Protecting Wild Cat Habitat

The Deer of the Sierra Gorda:

The White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and the Temazate Deer (Mazama temama)

 Status in the Sierra Gorda: White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Temazate deer (Mazama temama) populations are extremely vulnerable in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve due to habitat loss, hunting, and climate change. They have lost thousands of hectares of habitat in the Sierra Gorda to wildfires, agriculture, logging, and infrastructure development. Poaching is a major threat, as are packs of domestic and feral dogs that have become efficient and abundant hunters in the region. Finally, climate-change-induced draughts further threaten local populations of these species.

Distribution in the Sierra Gorda: The white-tailed deer can be found in all of the Sierra Gorda’s ecosystems, while the temazate makes its home only the temperate forests and the cloud forests in the western Sierra Gorda.

Habits and Habitat: A very flexible species, the white-tailed deer has been able to adapt to degraded habitats, paddocks, and even the outskirts of urban areas. The temazate deer, however, are much more sensitive to changes in their habitat and need large expanses of preserved forests with dense vegetation. They are agile navigators of the forest, moving with ease through the labyrinths of thicket and limestone outcrops.

Deer are a fundamental part of the forest ecosystem, providing food for predators and dispersing seeds from the plants they consume. Many species, and the forest structure itself, depend on healthy populations of deer.

Conservation Actions in the Sierra Gorda: By keeping private reserves free from human activity such as illegal logging, poaching, and land clearing, Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda’s provides white-tailed and temazate deer with undisturbed habitat and an important refuge.

We also provide payments for environmental services (such as carbon sequestration) to owners of forests where these species are distributed. These payments allow forest owners to invest in forest regeneration, creating more habitats for the deer.

Finally, we offer a rigorous environmental education program in the region’s schools that teaches youth about the importance of conservation in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.

We must act to protect the the White-tailed and Temazate deer before they are seriously threatened! Join our work!

Links:

• https://www.facebook.com/sierra.gorda/

Green Parakeet

Psittacara holochlorus

The Green Parakeet is one of the endangered species that calls the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve home. We seek to protect it through our Lands for Conservation program by providing it with a safe habitat.

Protection Status: On the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species (Least Concern) and listed as Endangered by SEMARNAT (Mexico’s Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources).

Status in the Sierra Gorda: Green parakeets have suffered several local extinctions in the Biosphere Reserve due to forest clearings, fires, logging, poaching, and infrastructure development. They are no longer present in 3 of the 5 municipalities that make up the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.

Distribution: Southern Texas, USA, to Northern Mexico, south through the Middle American isthmus to south-western Nicaragua.

Habitat and Habits: Green parakeets are forest birds, making their home in temperate, cloud, and tropical forests. They nest in mountain crags and in the cavities of ancient trees. Extremely important in their ecosystems, green parakeets disperse seeds from the trees they feed on.

Green Parakeets form lifelong pairs, are extremely social, and spend much of their time cuddling and kissing.

Conservation Actions in the Sierra Gorda: We protect nesting sites within the nature reserves that we manage as part of our Land Conservation Program. Logging, poaching, and cattle grazing is forbidden in these reserves, thus ensuring a safe habitat for these loud and colorful birds. Please help us protect their habitats by becoming a recurring donor. 

Green parakeets are popular pets. Yet poaching is a serious threat to their survival. For each parakeet that makes it to the pet store, 8 die in the process of capture. And because green parakeets mate for life, a bird that has lost its pair will never again reproduce. Moreover, feral green parakeets that have escaped from their cages often become invasive species in non-native environments.

Check out our video, shot by Roberto Pedraza Ruiz

We would like to express a special thank you to the World Land Trust, for supporting the purchase of lands dedicated to strict conservation activities in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve and directly enabling our conservation efforts.  

References:

Edwards, E. P. 1972. A Field Guide to the birds of Mexico. Sweet Briar, Virginia USA

Eitniear, J.C. Green Parakeet (Psittacara holochlorus), In Neotropical Birds Online (T.S.Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online: https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/grnpar

Links:

• Green Parakeet Video, by Roberto Pedraza Ruiz and Yarelly Rubio