News Release: Ecuadorian Reserve Expanded to Protect Last Population of Bird Species

January 29, 2015/0 Comments/in Archived News /by Rainforest Trust

(Warrenton, VA., January 29, 2015) Fundación Jocotoco, an Ecuadorian conservation organization, has collaborated with Rainforest Trust and American Bird Conservancy to purchase 104 acres of land that will help ensure a future for one of the world’s most endangered bird species.

The purchase will expand Jocotoco’s Yunguilla Reserve in southern Ecuador’s Azuay Province, which was established in 1998 to protect critical habitat for the endangered Pale-headed Brush-finch. This bird numbers between 200 and 250 individuals and is found only in south-central Ecuador in arid areas between 5,250 and 6,890 feet in altitude.

The endangered Pale-headed Brush-finch  © Fundación Jocotoco

Little Woodstar Hummingbird in the reserve  © Brendan Ryan

After a 30-year disappearance, the species was rediscovered in 1998 in Ecuador’s Yunguilla Valley. At that time, the brush-finch’s total population was estimated at 30 individuals. To prevent its extinction, Jocotoco took immediate action to create the Yunguilla Reserve.

The Yunguilla Valley is intensely cultivated wherever water is available, and much of the existing vegetation has been removed by grazing animals. Most of the brush-finch’s remaining habitat, which is approximately half a square mile in size, is protected within the reserve.

Because of intense conservation and management efforts, the reserve has successfully helped the Pale-headed Brush-finch rebound. Its population has increased significantly, and it is one of the few species in the world that has recovered from being critically endangered.

Although the Yunguilla Reserve has been expanded several times since its creation, its size—380 acres before the recent purchase—offered limited carrying capacity for the Pale-headed Brush-finch.
Being restricted to a single site has left the Pale-headed Brush-finch vulnerable to external threats. Three large fires, spreading from neighboring agricultural land, have negatively impacted the survival and the reproduction rates of the species.

The recent purchase will create a new satellite protected area two miles from the present Yunguilla Reserve. Because the two areas are separated by a mountain ridge, the risks of fire affecting both sites at the same time will be greatly reduced. The sites are also connected by a water channel which will encourage the dispersal of brush-finches between them.