Full title: Implementation of a monitoring program for vertebrate populations in forest environments in Guadeloupe: data acquisition and skills building (PROSPOVERG)
Aims: Identify the diversity of bird and mammal populations in a dry forest in Guadeloupe while training students in wildlife monitoring methods.
Location: Poyen Forest, Biological Reserve directed from the Nord Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe.
Dates: 2020-2023
Summary: The project consists of setting up a program to monitor and record the diversity of the population of birds and mammals (in particular invasive alien species) within a dry forest in Guadeloupe. It combines the implementation of a ringing and monitoring program by recapture and observations of marked individuals, with the simultaneous use of camera traps and acoustic recorders. The data obtained within the project will be used to calibrate future monitoring methods in dry forests in the West Indies. The project also aims to train students in modern methods of monitoring and studying wildlife.
Presentation of the PROSPOVERG Project
Main results
Summary of the methodology:
Three methods for monitoring wildlife were deployed in eight sampling stations in the Poyen forest.
- Capture-mark-recapture: capture of birds using nets (two 12 m nets per station, i.e. 16 nets in total), once a month for 24 months. The birds were measured, weighed and ringed to be recognized upon next capture
- Acoustic recorders: only for 3 months, allowing species to be recognized on the basis of their song
- Camera traps equipped with a motion detector, only for 3 months in parallel with acoustic recorders
Main results:
- 27 bird species identified, including 18 species captured with a net
- 777 birds ringed
- 215 birds recaptured
| Current name | Latin name | Individuals |
| Bananaquit | Coereba flaveola | 167 |
| Caribbean elaenia | Elaenia martinica | 122 |
| Lesser Antillean bullfinch | Loxigilla noctis | 116 |
| Lesser Antillean saltator | Saltator albicollis | 89 |
| Scaly-breasted thrasher | Allenia fusca | 79 |
| Yellow warbler | Setophaga petechia | 63 |
| Black-whiskered vireo | Vireo altiloquus | 48 |
| Black-faced grassquit | Melanospiza bicolor | 33 |
| Common ground dove | Columbina passerina | 15 |
| Spectacled thrush | Turdus nudigenis | 8 |
| Ovenbird | Seiurus aurocapilla | 7 |
| Pearly-eyed thrasher | Margarops fuscatus | 6 |
| Zenaida dove | Zenaida aurita | 6 |
| Bridled quail-dove | Geotrygon mystacea | 5 |
| Carib grackle | Quiscalus lugubris | 5 |
| Gray kingbird | Tyrannus dominicensis | 5 |
| Green heron | Butorides virescens | 2 |
| Brown trembler | Cinclocerthia ruficauda | 1 |
| TOTAL | 777 |
Mongooses: 15 individuals captured
Birds were monitored for a total of two years. During these two years, the three methods were deployed in the same places and at the same time for three months, allowing their effectiveness to be compared.
| Acoustic recorders | Camera traps | Captures with nets | |
| Total species detected | 26 | 10 | 10 |
| Endemic to the region | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Endemic to the Lesser Antilles | 5 | 2 | 3 |
Reports (FR)
- Internship report - Leila Palmyre - Utilisation de pièges photographiques pour quantifier le peuplement des oiseaux au sein de la forêt de Poyen, Réserve Biologique Dirigée du Nord Grande-Terre en Guadeloupe.
- Internship report - Sandy Sébastien - Utilisation de pièges photographiques pour quantifier le peuplement de mammifères au sein de la forêt de Poyen.
- Study report - Effectiveness of different avifauna monitoring methods in the forest of Poyen, Guadeloupe
- Final report of the PROSPOVERG project
Deliverables
Leaflets and posters were created as part of the project by the association AMAZONA for the general public.
News articles
Some pictures from camera traps
Green heron
Racoon
Zenaida dove
Domestic cat
Bridled quail-dove
Rat
Mongoose
Project partners
The PROSPOVERG project was funded by the Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB). It was led by the association AMAZONA (www.amazona-guadeloupe.com) in partnership with Caribaea Initiative.
