Hispaniolan Hutia (Plagiodontia aedium)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 11052505

The Hispaniolan hutia is one of only two species of endemic land mammal that still exists on the island of Hispaniola. The species is a high priority for global mammal conservation due to its endangered threat status and its evolutionary distinctiveness. Invasive species, direct persecution as a crop pest and hunting are all considered to be negatively impacting on the species; however, the major threat is from habitat destruction, in particular habitat loss to agriculture. Very little research has been carried out on Hispaniolan hutias and consequently little is known about even their basic ecology, making it difficult to develop appropriate conservation management plans. Island-wide surveys are currently being conducted in order to understand their wider-scale distribution, with initial results indicating that the range of the species is restricted to a few areas of suitable habitat, where they often persist only as small and highly threatened populations in forest fragments set within agricultural landscapes. Pressure on these remaining forest patches for charcoal production and clearing to provide areas for pasture and for crops will result in the forest habitat becoming smaller and increasingly fragmented; this leads both to destruction of hutia habitat and escalation of human-animal conflict.

There are two main objectives of this project:

1) To investigate home range, distribution and habitat use of Hispaniolan hutia:
A combined GPS and radio telemetry study will provide important information on home range sizes, dispersal distances and data on densities of hutia across forest patches of differing fragment size and varying distances to similar suitable habitat. By examining the degree of connectivity between populations, this study will help us to understand how well the species is able to persist within heavily modified landscapes and what factors are likely to limit the long-term survival of the species. This will allow us to inform future conservation management by providing baseline information on hutia habitat requirements and recommendations for the Species Action Plan.

2) To train a local fieldworkers in key conservation skills:
In the Dominican Republic there is a need for appropriately trained individuals with the right combination of knowledge and experience to implement conservation and monitor threatened species. The intensive training and work shadowing with SOH (Hispaniolan Ornithological Society) will focus on field research methods in the following technical areas: best practice for animal handling, radio telemetry, GPS tag deployment and data recovery, survey methods, use of hand held GPS units, map reading, habitat mapping and data management. This will result in the trainee not only acquiring the skills to successfully monitor this globally threatened species by the end of the project, but also being able to use these highly transferable skills and knowledge to work with other species, thus strengthening in-country conservation capacity and leaving an important legacy for conservation in the Dominican Republic.

For more information on this work please visit: The Last Survivors & CAER