Maxent, primate, species distribution modelling, Zonation
Supplementary material for this article is available at
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318001084
Introduction
nificant wilderness area (Aguiar et al., 2002). It is the largest and most diverse seasonally dry tropical forest in the Americas and harbours large numbers of endemic species (DRYFLOR et al., 2016). However, its natural vegetation has been declining at an alarming rate (Beuchle et al., 2015) as a result of land-use intensification (Aguiar et al., 2002; Leal et al., 2005). There is an urgent need for conser- vation measures to protect the Caatinga, with only 1.2%of the area currently under full protection (DRYFLOR et al., 2016). Protected areas need to be expanded, and charismatic species, such as large primates, can facilitate this process (Ducarme et al., 2013) as they function as umbrella species for the conservation of valuable but more discreet biodiver- sity within their range. One of the species with the greatest potential for this role is the Caatinga howler monkey Alouatta ululata, which requires vast areas of suitable habitat to maintain viable populations. TheCaatingahowlermonkeyiscategorizedasEndangered
T
on the IUCN Red List because of its small and declining population, a consequence of tree cover loss, habitat fragmen- tation and hunting (Oliveira & Kierulff, 2008). Most of the species’ range is within the Caatinga, although it extends into the Cerrado (Oliveira & Kierulff, 2008), but its limits are poorly known, which is a major constraint for the plan- ning of conservation measures (Oliveira & Kierulff, 2008). Species distribution modelling is a tool for mapping geographical distributions and studying how they are influenced by environmental variables (Miller, 2010). It is widely applied in conservation science and its models may support the selection of areas for conservation (Araújo et al., 2002). The most common approach in species distribution modelling is maximum-entropy modelling, often applied using Maxent software (Phillips et al., 2006). The identification of priority areas for conservation of
ROBÉRIO FREIRE FILHO (Corresponding author) Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Centro de Biociências, Departamento de Zoologia, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária, Cep. 50670-420, Recife-Pernambuco, Brazil. E-mail
freirefilho@outlook.com
JORGE M. PALMEIRIM Departamento de Biologia Animal, Centro de Ecologia, Evolução e Alterações Ambientais, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Received 15 February 2018. Revision requested 17 April 2018. Accepted 7 August 2018. First published online 15 May 2019.
species is a fundamental step in developing conservation plans (Pressey et al., 2007), and computational tools have been developed to carry out this process of prioritization, taking into consideration factors such as habitat quality, connectivity and conservation cost (Kukkala & Moilanen, 2013). C-Plan (Pressey et al., 2009), Marxan (Watts et al., 2009) and Zonation (Moilanen et al., 2005) are examples of approaches and packages developed for conservation pri- oritization. The general objective of all these packages is
Oryx, 2020, 54(6), 794–802 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318001084
he Caatinga covers c. 735,000 km2 of north-eastern Brazil (Leal et al., 2005) and is considered to be a sig-
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