The spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), depends on the mountain forests along the Andes Cordillera. This means that in Venezuela this species has 2 distinct ranges. Perijá, with 8,052 km2 of continuous forest, is the most important for bear conservation, with low human interference and 33.5% of its area protected as national park. Cordillera de Mérida, with 13,348 km2 of total forest area, is fragmented into 4 blocks where bear populations are threatened and likely to lose the potential for genetic exchange. Its largest block has 10,072 km2 of forest, still keeping habitat continuity over a 310-km mountain axis, and has 5 national parks protecting 40% of the total area. To preserve the remaining unprotected habitats and dispersal corridors is a major policy of the National Park Service. Venezuelan Andes bear conservation depends on such a policy and on the effective management of protected areas in Colombia, where wilderness continuity still exists along both ranges.
- Volume 9
- Issue
- Pages 169-172
- Publication Date 1 January 1994
- DOI 10.2307/3872698
- File Size 207.65 KB
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