When John Blake and Bette Loiselle arrived at Tiputini for the first time, they found exactly what they’d been looking for. For years, the two University of Florida professors had been working in Costa Rica, studying how resources — fruits in particular — influence the way birds use their habitat. But as the forests around La Selva Biological Station, their old study site, started to get cut down, they were forced to change course. “We could no longer really separate the anthropogenic effects of land use change from the effects of changing fruit resources,” Loiselle told Mongabay. “That really motivated us to begin to look at other places to do our work.” Tiputini Biodiversity Station is part of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, a 2.7-million-hectare (6.6-million-acre) area of Amazon Rainforest in eastern Ecuador and one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet. A tropical forest as pristine as a researcher can hope to access on Earth today. “We just decided that this would be a perfect place to start a long-term study on birds,” Blake told Mongabay. “There was no thought at the time that we’re going to document declines in the bird population.” Rainforest near Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay This March, 23 years after their arrival in Tiputini, the two scientists published a study in Global Ecology and Conservation showing an alarming trend. Relying on observations and mist net captures on two terra firme forest plots about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) apart, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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