Photo: Kaytee Avian Research Center

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A first-of-a-kind map created by University of Arkansas researchers may help keep hundreds of bird species from becoming extinct in the next century.

Biologists Kimberly Smith and Tom Brooks and Fred Limp, director of the UA Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST), have wedded technology and avian biology to examine the ranges of 200 endangered or at-risk bird species in Mexico and northern Central America.

The new map serves as a pilot project prior to mapping the ranges of about 1,200 birds of conservation concern all over Central and South America. The research is part of a Nature Conservancy program, Wings of the Americas, made possible by Canon U.S.A. Inc.

The Wings of the Americas program protects at risk birds by taking a long-term, comprehensive approach to protecting critical bird habitat.

To start with, groups like the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Point Reyes Bird Observatory and the Chicago Field Museum contributed lists of endangered and at-risk birds to CAST.

"Conservation groups need to know where their efforts will have the greatest effect," Brooks said. "The map will help tell them this."

The researchers pulled together range maps from books and records of bird sightings and compiled them in a large database. They plan to combine this information with NASA satellite images that show a region's habitat.

"This first of its kind map will be hemispheric and it will help us to visualize how at-risk birds are distributed within key ecosystems and protected areas in Latin America," said Roberto Roca of the Nature Conservancy.

Most bird-range maps form a circle around a large region of land, where many habitat types may be located, Limp said. By looking at satellite imagery, scientists can see pine forests or river banks and form precise ranges for the birds. The computer database allows researchers to calculate these ranges for hundreds, or thousands, of birds.

The map shows, for instance, that regions in the southern highlands of Mexico and Central America -- particularly Chiapas and western Guatemala -- have up to 51 threatened and endangered avian species, the highest number found in the countries examined.

Other areas, however, remain important -- not for sheer numbers of at-risk bird species but for the animals' uniqueness. Baja, for instance, has two endangered bird species found nowhere else in the world.

Brooks will use a computerized "complementarity technique" to rank regions in order of conservation importance. The area with the greatest variety of at-risk birds will get top priority. The next spot selected would contain the greatest number of at-risk species not already included in the top priority area.

The researchers report to a committee of avian experts from the National Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, Point Reyes Bird Observatory in California, BirdLife International in Cambridge, England, the Chicago Field Museum, the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri at St. Louis, University of Tennessee and Latin American bird experts, who will review and help refine the work as the research expands into the rest of South America. The group will meet in Fayetteville in February to review preliminary results.

The researchers will add locations of already protected areas, the complementarity results and some habitat information to the data already collected. Once the work is complete, the results will be made widely available to governments and agencies in these countries and the conservation community at large, possibly via the Internet and CD-Rom, Roca said.

"We provide the information so good decisions can be made," Limp said.

Once the entire map project has been completed, people from the Wings of the Americas program will meet with other conservation organizations to develop comprehensive bird conservation strategies and actions. Then the Nature Conservancy can determine specific conservation priorities for the birds. The Conservancy will find people who are concerned about areas where species need protection and work with local citizens to protect ecological hot spots.