Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco (Jocotoco Conservation Foundation) is an Ecuadorian non-governmental environmental organization. It was established to purchase and protect land important to the conservation of endangered birds in Ecuador.^[1]

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco established its first reserve, the Tapichalaca Biological Reserve, in 1998 to protect the type locality and main range of the newly discovered Jocotoco antpitta (Grallaria ridgelyi).^[2] The reserve now protects more than 2870 hectares of forest and an associated 380+ species of birds and numerous range-restricted plants, amphibians, mammals, and invertebrates.^[3][4][5]

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco has established eleven reserves protecting 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres):

• Ayampe, Dry forest near the Pacific Ocean. Esmeraldas woodstar, great green macaw.^[6]
• Buenaventura, wet upper foot hill forest on west slope of Andes. One of only a few localities for El Oro parakeet, and El Oro tapaculo.^[7] Also the Giant Caecilian has been found here.^[8]
• Chakana (formerly Antisanilla), highland paramo southeast of Quito. Andean condor and spectacled bear.
• Copalinga, wet foot hill forest on eastern slope of Andes, very close to Zamora and Podocarpus National Park.
• Jorupe, Tumbesian dry forest. Henna-hooded foliage-gleaner, rufous-necked foliage-gleaner, blackish-headed spinetail, gray-headed antbird.
• Narupa, wet foothill forest on the east slope of the Andes. Coppery-chested jacamar, Napo sabrewing, many other foothill species.
• Río Canandé, wet Chocó lowlands of the northwest. Scarlet-breasted dacnis, banded ground-cuckoo, great curassow, golden-chested tanager.
• Tapichalaca, wet lower subtropical forest up to páramo on east slope of Andes. Jocotoco antpitta, golden-plumed parakeet, white-necked parakeet, Peruvian antpitta, bicolored antvireo, masked saltator, greater scythebill.
• Utuana, temperate forest on slopes above inter-Andean valley. Piura hemispingus, rainbow starfrontlet, black-crested tit-tyrant.
• Yanacocha, upper temperate forest on Volcán Pichincha. Black-breasted puffleg (one of the few remaining world localities for this critically endangered species), imperial snipe, rainbow-bearded thornbill.
• Yunguilla, woodland south of Cuenca. Only known locality for the critically endangered pale-headed brush-finch.

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco supports an active research program at the reserves. Projects include:

• Documenting reproductive biology and identifying critical breeding habitat of Esmeraldas woodstar in coastal Ecuador^[9]

References

1. "Fundación Jocotoco Ecuador". Fundación Jocotoco - Jocotours.
2. Krabbe, N. Agro, D.J., Rice, N.H., Jacome, M., Navarrete, L. & Sornoza M., F. 1999. A new species of antpitta (Formicariidae: Grallaria) from the southern Ecuadorian Andes. Auk 116: 882-890.
3. Harris, J. B. C., D. Tirira, P. Álvarez, and V. Mendoza. 2008. Altitudinal range extension for Cebus albifrons (Primates: Cebidae) in southern Ecuador. Neotropical Primates 15:22-24 pdf full text^{[permanent dead link‍]}
4. Harris, J. B. C., R. L. Carpio A., M. K. Chambers, and H. F. Greeney. 2008. Altitudinal and geographical range extension for Bicoloured Antvireo Dysithamnus occidentalis punctitectus in south-east Ecuador, with notes on its nesting ecology. Cotinga 30: 63-65.
5. Breure, A. S. H.; Borrero, F. J. (2008). "An annotated checklist of the land snail family Orthalicidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Orthalicoidea) in Ecuador, with notes on the distribution of the mainland species". Zootaxa. 1768 (1): 1–40. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1768.1.1.
6. "Pechiche: el árbol que puede salvar al segundo colibrí más pequeño del mundo en Ecuador". Noticias ambientales (in Spanish). 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
7. "New project to protect El Oro Parakeet". BirdGuides. 2019-08-05. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
8. "What this alien-looking creature is -- and why you shouldn't be afraid of it". ZME Science. 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
9. Harris, J. Berton C.; Ágreda, Ana E.; Juiña, Mery E.; Freymann, Bernd P. (2009). "Distribution, plumage, and conservation status of the endemic (Chaetocercus berlepschi) of western Ecuador". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 121 (2): 227–239. doi:10.1676/08-079.1.

External links

• Official website