Análisis del estado del conocimiento de los vertebrados del Parque Nacional Podocarpus y su área de influencia

Abstract

Abstract: The Podocarpus National Park (PNP) is one of the largest and more important protected areas from Southern Ecuador, being the object of numerous studies for several decades. There are many relevant studies regarding the native fauna from this park but no general synthesis of the carried out research was published until now. To strengthen the management of this protected area, a methodological process was designed for the compilation, systematization and analysis of the existing information about the fauna of PNP. A database was generated for the existing scientific studies, with 115 works, 52 on birds, 26 on mammals, 21 on amphibians, 6 on reptiles, 2 on fish and 8 investigations that take into consideration more than one faunistic group. The period with the largest number of studies corresponds to the 2001-2010 years. Tapichalaca (south of the PNP) is the sector with the major number of publications (n: 32) from which 6 are studies that involved the whole protected area. The present work constitutes the first synthesis of the available information of the developed research on the PNP fauna and, hopefully, will aid to a better planning of the future research and a more efficient management of this protected area.