The Costa Rican Ecological Corridor and Wildlife Connectivity Project Part III: Understanding Animal Movement

The Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor located in Costa Rica is home to a region possessing one of the “richest concentrations of species and ecosystem diversity in the world ” (Miller, Chang & Johnson 2001, p.7). The area, once teeming with wildlife and greenery, has been subjected to human encroachment and development. The increasing presence of human beings within the corridor has fragmented the area and made it difficult for wildlife to function naturally in their habitats. Because there is so much importance placed on species biodiversity, especially in an area as unique as the biological corridor, conservation measures are being taken to maintain the land. The corridor includes many “fragmentationsensitive species for which corridors are likely” (Beier & Noss, 1998, p. 1242), necessary for their survival. However, since protection of the corridor has not been completely successful, our research will study what effect fragmentation has had on the wildlife currently residing in the area and how human development has affected their movement and home ranges.

The Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor acts as a passageway for wildlife to move from Las Nubes to Los Cusingos. With the construction of roads and modification of the land for agriculture and human development, the connectivity of the landscape has been disrupted. Our research focuses on how animal home ranges within the corridor are affected by human activity. By mapping the photographs of wildlife taken by 9 camera traps within the corridor, we can infer if human impact of land use and roads have affected the ease of animal movement. With roads passing throughout the corridor and increased human landuse, we hypothesize that ease of animal movement is decreased. The roads may act as a barrier, as the sound of human activity and the threat of vehicles may deter animals from crossing a road. Furthermore, much of the oncerich rainforest within the corridor has been cleared for coffee farming and human settlement. This poses a threat to some of the native fauna species, as they may be more exposed to predation by leaving the protection of the dense rainforest cover. This may impact their home range, as well.