Spanish school, Research Station, Sustainable tourism, Ecotourism, Fish studies, Bird and other nature studies, Reforestation and Conservation Activities and Hostel in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, Nicaragua. Birdwatching, SCUBA diving, swimming, hiking, nature and wildlife watching. Hostel, great meals, great friends. Saving the planet and enjoying every minute of it!
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Showing posts with label aquatic conservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aquatic conservation. Show all posts
There are 78 protected areas in the SINAP system, managed by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) in Nicaragua. Among the most conflictive of these areas is Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, because of the beautiful views and warm, clear water. This protected area faces many challenges but none is as grave as that of real estate development. FUNDECI/GAIA maintains a permanent presence in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, through the operation of the biological research station "Estacion Biologica". We conduct a number of environmental studies and conservation actions through our research station there, and we share our knowledge about Nicaragua, its language, culture and great natural heritage through courses and internships offered there.
FUNDECI/GAIA Conservation Science Intern Ruben Pelckmanns participates in bird population monitoring in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve. Photo Pablo Somarriba.
Conservation science interns and volunteers are essential to our work in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve. We are conducting studies of birds, monkeys, plants and fish during 2014 at this location, in coordination with some universities and MARENA. We are comparing animal and plant surveys to previous years to determine how the forests improve or degrade. Frankly, our initial results have suggested some important loss of habitat in some of the most important areas for biodiversity in this location.
Conservation Science Interns at FUNDECI/GAIA can work on our wildlife monitoring project in the Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve. Photo Pablo Somarriba.
We at FUNDECI/GAIA are committed to seeing Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve prosper as a natural area. Obviously, not everyone feels the same, and we have had to deal with some very negative forces in the area, especially coming from people who want to gain riches from investing in property inside the protected area for real estate development. Some of these people really do not like us, and we have recently won an important civil judgment against some of them. There is great opposition to protecting the forest and lake from their greatest enemies, the real estate offices!
These volunteers left us with a poignant and environmental message. Photo Pablo Somarriba.
The GAIA Program in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve also promotes environmental conservation projects, particularly reforestation in some of the affected areas in the reserve. Our group was instrumental in the production of the first-ever official management plan for the Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, with GAIA director Jeffrey McCrary as the coordinator of the project, which involved dozens of work meetings with the community and government officials, reviews of biodiversity, geography, land use, sociological factors, and lots of maps and other information for use in the plan.
The finding of a freshly dead bird led to a skin preparation. Photo Pablo Somarriba.
Our interns can be involved in ongoing studies on the environment in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve. We have been conducting studies of bird, bat and butterfly populations in the reserve for several years. We are looking for historical trends in populations which may demonstrate differences in land use in five different sites inside the reserve.
FUNDECI/GAIA volunteers at Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve painted realistic images of some of the wildlife found in the area, along the wall of the entrance to Estacion Biologica. Photo Pablo Somarriba.
Interns may also take on conservation projects. One of our oldest environmental volunteering projects is reforestation. We harvest seeds, plant and grow native trees in our tree nursery, and plant them in deforested areas in the forest. But the most important aspect of our project means the difference between success and failure-it is the continued care of the planted trees for years after planting. Many reforestation projects exist in natural areas, but few of them succeed in recreating natural forest, because tree survival is typically zero for those projects.
We also rescue wild animals. Interns can work on animal care with our animals, which include two macaws. They can also participate in fundraising for the care and re-introduction of rescued wild animals.
FUNDECI/GAIA volunteers participate in discussions on the environment and social issues in Nicaragua with guests at Estacion Biologica. Photo Pablo Somarriba.
We are actively engaged in learning about, teaching about, and protecting wild nature in Nicaragua. Our princpal focus is Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, where we have executed years of careful study of the birds, fish, and more recently, other creatures of the forests, lake and streams. Although this place is close-too close-to Granada and Masaya, which facilitates inappropriate and excessive human activity, there is still an abundance of nature here. Here we will show you some aspects of the wildlife of this area which you might not have contemplated before.
The first animal we share with you here is the White-necked Puffbird (Notharchus hyperrhynchus). It was previously considered to range from Mexico into the Amazon, but the South American birds have a smaller bill, and recently, "our" birds have been reclassified into another species, leaving the older names for the southern forms (Pied Puffbird, Notharchus tectus). It's a crazy looking bird! And a real prize for a birdwatching experience. This individual was caught by our field study group by mist nets. This species is much more common in the south-western part of the reserve, than in the northern part, reflecting that it prefers somewhat better forest quality, as the northern part is more heavily degraded.
There is a little-known crab common to Lake Apoyo, known locally as jaiba, but without an English common name: Potamocarcinus nicaraguensis. We don't know much about it, except that it tastes good! We have begun to keep counts of crabs in our transects in the long-term flora and fauna monitoring project we conduct in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve. We see one or two crabs on most of our SCUBA dives in the lake. Locals eat it and it appears to survive the low levels of harvesting pressure well enough. We have recently found it in one of the small streams that flows year round into Lake Apoyo. These crabs are important to consider in aquatic conservation in Laguna de Apoyo and its tributary streams.
A lacustrine crab, Potamocarcinus nicaraguensis. Photo by Balasz Lerner.
Butterflies abound here. We have been observing the butterflies a few years, and already have one scientific publication in which a few dozen new species for Nicaragua were documented. Today, we are focussing on the butterflies that feed on fruits, in a quantitative study of the effects of land use by man on the butterfly communities. Most of the butterflies we observe in this study are from a single family, Nymphalidae. However, we continue to watch and admire all the other ones. The next two pictures were taken of a freshly emerged individual from its coccoon. The wings were beautiful but had not yet taken flight.
Photo by Rachel Lauwerijssen.
Photo by Rachel Lauwerijssen
As a generality which holds quite well taxonomically in this region, we call those of the order (Lepidoptera) which fly in the daytime, butterflies, and those which fly at night, moths. Among the several distinctive features of moths is the antenna which are not clubbed, as in the butterflies, but a variety of other structures such as feathered or segmented. Moths are usually less distinctly colored and patterned than the diurnal butterflies, but there are some beautiful features to them, and in some cases, they can be surprisingly beautiful.
Photo by Pablo Somarriba.
Photo by Pablo Somarriba.
White-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) occupy only a few sites in the reserve. There are few, because of poaching for the pet trade, and those still here are wary. Monkeys are not pets! Please do not support the trafficking of wild animals.
We have recently noticed the capuchins in new places in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve. The populations here, like in other parts of Nicaragua, have been decimated by the pet trade. But, it appears that our monkeys in Apoyo are making a small comeback. Here, one looks down on us as we are catching birds by mist netting.
Photo by Lukas Betthausen.
The Mantled Howler Monkey (Alouatta palliata) is more abundant than in past years in Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, thanks to the increased vigilance of park guards against tree cutting, forest fires, and hunting. We are monitoring monkey populations in the reserve, and we need volunteers and interns to help us. Please contact us if you would like to do some monkey-watching.
Photo by Mark de Graaf.
These photos were all taken in the Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, by amateur photographers. They demonstrate how beatiful the area is, why we think is one of the leading sites for wildlife photography and nature tourism in Nicaragua, and hopefully, contribute to convincing the leaders here to protect it. We need your help. Our studies of the wildlife and projects in repairing the broken forest require money and volunteers. Can you help us at Estacion Biologica? Please write us.
The volcanic crater lakes of Nicaragua attract lots of tourists, both Nicaraguans and foreigners. The water-filled craters are all beautiful, each with its own special features. Eight of these lakes, however, have endemic fish species, daughter species of the ancestral form of the Midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus), living in them. The water of most of these lakes is transparent, perfect for observing these fish while SCUBA diving.
During the nineteenth century, scientists and explorers admired the wide variations in color and shape among the Midas cichlid group, so much so that several species were described during the succeeding fifty years. Most of those species are today lumped back into A. citrinellus, given that this is the first described of the group from Lake Nicaragua. Its sister group, A. labiatus, has similar features but is generally longer and sleeker bodied with prominent lips and frenum. This fish became incorporated into the aquarium hobby trade in a brightly colored form, and is still known as the red-devil cichlid. Only these two species "survived" the scientific scrutiny of the first three-quarters of the twentieth century.
Amphilophus labiatus showing its prominent lips in Laguna de Xiloa, Nicaragua. Photo by Ad Konings.
People knew these fish populated not only the Nicaraguan Great Lakes, but also the volcanic crater lakes along their western shores. The late, visionary scientist George Barlow applied for the first time, multivariate analysis to the morphological characters of fish populations in this group to demonstrate convincingly that A. labiatus and A. citrinellus were different species, and that in Lake Apoyo, a unique species exists as well, which he called the arrow cichlid (Amphilophus zaliosus). This species, more elongate than A. citrinellus and lacking the fat lips of A. labiatus, was found in Lake Apoyo.
A pair of Amphilophus zaliosus on nest, in breeding coloration. Photo by Ad Konings.
The sacred trinity of A. citrinellus, A. labiatus, and A. zaliosus stood through the remainder of the twentieth century. During the current century, we incorporated the talents of Jay R. Stauffer, Jr. in the taxonomic descriptions of fishes in this group. To date, he has led the descriptions of eight additional species-three from Lake Xiloa, and five from Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua. They will be discussed in a coming blog entry. Most of the species from Lake Apoyo can be appreciated in the video below.
Video by Balasz Lerner.
This second video, produced by Fabio Buitrago, shows underwater footage of endemic fish species in Lake Apoyo, facing a crisis of man-made dimensions-garbage. Everywhere. Why must we pollute their home? These fish-six species known and others not yet discovered-only live here in this lake.
The most common of the fish in this video, and in just about any part of the lake where we have looked, is the little Apoyo cichlid, A. astorquii. It was named in honor of Father Ignacio Astorqui, a Jesuit priest from Spain who devoted much of his life to the study of freshwater fishes of Nicaragua, and wrote the first comprehensive guide to them. A breeding pair with their fry are shown below:
Amphilophus astorquii pair caring for fry, Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua. Photos taken during scuba diving by Adrianus Konings.
Would you like to help us protect and study the endemic cichlid species of Laguna de Apoyo? One of these species is already on the endangered list (Arrow cichlid, Amphilophus zaliosus, Critically Endangered-IUCN). Nicaragua needs your help, because the threats are many, and resources are few. We are seeking divers, biologists, people with experience in excel, and volunteers without any specialized skills to help us in this project. Please contact us if you would like to participate. The Laguna de Apoyo Spanish School also supports this project by providing a portion of its proceeds to fund our studies and conservation efforts. Would you like to learn Spanish? Think about attending our program, and go diving with us, too!
The work discussed here is an extension of our studies for over a decade on the ecology of Lake Apoyo, a volcanic crater lake in the Pacific region of Nicaragua. To learn more about the freshwater snails of Laguna de Apoyo, click here.
Marine Biologist Chris Hellyers examining gastropod snails from Laguna de Apoyo
The aquatic gastropod snail (Pyrgophorus coronatus) is an important component of the diet of native cichlid fish species and it is also a carrier of parasitic heterophyid worms. These worms have been associated with high levels of blindness of native fishes.
Gastropod snails (Pyrgophorus coronatus) with eggs attached to operculum and shell
Hellyer has been collecting snails from different habitats of the Laguna de Apoyo and studying them under the microscope looking for parasites. He is also looking at other snail traits like shell-length and fecundity (breeding activity), to see whether they vary between habitat and plant species.
Live Pyrgophorus coronatus from Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua. Photo by Chris Hellyer.
“One theory is that increasing levels of parasitism may be associated with ecosystem disturbance by introduced fish species and changing composition of Laguna’s aquatic plant species”, says Hellyer. “When the native Chara plants were eliminated from the lake due to introduced tilapia fish, blindness in native fish dramatically increased”.
Chara is a natural habitat for snails and they have had to seek alternative habitats and food, such as filamentous algae. This algae is a type of cyanobacteria, which are known to contain toxins that may affect organisms that consume it.
The results from this research will increase understanding of snail and parasite ecology in the Laguna and may contribute to conservation action in the future.
