Surprising Species in a Monkey Puzzle Forest
What happens when you set a camera to monitor native wildlife, but the footage shows you something that shouldn’t be there at all?
Rainforest Concern, with FORECOS, have been monitoring Nasampulli Reserve in southern-central Chile for the last 5 years, capturing footage of rare, endemic and threatened species alongside animals that we wouldn’t usually expect to find in South America.
Field assistant setting up a trail camera in the araucaria forest, Nasampulli Reserve, Chile.
The Nasampulli Reserve is a protected area made up of Endangered araucaria forest (commonly known as monkey puzzle), located in the Andean foothills.
This ancient tree that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs can live for up to 1000 years and only inhabits 200,000 hectares between Argentina and Chile - 1,600 of which is protected by Rainforest Concern, in collaboration with Chilean partners.
Snow covered araucaria forest in Nasampulli Reserve - sometimes it’s so deep the team have to dig out the cameras!
Since 2021, FORECOS director, Enrique Cruz and the team have been researching the wildlife that lives within this unique ecosystem with trail cameras supplied by NatureSpy, recording 49 species overall, with many listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Think guiña cats (the smallest felid species native to the Americas), Southern pudus (one of the world’s smallest deer), pumas, Andean foxes and hog-nosed skunks, alongside many bird species.
The research so far has resulted in nearly 10,000 days of camera trapping, an impressive effort that has led to some valuable insights for the future of the forest and the wildlife that resides there.
The unlikely residents of Chile
One of the most important takeaways for the conservation of Nasampulli was discovering that 30% of wildlife records in the area were in fact non-native species.
In order of appearance: red deer, wild boar and European hare.
Red deer, wild boar, black and brown rats, as well as European hare, all make up the list of invasive alien species in the reserve. Such sustained surveying has allowed the team to evaluate the distribution of these animals and the effect they have on the native flora and fauna.
In the late 1920’s, the first introduction of red deer happened in Chile, primarily for sport hunting. Since then, numbers have continued to grow, with populations expanding into the country from Argentina in the 40s and 50s, and subsequent introductions from deer farms and hunting estates.
Along the way, wild boar and European hare were also introduced for sport hunting and food, whilst rats, like many other places in the world, arrived stowed away on ships. All of these species have continued to grow in numbers and spread through South America over time.
It’s worth noting here that invasive species can be a complex topic as they are often strongly tied to cultural events and emotional attachments. However, despite people’s invested interest in these species, it is important to keep an eye on the impact that they have in the area they have been introduced to.
Living in an ecosystem that evolved without their presence for millions of years can lead to complications due to competition for resources, transmission of disease and predation of native endangered species, as well as impacting the overall health of the forest.
What 5 years of monitoring discovered
The Nasampulli Reserve is split into two areas with differing management history - on one side, you have an area that has been conserved for 16 years, whilst the other has experienced some pressure from humans and livestock during the same period.
Whilst forestry activity in that area has since ceased, removal of livestock has not yet been achieved, with seasonal cattle grazing still occurring in summer.
This natural comparison for research allowed the team to answer a lot of questions about the response of nature to two management levels, with surprising revelations about how non-native species use the area.
Pressure on the land from humans and livestock was found to highly impact the movement of Endangered species such as Southern pudu, puma and monito del monte (an opossum native only to south-western South America), with mostly all individuals restricting themselves to the protected zone.
In order of appearance: guiña cat, monito del monte, South American grey fox, Austral pygmy-owl and Southern pudu.
Trail camera image of a puma in Nasampulli Reserve.
What was more of a surprise was that the same results were found for the non-native wildlife due to a variety of factors; the abundance of available food, proximity to the area they were introduced and land features limiting their dispersal.
“We knew that most of these species were present from tracks and other signs, but with the data from the cameras, it’s clear that they live within the reserve, rather than pass through”, says Enrique Cruz, who is leading the camera trap research at Nasampulli.
These findings matter because the team can now investigate the impact non-native species are having on native wildlife within a protected zone.
So far they know that red deer directly compete with the Southern pudu and the increased pressure from their browsing threatens the regenerating forest, alongside the increased disturbance of soil by wild boar.
Size comparison between Southern pudu and red deer.
Trail cameras are an invaluable tool for conservation projects like this. By implementing such a consistent trail camera monitoring effort, the team is able to identify where they frequent most, if they have any interactions with other species and any change in populations over time.
This all builds an important picture of the state of wildlife on the reserve and can inform future monitoring and research questions, with trail cameras continuing to guide how those strategies adjust over time.
To find out more about Rainforest Concern’s work and how NatureSpy are supporting through the provision of trail cameras, you can visit our project page.
