**4.1 Flow areas and ecological corridors: importance of the studied localities for the conservation of biodiversity in the area**

Large mammals can be good indicators of habitat quality and conservation status. In the present study, sampling areas were distributed along a gradient of human disturbance, from areas close to anthropogenic activities, through secondary forest to pristine forest with little disturbance. The results obtained reflect the presence of 35 species of macro mammals in the study area, 13 of which are at different levels of extinction threat.

Four species of large mammals recorded during the sampling need living areas greater than 500 hectares per individual [9]: *T. pinchaque*, *T. terrestris*, *T. ornatus*,

and *Puma concolor*, as they are highly mobile during their daily activities in search of food or avoid overlapping with the territories of other individuals. This implies that the areas sampled constitute biological corridors for these species to and from Llanganates and Sangay National Parks, especially if we take into account that the distance between the Parks and the points sampled varies between 2 and 8 km.

Considering the analyzed sites, just Rio Encanto and San Jacinto show high numbers of records for *T. pinchaque*, while *T. ornatus* has a higher abundance of records in the localities of Rio Encanto, San Jacinto, and Sacha Llanganates. However, the localities of Cabeceras del Anzu and Boayaku could provide seasonal food sources during the winter season for the bear.

In this context, it is important to emphasize the influence of geography and vegetation cover on the availability of habitat for the above-mentioned species. Thus, the rugged geography and absence of access roads for the expansion of human activities have allowed several areas to maintain important extensions of forest along river basins and mountain ranges that descend from the heights of the National Parks; it is precisely through the river basins and mountains ranges that these large mammals descend at different times, due to heavy rains and low temperatures, as well as in search of new sources of food.

The region between the cities of Baños and Puyo constitutes a biogeographic unit demarcated by the upper Pastaza basin, one of the most humid and rainy places in the Amazon basin, together with the complicated geography of the mountains that rise toward the moorlands of the Llanganates and Sangay National Parks, giving rise to an infinity of ecosystems, habitats, and microhabitats. This region conserves a still underestimated biodiversity.

There are important extensions of natural forests that are currently partially protected, thanks to private initiatives, private reserves, and community reserves. Several of the sampling localities have been the subject of research in the field of herpetology, for example, Cabeceras del Anzu and Sacha Llanganates areas have high diversity and endemism of amphibians with more than 60 species including numerous endemic species to Ecuador [10].

### **4.2 Threats to biodiversity**

### *4.2.1 Hunting pressure*

Localities such as Rio Encanto, San Jacinto, and Sacha Llanganates do not currently present strong hunting pressure, due to the conservation initiatives developed in the area, as well as the control carried out by personnel from the Ministry of Environment in the Río Negro sector and its surrounding communities. However, it is known that until a few years ago, people from Amazonian communities came to the forest areas adjacent to the Llanganates and Sangay Parks to hunt.

Subsistence hunting is the main use that local communities have on wildlife, however, due to the characteristic of the Boayaku and Flor de Bosque villagers' land use, hunting is not considered a threat to wildlife; however, a quantitative study is needed during different times of the year and in the long term to determine these impacts in more detail.

Of all existing species, rodents such *Dasyprocta fuliginosa, C. paca,* artiodactyls like *Dicotyles tajacu*, and edentates such *Dasypus novemcinctus* are considered to be the species with the greatest hunting pressure from the communities. It should be noted that

there is no evidence of a diversified ethnozoological use of fauna in the communities, as most of the species are destined for food consumption, and very few of them are used for handicrafts, medicinal purposes, and even less for commercialization in the form of meat or breeding animals.
