Wildlife rescue and relocation efforts associated with the Panamá Canal Third Locks Expansion Project

Since the ceding of the Panamá Canal from the United States to the Republic of Panamá in 1999, human development has accelerated in Panamá, resulting in the loss of habitat and declines in wildlife populations. We implemented a wildlife rescue and relocation program associated with the third locks expansion project of the Panamá Canal and here describe our efforts and findings. During 2007–2010, 896 animals were rescued from 11 sites along the canal; 84% of these individuals (n = 806) were successfully relocated to protected areas and 6% (n = 57) were relocated to captivity. One-hundred three species were rescued during >16,000 h of human effort; of those species, 66 were listed as Least Concern or higher on the IUCN Red List. We estimated wildlife biodiversity values from rescue sites; mean values were 0.2, 0.9, 2.5, and 2.1 for Berger–Parker, Simpson, Shannon, and Brillouin indices, respectively, indicating high diversity in species composition. Our research provides rare insight into the process and phases of a large wildlife rescue operation as well as an examination of wildlife diversity found in the Panamá Canal Watershed.