1. Mapping Western Hemisphere Fauna Bruce E. Young bruce_young@abi.org Association for Biodiversity Information (http://www.abi.org)

2. Association for Biodiversity Information (ABI) Mission: To develop, manage, and distribute authoritative information critical to the conservation of the world’s biological diversity.

3. What Information do we Need for Conservation? What is it? Where is it? How is it doing? What are its requirements? Where to conserve it? At a site, what are the threats and how do we address them?

4. ABI: ~80 staff plus members of the Natural Heritage Network A “spin-off” of The Nature Conservancy 77 independent “member” programs Common methodology Each program: ecologists, botanists, zoologists, data specialists Programs in 50 U.S. states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 10 Latin American countries

5. Organizational Homes for Natural Heritage Programs (US and Canada) 78% State or provincial agency 12% University 5% Non-profit (e.g., Nature Conservancy) 5% Other (Navajo Nation, National Park, District of Columbia)

6. What do Natural Heritage Programs Do? Gather, manage, analyze, and distribute information about the biological diversity found within their jurisdictions –Secondary sources & field inventories –Map & manage data –Conduct environmental reviews & assessments –Design, protect, and manage conservation areas

7. Element Occurrence is an area of land and/or water in which a species is, or was present. has practical conservation value. tracked for endangered species

8. Six generations to date of Natural Heritage databasesoftware

14. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Objectives –Digitize the ranges of all bird and mammal species (~5,600) of the Western Hemisphere –Disseminate the data to the conservation public

15. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project History –TNC-Wings “Setting Priorities” project (1,300 birds-at-risk) –WWF-US project in Southeastern Brazil (~800 birds) –MOU among CI-CABS, WWF-US, TNC-Wings, ABI

16. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Strategy –Gather existing digitized maps –Digitize remaining maps Quality Standards –Minimum 1 degree lat/long grid –Comparable base map –Up-to-date source

17. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Sources for Digitized Maps –TNC-Wings –WWF-US –Gerardo Ceballos (UNAM) –Patricia Escalante (UNAM) –Stuart Pimm (U. Tennessee) –Ross Keister (USFS) –Don McNicol (CWS)

18. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Data Sources Birds North America: Birds of North America Mexico, northern Central America: Howell & Webb Southern Central America: James Zook South America: Robert Ridgely Caribbean: Raffaele et al.

19. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Data Sources Mammals North America: Wilson & Ruff Central America: Reid South America: Eisenberg & Redford Caribbean: Literature Expert Review: Bruce Patterson

20. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Details ArcView 3.x Digitize polygons & points (South American birds only) ~1:5,000,000 Degrade data as necessary

21. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Polygon data fields File name: gggg_ssss_pl.xxx Family, genus &species, common name Migratory status 1 = Year-round Resident6 = Boreal wintering 2 = Austral breeding7 = Boreal transient (migrating) 3 = Austral wintering8 = Vagrant 4 = Austral transient (migrating)9 = Uncertain 5 = Boreal breeding10 = Extinct/extirpated

22. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Point data fields File name: gggg_ssss_pt.xxx Family, genus &species, common name Migratory status Location Source type (specimen, observation) Institution/Observer Date Locational Uncertainty Comments

23. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Determine Source Digitize Map Expert Review Redigitize Data Roll-up

24. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Final Products –Compact Disk –Downloadable Data –InfoNatura (not funded yet)

25. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Status –Received: about 4,000 maps –Already digitized: about 1,400 –Remaining: digitizing, review, revision

26. Courtesy of R. Ridgely, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

27. Long-tailed Woodcreeper, Deconychura longicauda Courtesy of R. Ridgely, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

28. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Challenges Variable precision of contributed maps Variety of base maps used Schedules of contributors Taxonomic instability Protecting unpublished information Reflecting movement status Funding for updates

29. www.infonatura.org

30. InfoNatura: Search by Name

31. InfoNatura: Search by Country

32. InfoNatura: Search by Status

33. InfoNatura: Search Results

34. InfoNatura: Report

35. InfoNatura: Distribution