University of East Anglia/International Council for Bird Preservation Sozoranga Expedition, Ecuador 1989

Brin Best

The expedition was set up to formulate a conservation strategy for the Tumbesian Endemic Centre. It rediscovered the Ochre-bellied Dove (Leptotila ochraceiventris) as well as locating 9 other threatened birds endemic to the region. The behavioural and feeding ecology of these birds was assessed . The local threat to dry tropical forest was analysed and addressed via a number of initiatives.

Project update: 11/2/98. A team from UEA conducted the first surveys of the birds and mammals at a number of sites in south-west Ecuador and at Ayabaca in north-west Peru. Team members returned to Ecuador in 1991 to conduct a wet season survey. The project led on to a number of BP-sponsored expeditions to south-west Ecuador and an important BirdLife publication by the team leader (Best and Kessler 1995) which was used by local NGO Fundación Ecológica Arcoiris and the Cambridge-led Project Podocarpus ’95 to set up a forest reserve and guide further research.