Birds
and Mammals Associated with Bamboo in the Atlantic Forest
Note:
This online review is updated and revised continuously, as soon as results of
new scientific research become available. It therefore presents
state-of-the-art information on the topic it covers.
Bamboos are tall,
woody grasses that are important components of many forests in tropical and
temperate regions (Ohrnberger 1999; Judziewicz et al. 1999). Not surprisingly then, some species
of animals are closely associated with bamboos and dependant on them for
survival.
Perhaps the best-known of such bamboo-specialized animals are
the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and Red Panda (Ailurus
fulgens) of Asia. These two vegetarian carnivores feed almost
exclusively on the shoots and leaves of bamboo (for details see our review:
Sympatric Giant Panda and Red Panda). In the the
present
report, we discuss birds and mammals associated with bamboo in the Atlantic
forest of Brazil, and review field studies of them.
The
Atlantic Forest extends along the coast of eastern Brazil, from the states
of Ceará and Rio Grande in the north, to Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul in the
south. A small part of this forest also extends into neighboring parts of
Argentina (Misiones Province) and southeastern Paraguay. The
Atlantic Forest is separated from the Amazon Forest by drier habitats such as
grasslands, savannas and caatinga, and consequently has many species of tropical
plants and animals that do not occur in the Amazon Forest.
In fact,
the Atlantic Forest is the only place in the world where many species of plants
and animals are known to occur. Unfortunately, because this region has been
developed intensively by man for several hundred years, less than 3% of the
original Atlantic forest remains intact, and many of its unique plants and
animals are now either extinct or endangered (Sick 1985; 1993; Goerck 1995,
1997).
Bamboo-specialized
birds
The
following is a list of Atlantic Forest birds that are associated with bamboo:
Purple-winged Ground-Dove (Claravis godefrida)
Rufous-capped Spinetail (Synallaxis ruficapilla)
White-collared Foliage-gleaner (Anabazenops fuscus)
White-eyed Foliage-gleaner (Automolus leucophthalmus)
White-browed Foliage-gleaner (Anabacerthia amaurotis)
Canebrake Groundcreeper (Clibanornis dendrocolaptoides)
Black-billed Scythebill (Campylorhamphus falcularius)
Giant Antshrike (Batara cinerea)
Large-tailed Antshrike (Mackenzianena leachi)
Tufted Antshrike (Mackenzianena severa)
White-bearded Antshrike (Biatas
nigropectus)
Rufous-tailed Antbird - (Drymophila
genei)
Ferruginous Antbird (Drymophila feruginea)
Bertoni's Antbird (Drymophila rubricollis)
Dusky-tailed Antbird (Drymophila malura)
Ochre-rumped Antbird (Drymophila ochropyga)
White-shouldered Fire-eye (Pyriglena leucoptera)
Rufous-tailed Antthrush (Chamaeza ruficauda)
Rufous Gnateater (Conopophaga lineata)
White-browed Antpitta (Hylopezus ochroleucus)
Grey-bellied Spinetail (Synallaxis cinerascens)
Olive Spinetail (Cranioleuca obsoleta)
Spotted Bamboowren (Psilorhamphus guttatus)
Mouse-colored Tapaculo (Scytalopus speluncae)
Fork-tailed Tody-Tyrant (Hemitriccus furcatus)
Drab-breasted Bamboo-Tyrant (Hemitriccus diops)
Brown-Breasted Bamboo-Tyrant (Hemitriccus obsoletus)
Ochre-faced Tody-flycatcher (Poecilotriccus plumbeiceps)
Large-headed Flatbill (Ramphotrigon megacephala)
Yellow Tyrannulet (Capsiempis flaveola)
Wied's Tyrant-Manakin (Neopelma aurifrons)
Blackish-blue Seedeater (Amaurospiza moesta)
Uniform Finch (Haplospiza unicolor)
Buffy-fronted Seedeater (Sporophila frontalis)
Temminck's Seedeater (Sporophila falcirostris)
Sooty Grassquit (Tiaris fuliginosa)
Some species on the list, such as the Spotted Bamboowren (Psilorhanmphus
guttatus) and the White-bearded Antshrike (Biatas nigropectus) are
confined almost entirely to large stands of bamboo. Others occur in
additional habitats, but are most abundant where bamboo is common. Still others
occur where there are several different types of trees and plants, but forage
most extensively on bamboo.
The amount of data upon which a bird is judged to be associated with bamboo
varies. For some species, scientific field studies have been carried out
that confirm bamboo-specialization. With others, the impressions of a
well-trained ornithologist are the only data available.
The list was compiled from several references, including Sick (1985,
1993); Ridgely & Tudor (1989, 1994); Rodrigues et al. (1994); Leme
(2001): Bodrati & Cockle 2006; Rajão & Cerqueira 2006; Dos Anjos et al. 2007;
Santana & Dos Anjos (2010).
Field
Studies of bamboo-specialized birds
Pioneering
studies of bamboo specialization in Atlantic Forest birds have been made in the
montane forest at Intervales State Park (Fazenda Intervales), São Paulo State.
Here, bamboos are abundant, including Giant Bamboo (Guadua angustifolia),
and various species of Chusquea and Merostachys.
At a
study site located 900 meters above sea level, Rodrigues et al. (1994) studied
the foraging behavior of 2 species of ovenbirds (Furnariidae) at Fazanda Intervales. They
observed one of these ovenbirds, the White-collared Foliage-gleaner (Anabazenops
fuscus), only in patches of dense bamboo vegetation, and did not find this
bird in patches of primary vegetation where bamboo was absent. Of
the total foraging records obtained for this species, most were on bamboo: 53%
on bamboo nodes, 21% on bamboo internodes, 13 % on bamboo leaves and only 13% on
non-bamboo plants. In contrast, the Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner (Philydor
rufus), a related ovenbird living in the same area, avoided bamboo.
Only 1% of foraging records for it were on bamboo.
At a
study site located 900 meters above sea level, Leme (2001) studied 4 species of Drymorphila
antbirds at Fazanda Intervales. She found that Bertoni's Antbirds (Drymorphila
rubricollis) and Ferrugineous Antbirds (D. ferruginea) preferred to
forage in bamboo thickets, where they fed mainly on insects on live bamboo
foliage. Eighty-three percent of trees foraged on by Bertoni's Antbirds
were bamboo, while 78% of trees foraged on by Ferrugineous Antbirds were bamboo.
In contrast, two closely-related antbirds (D. malura and D. ochropyga),
that also occurred in the area, showed no preference for bamboo.
Also
at Fazenda Intervales, Olmos (1996) studied the association of the Uniform Finch
(Haplospiza unicolor) with Chusquea aff. meyeriana, a
mast-seeding bamboo found only in the Atlantic forest. The Uniform Finch
is an irruptive species that seems to wander the Atlantic forest region searching for
mast-seeding bamboo. It feeds extensively on bamboo seeds and is usually
not seen in an area during years when bamboos do not seed.
During Olmos'
study, flowers began to grow on the Chusquea in September 1988, and all
thickets of this wind-pollinated bamboo had flowers by November. Ripe
seeds fell to the ground six months later, from May to August 1989.
The
Uniform Finch was first seen in the area in December 1988. At this time, Olmos observed singing males of this species, "always on or very close to Chusquea
meyeriana thickets." In April 1989, Olmos found the Uniform
Finches building nests and laying eggs. In May, he saw "family groups made
of a male-female pair and 2-3 young. In this month, he also observed the
Uniform Finches foraging on bamboo seeds, "landing on the bamboo spikes and
pressing the dried flowers with the bill, one by one, until finding a hidden
seed, which was detached, cleaned from the husks and eaten."
By the end of June, most of the Uniform Finches had left the area. Thus the
lifecycle of the Uniform Finch was synchronized with that of the mast-seeding
bamboo, causing this finch to breed in the austral autumn rather than the
austral spring.
Where the Atlantic
forest extends into Argentina, Areta et al. (2009) studied three species of
birds that specialize in eating bamboo seeds: the purple-winged ground-dove (Claravis
godefrida), Buffy-fronted Seedeater (Sporophila frontalis)
and Temminck's Seedeater (Sporophila falcirostris). They recorded these
three nomadic bird species only during masting events of Guadua bamboo
trees (i.e. when these giant bamboos produced large numbers of seeds).
Mammals
associated with bamboo
Only
one species of mammal in the Atlantic Forest is a bamboo-specialist. This
species, the Southern Bamboo Rat (Kannabateomys amblyonyx), ranges from
Espirito Santo state south to Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil. It also
occurs in the Selva Missionera of neighboring Argentina and Paraguay (Crespo
1982; Olmos et al. 1993).
The Southern Bamboo Rat lives in groves of
the native Giant Bamboo (Guadua species), as well as in thickets of
introduced bamboo such as Chinese Bamboo (Bambusa tuldoides) and Phyllostachys
species (Olmos et al. 1993; Stallings et al. 1994; Silva et al. 2008). Individual bamboo rats
fitted with transmitters and radio-tracked, were located outside bamboo stands
only when they moved from one bamboo stand to another (Stallings et al. 1994).
The
Southern Bamboo Rat is a large rodent and can weigh as much as 600 grams.
It is an arboreal browser, feeding mainly on the shoots, branches and leaves of
bamboos. Most observations of it feeding have been in bamboo at heights of
over 2 meters above the ground (Olmos 1993). Unlike most other rodents,
the feet of the Southern Bamboo Rat have long primate-like fingers, with flat
nails, that permit it to firmly grip the smooth culms of bamboo (Olmos et al.
1993). It is active mainly at night.
Other Atlantic Forest rodents and
bamboo: On some occasions, the mast-seeding of
bamboo seems to cause short-term explosive increases in the local abundance or
density of other rodent species (i.e. those that are not bamboo specialists).
These population explosions, called "ratadas," and are not well-understood.
While mast-seeding by bamboo appears to be one factor that can trigger ratadas,
many mast-seedings do not produce these population explosions, suggesting that
other factors are also important (Jaksic and Lima
2003).
Summary
and Conclusions
As
we have seen above, many species of birds and one species of mammal in the
Atlantic forest are strongly associated with bamboo, and some appear to be
dependant on bamboo for their survival. One interesting fact is that
most (over 90%) of the bamboo-specialized birds and mammals we have listed for
the Atlantic Forest are endemic species, that is they occur only in the Atlantic
Forest. Still more species of bamboo-specialized animals occur in Amazonia
(See our special review Amazonian Birds Associated with
Bamboo).
Bamboo
offers many important resources to animals, including food (seeds, shoots, leaves,
insects, etc.), and cover from enemies. Because so many native bamboo
forests have been destroyed, many bamboo-specialized birds and mammals are less
abundant in the Atlantic forest than they were previously. Some have had
their numbers further reduced because they have been trapped in large numbers to
sell as cagebirds.
For these reasons, several bamboo specialists, such as
the Purple-winged Ground-Dove, Buffy-fronted Seedeater, and Temmink's Seedeater
are now endangered and their future survival is uncertain (Vasconcelos et al.
2005).
References
Areta JI, Bodrati A, Cockle K (2009)
Specialization on Guadua bamboo seeds by three bird species in the
Atlantic Forest of Argentina. Biotropica 41: 66-73
Bodrati A, Cockle K (2006) Habitat,
distribution and conservation of Atlantic Forest birds in Argentina: Notes
on nine rare or threatened species. Ornitologia Neotropical
17: 243-258
Crespo
JA (1982) Ecología de la comunidad de mamíferos del Parque
Nacional Iguazu, Missiones. Rev. Mus. Argent. Cien. Nat.
"Bernardino Rivadavia" 3: 48-162
Dos Anjos L (2006) Bird species sensitivity in a
fragmented landscape of the Atlantic forest of Southern Brazil.
Biotropica 38: 229-234
Dos Anjos L, Volpato GH, Lopes EV, Serafini PP, Poletto F,
Aleixo A (2007) The importance of riparian forest for the
maintenance of bird species richness in an Atlantic Forest remnant, southern
Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 24: 1078-1086
Goerk
JM (1995) Birds of the Atlantic forest of Brazil: patterns
of rarity and species distributions along an elevational gradient.
M.Sc. thesis, University of Missouri, St. Louis, USA
Goerk
JM (1997) Patterns of rarity in the birds of the Atlantic
Forest of Brazil. Conservation Biology 11: 112-118
Jaksic FM, Lima
M (2003) Myths and facts about ratadas: bamboo blooms, rainfall peaks and
rodent outbreaks in South America. Austral Ecology 28: 237-251
Judziewicz EJ, Clark LG, Londono X, Stern MJ
(1999) American Bamboos. Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington D.C.
Leme
A (2001) Foraging patterns and resource use in four sympatric
species of antwrens. Journal of Field Ornithology 72: 221-227
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F (1996) Satiation or deception?: Mast-seeding Chusquea
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56: 391-401
Olmos
F, Galetti M, Pashoal M, Mendes SL (1993) Habits of the southern
Bamboo Rat, Kannabateomys amblyonyx (Rodentia, Echimyidae) in
Southeastern Brazil. Mammalia 57: 325-333
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D (1999) The Bamboos of the World. Elsevier, Amsterdam
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RS, Tudor G (1989) The Birds of South America, Volume 1, the
Oscine Passerines. Oxford University Press, UK
Ridgely
RS, Tudor G (1994) The Birds of South America, Volume 2, the
Suboscine Passerines. Oxford University Press, UK
Rodrigues
M, Alvares SMR, Machado C (1994) Foraging behavior of the
White-collared Foliage-gleaner (Anabazaenops fuscus), a bamboo
specialist. Ornitologia Neotropical 5: 65-67
Santana CR, Dos Anjos L (2010) Associação de aves
a agrupamentos de bambu na porção Sul da Mata Atlântica, Londrina, Estado do
Paraná, Brasil. Biota Neotropica 10(2): 39-44
Sick
H (1985) Ornitologia Brasileira, Uma Introdução. Editora Universidade de
Brasília, Brasil
Sick
H (1993) Birds of Brazil. Princeton University Press,
USA
Silva RB, Vieira EM, Izar P (2008) Social
monogamy and biparental care of the Neotropical Southern Bamboo Rat (Kannabateomys
amblyonyx). Journal of Mammalogy 89: 1464-1472
Stallings
JR, Kierulff MCM, Silva LFBM (1994) Use of space and activity
patterns of Brazilian Bamboo Rats (Kannabateomys-amblyonyx) in exotic
habitat. Journal of Tropical Ecology 10: 431-438
Vasconcelos MF, Vasconcelos AP, Viana
PL, Palú L, Silva JF (2005) Observações
sobre aves granívoras (Colombidae e Emberizidae) associadas à frutificação
de taquaras (Poaceae, Bambusoideae) na porção meridional de Cadeia do
Espinhaço, Minas Gerais, Brasil. Lundiana 6: 75-77
Information
about this Review
This
review is also available in the following
languages:
Portuguese
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The
author is: Dr. Paul D. Haemig (Sweden)
The
proper citation is:
Haemig
PD 2012
Birds
and mammals associated with bamboo in the Atlantic Forest. ECOLOGY.INFO 5.
If
you are aware of any important scientific publications that were omitted from
this review, or have other suggestions for improving it, please contact the
author at his e-mail address:
paul.haemig {at} hik.se
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