Phone towers in Puerto Rico threaten endangered species' habitat

The construction of telecommunications towers threatens to destroy the habitat of the Puerto Rican "guabairo," or nightjar, an endangered species of bird found only in the southern part of the island, community leaders said Tuesday.

Telecommunications company Soluwise began building the towers last May, Luis Garcia Mercado, a member of the Health and Environment Coalition in the Susua neighborhood of Sabana Grande and the Arenas neighborhood in Guanica, told Efe.

Since then, the Puerto Rico-based company has removed 8,250 cubic meters (29,135 cubic feet) of soil, Garcia Mercado said, citing Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, or DRNA, figures.

Soluwise was authorized by the Office of Management and Permits to remove just 43 cubic meters (1,520 cubic feet) of soil, the community activist said.

When the "abuse" was detected, Garcia Mercado said, the Health and Environment Coalition, along with biologist Luis Martinez Acosta, visited the area that provides habitat for the nightjar (Caprimulgus noctitherus).

The team was able to identify only 11 nightjars, a number well below the normal sightings at this time of year.

"The company has applied to the DRNA for a permit to open a new entrance to the construction sites that would be two or three times larger and would have an impact even worse on the guabairo's habitat," Garcia Mercado said in a telephone interview.

Among guabairos, only the male sings or makes sounds, and the birds' nesting season extends from March to August, Garcia Mercado said, adding that the area was home to about a dozen of these birds.

"We ask for DRNA to come and conduct an inspection, which must be done at night because that's when these birds are active and can be seen, since during the day they hide," Garcia Mercado said, pointing out that nightjars were the prey of rats, cats and other animals.

Guabairos nest only on the ground and they almost disappeared in the 19th century after the introduction to Jamaica of the mongoose, which was brought in to combat rats on sugar plantations.

For decades, the species was believed to be extinct, but in the 1960s nightjars were spotted.

Scientists have found it difficult to determine their number and behavior since they are nocturnal animals with a great ability to camouflage themselves during the daytime.

Guabairos live only in the dry scrub forests of southern Puerto Rico and they are threatened with extinction "because of degradation and loss of habitat due to industrial and residential sprawl," Garcia Mercado said.

Even before Soluwise began building the towers and cell sites, biologist Miguel Canals Mora had warned that the area designated for the project was the nighjar's habitat, Garcia Mercado said.

It has been shown that Soluwise submitted false information about the area's environmental value in a report to the DRNA, Garcia Mercado said.

The company "concealed much of the flora and fauna existing in the area," Garcia Mercado said, adding that some species, such as the woodpecker, the "mariquita" (a yellow-shouldered blackbird, Agelaius xanthomus) and hummingbirds, as well as trees, such as the copperwood (Bursera simaruba), the guaiacum and oak, are found in the region. EFE

Phone towers in Puerto Rico threaten endangered species' habitat