Surveys at Bagan Percut, Sumatra, reveal its international importance to migratory shorebirds and breeding herons

The Bagan Percut region of north-eastern Sumatra, Indonesia, is becoming well known for its large concentrations of migratory shorebirds. From January to June 2011 we made monthly counts of shorebirds and waterbirds at four mudflats and one heron rookery. Fifty-one species were recorded, including 35 migratory species, and eight breeding species in the rookery. We counted 20,114 migratory shorebirds (mudflats) and 45,648 breeding waterbirds (rookery) over six months of surveys. We observed >1% of the East Asian-Australasian flyway population of five species of migratory shorebirds: Nordmann’s Greenshank Tringa guttifer (globally Endangered), Lesser Sand Plover Charadrius mongolus, Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva, Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata, and Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres. Our results support the work of others that indicate that Bagan Percut is an important habitat for wintering, migrating, and summering shorebirds. We recommend that Bagan Percut be added to the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership list of internationally important wetlands because the area meets all three criteria for inclusion

Taxonomy, distribution, and conservation status of a rare arboreal lizard Bronchocela hayeki (Müller, 1928) (Reptilia: Agamidae) from northern Sumatra Indonesia

Amarasinghe, A.A. Thasun, Kamsi, Mistar, Riyanto, Awal, Putra, Chairunas A., Hallermann, Jakob, Andayani, Noviar, Abinawanto, A., Supriatna, Jatna (2022): Taxonomy, distribution, and conservation status of a rare arboreal lizard Bronchocela hayeki (Müller, 1928) (Reptilia: Agamidae) from northern Sumatra Indonesia. Zootaxa 5120 (3): 409-422, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5120.3.

Herpetofaunal diversity of West Bali National Park, Indonesia with identification of indicator species for long-term monitoring

We report on the results of a survey of the herpetofauna of West Bali National Park (Taman Nasional Bali Barat in Indonesian, hereafter TNBB) that was carried out in 2015. The survey also included other taxa and the motivation for it was to identify a species or group of species that could be used as indicators of management success for Protected Area Credits (PAC) under the Rainforest Standards (RFS™) system. Four major ecosystems, moist forest, deciduous monsoon forest, savanna and an abandoned Teak plantation, were sampled over a period of 10 days, using belt transects and pitfall traps. We measured species richness, abundance and density, herpetofaunal diversity (Simpson’s Index of Dominance and the Shannon Weiner Index) and community similarity. We also estimated the indicator value to determine which species, if any, might be suitable as indicators of environmental conditions. The survey yielded 30 species, 12 frogs and toads, 7 snakes and 11 lizards. Out of them there is an endangered gecko, Cyrtodactylus jatnai, a vulnerable frog, Microhyla orientalis, and a vulnerable tree-skink, Cryptoblepharus baliensis. Diversity was highest in the moist forest, followed closely by both the deciduous forest and the savanna. The greatest abundance was found in the savanna, followed by the moist forest and then the deciduous forest. Both diversity and abundance were extremely low in the abandoned teak plantation. Eleven species were identified as potential indicators of environmental deterioration if their numbers were to decrease. Frogs and toads were the best indicators in the moist forest, while lizards were the most suitable indicators for savanna and deciduous forest. No snakes were identified as indicators. It is concluded that herpetofauna can be useful and cost-effective indicators of environmental change

Using market data and expert opinion to identify overexploited species in the wild bird trade

a b s t r a c t The wildlife trade involves thousands of vertebrate species and now rivals habitat loss as an extinction driver in some regions. However, its impacts are poorly known because field monitoring of wild populations is expensive, localized, and requires specialized expertise. We examined whether market data and expert opinion could be used to identify bird species that may be at risk from the trade in Indonesia. We asked expert ornithologists to characterize population trends of 38 species of Indonesian birds, including many heavily traded species. They identified 14 species as having undergone population declines, all of which are regularly traded, and only two of which are restricted to old-growth forests. Conversely, none of the untraded species was classified as declining. We combined the expert-derived population trends with data on changes in price and trade volume from Indonesian wildlife markets to see if market data could identify declining species. We found that severely declining species have a significantly different price-volume signal than stable/increasing species; the former are characterized by increasing market prices and declining volumes. Market data are much cheaper to collect than field data, roughly 1/30th the cost of a representative field study. We recommend a two-step approach to assess trade impacts on wild birds in Southeast Asia: coordinated market monitoring followed by field studies of species whose market signals indicate declining populations. Our findings, however, require further validation with higher resolution wild population and market data