Capa 20(1) - fechada.indd - Sociedade Brasileira de Ornitologia

Does people’s knowledge about an endangered bird species differ between rural and urban communities?The case of the Greater Rhea (Rhea americana, Rheidae) in Minas Gerais, BrazilCristiano Schetini de Azevedo, Karina Santos Silva, João Bosco Ferraz, Herlandes Penha Tinoco, Robert John Young and Marcos Rodrigues13that although they had seen Greater Rheas in the wild,there had been a while since their last sightings, whichis in accordance to the studies that showed that GreaterRheas have declining populations all over their distributionarea (Dani 1993, Sick 1997, Machado et al. 1998,Navarro and Martella 1998, Fernández and Reboreda2000, Di Giacomo and Krapovickas 2005).Most people recognized Greater Rheas, but a largesample of urban people did not know the bird or confusedit with the ostrich (Struthio camelus); people have a needto name the animals and they allocate a name of nearestfit according to their knowledge (Bruner et al. 1966).In this study, some people thought that Greater Rheaswere ostriches; ostriches are the closest genetic relative toGreater Rheas depending on the methods used to inferphylogenies (Sibley and Alquist 1990, Del Hoyo et al.1992, Van Tuinem 1998, Davies 2002). The Ostrich isthe African ratite and, as other large animals of Africansavannas, it appears more frequently on TV documentaries,cartoons and even in children books. This fact couldbe responsible for the confusion of the zoo visitors, sincethey rarely go to the zoo to see native fauna, but often tosee the African fauna, a phenomenon that occurs in mostzoos of the world (Auricchio 1999, Achutti 2003).The great majority of rural interviewees believed thatthe number of local Greater Rheas had diminished, andthat the habitat loss and poisoning by pesticides were themain reasons. Both reasons were linked by the populationto the silvicultural activities in the study area (growth ofEucalyptus forests); the use of pesticides inside the plantationswas pointed out as one of the greatest problems ofsuch silviculture. Few interviewees believed that GreaterRheas migrated from Eucalyptus forests to the opened areasin the vicinity.Although the rural community had reported greatmortality of Rheas after the implementation of the silviculturalfarms in the region, especially due to poisoningby pesticides, this hypothesis is not supported by previousstudies on environmental impacts conducted in the area(Del Rey Engenharia 2000). According to this study, althoughEucalyptus forests had been treated with pesticidesto eliminate weeds, which could cause the death of Rheasdue to bioaccumulation, only two Rheas were found deadin the plantations and none of them died by poisoning,as confirmed by toxicological exams. According to theMonsanto do Brasil Company, the manufacturer of thepesticide used in the Eucalyptus forests (Scout®), the possiblebioaccumulation of the pesticide is virtually inexistent,since it acts only on weeds and is soon degraded inthe environment (Monsanto 2004). This idea was passedon to the local population by local environmental activistsand even by some schoolteachers, as observed by us.This could explain the great number of interviewees suggestingthis reason. If so, it demonstrates the great powerof schools in teaching notions of environmental impactsand education (Vaughan et al. 2003) and, obviously, theneed to do this with correct information.The hypothesis of migration of Greater Rheas to thevicinity of Eucalyptus forests seemed more plausible thanthe hypothesis of poisoning. The Eucalyptus silviculturewas planted over human-altered areas, covered by exoticgrasses used for cattle production (Del Rey Engenharia2000). Thus, Eucalyptus forests did not destroy native forestsor Cerrados, but grasslands instead, areas frequentlyused by Greater Rheas, displacing the birds to nearbyareas. During this displacement, many birds could havedied, since they become more susceptible to hunting,capture, predation and accidents with cars (Lank et al.2003).The great majority of urban interviewees also believedthat the number of Greater Rheas is diminishing,and that habitat loss was the main reason. However, huntingand trafficking were also cited instead of poisoning asthe other reasons accounting to Greater Rheas populationdecline. The increase of human populations was cited bymany as the reason behind habitat loss. Hunting and traffickingmay have been cited as reasons due to the recentboom of reports on these themes on Brazilian TV, butno programs focusing specifically on Greater Rheas havebeen made.It is important to emphasize that the rural communitybelieves that the conservation of Greater Rheas’populations would help in the maintenance of some ecologicalequilibrium in the region, and that they want toparticipate in conservation programs for the species.The desire of the local community to participatein the conservation of local Greater Rheas populationsis also positive. Padua et al. (2004) suggested that a keyelementfor an environmental education program is todevelop mechanisms to promote the participation ofthe local communities in conservation actions. The individual’sstrength and its sense of identity are essentialfor environmental education, and need to emerge frominside each person (Glazer 1999). The community’s participationin all solutions and decisions in a conservationprogram should be guaranteed; in this way, the feelingsof “to conserve what matters to me” could blossom anddominate their actions. Zoo visitors believed that it wasimportant to conserve Greater Rhea populations due totheir intrinsic right to live and their contribution in themaintenance of some ecological equilibrium in nature.The majority of the rural interviewees had dogs, andmore than a half allowed their dogs free access to explorethe surrounding areas (grasslands, Cerrados, forests, etc.).The opinions about the possible problems of this habitwere equally divided, with half of the persons thinkingthat dogs bring problems to Greater Rheas and half of thepersons thinking that this was not a problem to GreaterRheas. The domestic dog is one of the most problematicanimals in terms of wildlife predation, as it causes greatRevista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 20(1), 2012