MLR to launch catalog of mammals from its plantations in Siuna and Bonanza

After making the bird catalog available to the general public, MLR Forestal finalizes details to present one of mammals of the region. In this new document you will find photographs and data of the 34 species found in the 16 plantations of the company located mostly in the municipality of Siuna, although they also have some properties in Bonanza. It will be accessible in digital format and for free.

Abiecer Soza, head of biodiversity at MLR Forestal explains that, of the 34 species, “thirteen are under national ban, eleven in the different appendices of the CITES convention (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), two belong to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list as highly vulnerable and one is in danger of extinction”.

A diverse group, but small and threatened

For Soza, who was commissioned to carry out the work, mammals are a particular group. “They are more delicate than birds because their range of distribution is smaller than those of birds. This is a problem because environmental impacts such as deforestation and livestock generate damage to their habitat and, given the danger, they cannot be easily moved from one place to another,” he explains.

Another risk that mammals run is hunting for human consumption. In this case, the most vulnerable are deer, guatusas and monkeys. “I don’t have photos of deer, just the footprint. One day I met a large couple on a plantation, but when I took out the camera they were already gone,” Soza recalls.

The help of technology and traces on the ground

Thanks to the fact that MLR Forestal invested in two cameras that have waterproof material, a movement sensor and infrared vision, it was possible to photograph and videotape animals such as the opossum and the tigrillo. These two types of mammals could not be photographed during the day, however they were captured with these equipment during the night and in the early morning hours.

Another system used by Soza to recognize species was to study the footprints it detected on the ground. This was done by consulting specialized manuals that establish which animal it is by examining the shape of the footprint, the fingers, the distance between them, and so on.