Jeroen
First Baird’s tapir from Honduras caught on film
During a Binco Express Inventory last June in the Pico Bonito National Park in Honduras one of our cameras caught a Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii) on film. Although being photographed several times with a camera trap, this is the first time that this species in Honduras was filmed. The Central American tapir or Baird’s tapir has a weight of 300 kg, the largest species in the family on the American continent. Hunting and loss of habitat are the main threats to this species and their numbers dwindle rapidly. This species is noted on the IUCN Red List as endangered. Pico Bonito is one of the few areas in Honduras where there are still healthy tapir populations. This is mainly due to the steep terrain that is difficult accessible to people. Our observations were transferred to the Honduran wildlife department (ICF) and Panthera.
https://youtu.be/pFFt8znSVnE
Caught on film: Wild boar in Sint-Agatha-Rode
Trail cameras recorded some wild boars in Sint-Agatha-Rode. More info in Dutch.
https://youtu.be/oJQ8r1IfV-s
BINCO article adds several species to the Honduran hawkmoth species list
About a year ago we visited the collection of the University Museum of Natural History in Oxford. Among others a collection of pinned hawkmoths (picture above) from Honduras were examined. This resulted in an article in which we added several species to the current Honduran list for this family of butterflies.
Pico Bonito, a succesful expedition
Pico Bonito National Park is located on the North Coast of Honduras near the Caribbean coastal town of La Ceiba. Pico Bonito is the second largest national park in the country, covering an area of 1073 square kilometres. Its vast size subsequently means that it’s one of the most diverse national parks in Honduras. Nonetheless, little is know about the biodiversity in this beautiful park. Until now. Report to be announced later…
Back from prospection for the Educate for Life project in Jambiani, Zanzibar
Two of BINCO’s core members spent 10 days on the Island of Zanzibar to gather the necessary information to set up a future educational project in a series of schools in Jambiani. They saw lots of nice things and talked to several interesting people who are willing to collaborate on this project. More news will follow when the project proposal is finalized.
Cinematographic report of the expedition to French Guyana
BINCO organised an ES (Express Survey) in August 2008 to Savane-Roche Virginie, a small granite outcrop in French Guyana. A new road towards Regina now provides easy access to the outcrop and the main aim of the expedition was to perform a baseline biodiversity survey that can be used as a reference in the future to evaluate the impact of more visitors on this special ecosystem. Here is a brief cinematographic report of the expedition.
Another new species from French Guiana
The discovery of an additional new species form the Roche-la-Virginie (French Guiana) has been published in the journal Zootaxa. The new species is a spider that is adapted to the microhabitat created by the leaves of Bromelias, hence its name Charinus bromeliaea.