Use of a digital citizen science platform to fill gaps in the diet of the blue-and-yellow macaw, Ara ararauna (Psittacidae)

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.813362304078

• Palavras-chave: Citizen scientist. Limited information. Food ecology. Conservation. Wikiaves.

• Keywords: Citizen scientist. Limited information. Food ecology. Conservation. Wikiaves.

• Abstract:

  This study innovates by using citizen science, specifically by collecting, applying and identifying 377 photographic records of feeding by the blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna), made available by 279 citizen scientists in Brazil in 1999 and between the years 2006 to 2019, on the wikiaves digital platform. From this, we identified 80 food species, corroborating, and describing for the first time, 46 new ones in the diet of this bird. Six plant parts were consumed, apparently, indicating some control in the recruitment and establishment of consumed species, via predation and seed dispersal. This bird showed a high association with exotic species, showing some resistance to the deleterious factors of technoecosystems. We observed their diet in 14 Brazilian states, 4 biomes and 3 ecotone zones, whose diet showed high dissimilarity (IJ<0.5) between them. Despite incipient use, projects involving citizen scientists are flourishing, particularly in ecology and environmental science. This research method has great potential to influence policies and guide the management of resources, producing data sets that would be unfeasible to generate.