An annotated bird checklist for Gam island, Raja Ampat, including field notes on species monitoring and conservation

Christoph Weinrich,John D Kalor,Christina Stinn,Julian Schrader,Cornelia Sattler,Tim Hofmann,Michael Mühlenberg,Christoph Parsch,Soetjipto Moeljono,Fabian Mühlberger

doi:10.24259/fs.v4i2.8664

Christoph Weinrich, John D Kalor + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v4i2.8664

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Abstract

Species checklists are a fundamental component of biodiversity research. They foster understanding of species distributions and habitat preferences, thus reducing gaps of knowledge in geographical occurrences of species. Especially in light of the limited availability of data on species distributions for Tanah Papua, an increasing scientific focus on the region is crucial to foster and refine the knowledge of species occurrences and to inform potential conservation planning. Despite a strong focus on conservation of Raja Ampat´s marine areas, surprisingly few studies have focused on the terrestrial biodiversity of the archipelago. As a consequence, detailed species checklists are largely missing. Here, we provide a preliminary bird species checklist for the island of Gam and its surrounding islands, located in the central Raja Ampat archipelago. During nine sampling periods between 2013 and 2019, we recorded 132 bird species in six distinct habitat types. Of the detected species, six are considered threatened by IUCN Red List criteria. We further recorded three new species for Gam Island, thereby expanding their known extent of occurrence.

Highlights

The island of New Guinea features high species endemism and a unique terrestrial and marine biodiversity (Roberts et al, 2002; Orme et al, 2005)
Our checklist focuses on Gam Island (200 km2) and its surrounding islands located in central Raja Ampat
We found that many species on Gam Island were restricted to specific habitat types, and only a few species are considered threatened according to IUCN Red List criteria

Summary

Introduction

The island of New Guinea features high species endemism and a unique terrestrial and marine biodiversity (Roberts et al, 2002; Orme et al, 2005). In the face of Tanah Papua’s accelerating land-use change (Austin et al, 2017) and ambitious political pledge to increase conservation efforts in Tanah Papua (Cámara-Leret et al, 2019a), a stronger scientific focus on species distributions becomes increasingly important. This basic knowledge is an essential requisite to quantify biodiversity values of specific regions as well as to understand potential impacts of global warming (as shown by, e.g., Freeman & Class Freeman, 2014) and to prioritize, inter alia, species-rich sites for conservation actions (Cámara-Leret et al, 2019b)

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