Food Resources of the Paradisaea raggiana along Tropical Forest Corridors within Savannah Landscape

Abstract

The Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise (BOP) within the Paradisaeidae family is endemic to New Guinea and extensively studied due to their rarity, colorful plumage and cultural importance. This study examined known food resource availability of the Paradisaea raggiana (P. raggiana) at Varirata National Park (VNP) to that of Whisky Creek (WC) seeing how the P. raggiana would fare if tropical forest corridors were conserved. Belt transect methods were used at both sites consisting of twenty randomized plots, each measuring 50x20 metres, where all tree species above two meters were collected. Identification was through the online James Cook University tropical herbarium and the University of Papua New Guinea’s Herbarium. Findings showed that identified food resources at VNP and WC were very similar across sites. The difference lied in the floristic composition and abundance of food resources between sites, showing no overlap of tree species sampled from VNP and WC, thus P. raggiana food resources were floristically different across sites. At VNP the Meliaceae Dysoxylum sp. was most abundant which the P. raggiana fed on predominantly, while WC has high abundance of Moraceae Ficus sp. and Myrtaceae Syzygium sp.