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Honduran Emerald Rediscovered in Western Honduras!

December 15, 2008
Honduran Emerald Rediscovered in Western Honduras!

Honduran Emerald, photograph by Robert Hyman.

In November 2008, a team of American and Honduran researchers and conservationists traveled to western Honduras in search of the critically endangered endemic Honduran Emerald (Amazilia luciae) in the Department of Santa Barbara. The principal cause of its decline is habitat destruction, with approximately 90% of its original habitat lost, and the remaining pieces  occurring in isolated patches of arid thorn-forest and scrub of the interior valleys of northern Honduras.  Based on specimen data, the species was originally known to occur in four Honduran departments; Cortés and Santa Barbara in western Honduras, and Yoro and Olancho in northeastern Honduras.  Despite efforts to find the species in western Honduras, it has not been detected there since 1935. Because of its status as critically endangered and “Red Listed” by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the fragmented nature of its habitat, the rediscovery of these additional populations is of major conservation importance.

The team’s searches were directed by over-flights and brief visits of the same area in February of 2007 and a report from a contractor working on an environmental mitigation plan that an Emerald was seen. In November of 2008 the expedition team conducted searches in Santa Barbara and Cortés and were able to find six sites inhabited by the Emerald, all in the department of Santa Barbara.  They found the Emerald in patches of forest measuring 5 to 60 hectares along a 33-km long transect.  As in northeastern Honduras, its remaining habitat is highly fragmented.  Finding the species in western Honduras gives hope for the conservation of the species, because the rediscovery increases both the known distributional range and population size of the species.  However, due to the highly fragmented nature of its habitat, the species definitely warrants its status as critically endangered. 

The team, which recently filed a petition with the U.S. Department of The Interior to have the emerald protected under the endangered species act, included ornithologist David L. Anderson of Louisiana State University, Honduran biologists Mario Espinal & Leonel Marineros, hummingbird specialist H. Ross Hawkins, Ph.D. and conservationists Deborah M. Atwood, Fito Steiner and Robert E. Hyman of The Explorers Club. 

For more information please contact Robert E. Hyman robertehyman@gmail.com