Diversity and habitat use of dung beetles in a restored Andean landscape

The Ucumari Regional Park (URP) in the Colombian Andes was surveyed to evaluate patterns of habitat use by dung beetles in the landscape mosaic along the elevational gradient covered by URP (1750-2600 m). The dung beetle fauna we found at URP contained species typical of Neotropical montane forests and represented 32 percent of the dung beetle species known for the Colombian Andes (22 of 68 spp.; Escobar 2000). Part of the recovery of vegetative cover in the park was accomplished by planting monospecific stands of trees. Although the purpose of these plantations was to accelerate soil stabilization and regulation of water flow, their role in restoring local biodiversity needs to be evaluated. Our results indicate that dung beetles can use plantations to some extent but their densities may be lower than in forest, probably due to such factors as structure of the understory and availability of resources, which in turn would depend on the presence of mammals and large birds in the plantations.