A new discovery by the
Peruvian environmental group Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN), of a
population of the critically endangered Royal Cinclodes is providing some
increased hope that this bird may be able to be saved from extinction.
In August 2012, ECOAN
biologists spotted a Royal Cinclodes and possibly a second bird inside the
Huaytapallana Regional Conservation Area in Peru’s Junín department (comparable
to a U.S. state). This sighting was 29 miles north of the nearest and
previously northernmost population discovered in Junín in 2008.
“There may well be fewer
than 250 of these birds left in existence,”said Constantino Aucca Chutas,
President of ECOAN. “These new sightings are therefore quite significant
because they raise the odds that this rare species might be saved.”
The Royal Cinclodes is
listed by the IUCN-World Conservation Union as Critically Endangered; it was recently listed as Endangered under the U.S.
Endangered Species Act. The largest concentrations are found in Peru’s Cusco
and Apurimac departments in the south of the country, with other populations in
Bolivia’s department of La Paz, close to the Peru border, and elsewhere in
Peru’s Puno and Ayacucho departments. (To see a map of the area, go to:
maps.google.com and then search on “Area de Conservacion Regional
Huaytapallana, Junin, Perú”)
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