On the 12th of February we were able to help in the confiscation of a sub-adult yellow tailed woolly monkey that was kept tied in a private garden in the town of Pedro Ruiz Gallo. The confiscation was led by the Jose Humberto Delgado from the Administracion Technica de Flora y Fauna Silvestre - Amazonas with the help of the local police of Pedro Ruiz Gallo and the public prosecuter of the area. The team did a very efficient and professional job and the monkey was safe in the IKAMA Peru rescue center less then 24 hours from when we first became aware of him in captivity. Allthough the monkey was kept by an old lady who did not delibaratly harm him, after spending almost 10 months in very unsuitable conditions he was in very poor shape. We are hoping that he will get better soon with the great care that he is getting at IKAMA Peru.
Also this month the same group of athorities managed to confiscate a tamarin monkey, an Andean night monkey, two capuchins and seven macaws. This exelent work by the authorities is taking the region a big step forward towards eliminating the ilegal wildlife trade.
The Long whiskered owlet, one of the rarest birds on earth, was filmed and photographed on January the 24th, in NPC’s main research area, La Esperanza. The owlet was observed by Shachar Alterman, an Israeli birdwatcher who joined the project for a month to carry out bird inventories in the region. The species was also seen by Noga Shanee, co-founder of the organization, and Edin Fonseca, a local guide without whos help it may not have been possible to find such a rare species.
The Long-whiskered owlet (Xenoglaux loweryi) was discovered in 1976, when it was caught in a mist nest by an ornithological team. Since it was first sighted, the owlet has been seen very few times. It is endemic to a very small altitudinal range in the humid montane forests of Amazonas and San Martin. The species is listed as Endangered on IUCN Red List.
Despite all efforts, by researchers and birders alike, no Long-Whiskered Owlet has been seen since 2007. As far as we know, this is only the fourth time this rare bird has ever been seen in the wild - and the first time it has been captured on video.
On the same night the owlet was found, the NPC group heard no less than five birds which responded to the recorded calls played by the team. No previous record of such dense population exists so far. Two other species of rare and endemic birds; Rusty-Tinged Antpitta and Johnson’s Tody-Tyrant were identified on the same trip.
The owlet is threatened by the same hazards which affect the yellow tailed woolly monkey. We are hoping that this new discovery of the Long-Whiskered Owlet’s population and the interest it will generate with birdwatchers and conservationist groups will help to further conservation efforts for this special forest ecosystem for the benefit both species and their habitat.
If you would like to visit La Esperanza to see this rare bird and other animals, please visit our pageCommunity Tourism
On the 24th of last month we were able to rescue a baby common woolly monkey (Lagothrix poepiggi) being kept illegally as a pet in the town of Pedro Ruiz Gallo. Thanks to the excellent work of Jose Humberto Delgado, forestry engineer of the Direcion Regional de Flora y Fauna Silvestre and the local police of Pedro Ruiz Gallo baby Umin was confiscated with very little trouble. When we found her she was very small, hungry and drunk (her owner showed us proudly how she likes drinking beer) but is now recovering at the IKAMA Peru rescue centre in Moyobamba where she will eventually be housed with other rescued woolly monkeys of her species and hopefully reintroduced into the wild when she is older.
Environmental education work continues at our La Esperanza project where volunteers from our first organised expedition organised activities in three local schools. The volunteers also collected valuable data on yellow tailed woolly monkey behaviour. We are also lucky to have eight students from the Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza - Chachapoyas with us at the moment. These students are doing there practical experience in primary education by teaching environmental education course in four of the local schools, NPC is funding this two months project not only to help bring environmental education to the classroom but also to help the formation of the next generation of Peruvian environmentalists.
At the end of August a group of 4 Italian scientists, Dr. Giovanni BOANO, Ottavio Janni, Dr. Roberto Sindaco, Dr. Alberto Venchi, from the City Museum of Natural History Carmagnola Turin together with Juan Carlos Chaparro, a herpetologist from the university of Cusco came to the area to help us make inventories of reptiles and birds in both La Esperanza and the neighbouring community of Corosha. This work is vital when creating a new reserve and will help form the justification for protecting the area.
During July Yunkawasi had great success in organising the bi-regional painting competition, funded by NPC and the Monkey Sanctuary Trust, this work has made a big impact in introducing environmental education and particularly monkeys to the school curriculum. Hundreds of children from about a dozen schools in Amazonas and San Martin turned out to participate in the painting competition. The winners will be chosen by an international panel of experts and announced later this year. The best pictures will also feature in a calendar that will be freely distributed to further publicise primate conservation.
A Pudu, the smallest deer in the world, was caught by a local taxi driver whilst trying to cross the highway. He thought it was a baby and he hoped to keep it till it grew so he could eat it. One of the villagers told him that it was probably a Pudu and convinced him to bring it to us. We immediately explained the mistake and took it back to the forest near where it was caught and released it. this is a very special species that is rarely seen, we felt very honoured to be able to help it in this way and pleased that the villagers are now beginning to realise that there is a need to protect wildlife.
On the same day another villager came to us with a Southern naked tailed armadillo that he was given by a truck driver coming from the lowland forest of San Martin. This is another rare species and we were able to release it the next day in the protected lands of IKAMA Peru near Moyobamba.
Great news for Corosha: With our help the community of Corosha has won the SPDA contest for new private and communal reserves. This means they have $5000 to get specialists to research the forest and register their 2000 ha reserve. Of course we will do everything to help them and hopefully by the end of next year there will be a new reserve to help secure the future of the yellow tailed woolly monkey.
Dr. Anthony Di Fiore and PhD student Christopher Schmitt of New York Universities Molecular Anthropology department came to visit the project and see the monkeys. They also collected fecal samples, for genetic research, from the many groups they encountered, actually managing to collect more samples then expected. We are looking at ways that NYU can collaborate in the project for the future. Hopefully students will come to do thesis research here very soon.
We heard about monkeys that needed rescuing in the city of Neueva Cajamarca and went to check what was going on there. We found a terrible situation, a few ¨mini zoos¨ which had many animals kept in terrible conditions, a circus with a performing spider monkey and the market full with hundreds of wild animal parts such as tapir and bear feet, toucan beaks, dear meat and more, all of which are totally illegal in Peru.
The Nueva Cajamarca police, headed by Major Cesar Ocaña Rivero, together with INRENA from Moyobamba, headed by Cesar Navarro G. and John J. Esteban Romero, quickly agreed to cooperate in rescuing the animals. The next morning we headed out with the police and INRENA and rescued a common woolly monkey from one of the zoos and the spider monkey from the circus. Rescuing the circus monkey was especially important for us as this monkey was most probably watched by thousands of children all over Peru, all of whom could get the impression that monkeys are good as pets which in turn encourages trafficking.
The monkeys are now with IKAMA Peru and seem to be doing great. There is still a lot of work needed to stop the illegal traffic of animals in the area, as well as many other basic problems such as a shortage of rescue canters, which means that there is nowhere to put rescued animals. Also the authorities are totally un-equipped to handle confiscations. For this reason, IKAMA Peru and NPC have decided to put a big effort into working with the authorities to help with capacity building and to provide much needed equipment.
NPC was invited to participate in the Commision Ambiental Regional (Regional Environmental Commission). The committee meets once a month to discuss and find solutions the regions environmental problems.We built the forth nursery, in Miraflores, The work was made by a very big group of people and in three days of work, they made all the preparation of the nursery and filled more then 1800 bags with more then 1000 seeds and seedlings already planted in them.
Lately we have made three census trips to the Peroles field site. During the censuses we encountered yellow tailed woolly monkeys, coatis, agouti, heard pumas and capuchin monkeys and found ocelot tracks. We also saw night monkeys and groups of yellow tailed woolly monkeys out side of census walks.
The communities are ready to start receiving small amounts of tourism therefore we have started to advertise the tourist attractions in the area. people that are interested in visiting the communities (and are ready for a bit of rough conditions) are welcome to write to nogashanee@gmail.com
This month we concentrated on education work in the region with many meetings and seminars, not only in schools and colleges in the areas where we work, but also further afield in other towns and cities; including a presentation for international women’s day in which the engineer, Fanny Fernandez, gave a presentation on water conservation and Noga gave a short talk about hunting and deforestation. We also made a short film about the project which we presented at the same seminar and have since distributed to several local and regional television networks. Fanny Fernandez and Noga also gave television and radio interviews about conservation and announced the launch of the up-coming national painting competition we are hosting together with Peruvian NGO Yunkawasi.
Sam and Fanny prepared the second site for the investigation work and even managed to see a group of yellow tailed woolly monkeys one day whilst eating lunch. We also made a two day training seminar for local people interested in working with us in the investigation and as tourist guides.
The Andean night monkey (Aotus miconax) is another endemic and widely unknown species living around La Esperanza. A few days ago a local man told us that a young female that was stuck in some Eucalyptus trees next to the highway in someone’s garden. She was at least 500 metres from the next part of forest and there were 4 dogs sitting under the tree she was in. Thinking of the possible risks she would have to go through if we left her there, we decided to try to catch her. Some of the local men climbed up the trees and took photos of her; these are the first photos of this species ever to be published!!! They managed to catch her after a short while and we released her in the closest big patch of forest.
We have had many visits in the last two weeks. Wagner Guzman from IIAP (Instituto de Investigacion de la Amazonia Peruana), Lorena Durand from SPDA (Socciedad Peruana por Derecho Ambiental) and Luisa Guevara from APECO (Asosiacion Peruana por la Conservacion de la Naturaleza), came together for three days to give talks to the people in the different villages we work with. As these are very well known and respected local environmental institutions, there was high attendance to the talks and people showed a lot of interested in the idea to conserve their forests.
Cesar Bartra From INRENA came to give a talk about the laws and possible alternatives to logging. All of these people promised to visit again soon and to cooperate with the project.
Great news this month! The Monkey Sanctuary Trust in the UK agreed to give a substantial grant to the national education campaign that we are running together with Yunkawasi. This means that we can keep this project going in the provinces where it is most needed and continue to focus the media’s attention on the endangered primates of Peru.
The Ronda is a national network of locally organized communities “police” forces in areas where the national police are practically absent. And now the good part! With our encouragement and advice, the Ronda of the whole of Amazonas region has decided to outlaw -under penalty- the hunting, capture and sale of all wild animals. Out side of native communities almost all hunting is trophy hunting or for the local pet trade, so this is great step for the conservation of all species. We were interviewed for local TV and radio with the president of the regional Ronda to announce this momentous decision.
We finished the preparation of the first study site (and were able to see and hear monkeys every day of the trip) and this month we are planning to prepare the second site so we can start scientific investigation.
On the down side the level of immigration of loggers and pastoralists into the area increased dramatically this month (probably as word has spread about the plan to build a road to the furthest communities) and has already had an affect on deforestation and local wildlife. We are going to concentrate on informing the people of the importance of sustainable and organized development and growth contrary to the current situation.
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Also this month the same group of athorities managed to confiscate a tamarin monkey, an Andean night monkey, two capuchins and seven macaws. This exelent work by the authorities is taking the region a big step forward towards eliminating the ilegal wildlife trade.
The Long whiskered owlet, one of the rarest birds on earth, was filmed and photographed on January the 24th, in NPC’s main research area, La Esperanza. The owlet was observed by Shachar Alterman, an Israeli birdwatcher who joined the project for a month to carry out bird inventories in the region. The species was also seen by Noga Shanee, co-founder of the organization, and Edin Fonseca, a local guide without whos help it may not have been possible to find such a rare species.
On the 24th of last month we were able to rescue a baby common woolly monkey (Lagothrix poepiggi) being kept illegally as a pet in the town of Pedro Ruiz Gallo. Thanks to the excellent work of Jose Humberto Delgado, forestry engineer of the Direcion Regional de Flora y Fauna Silvestre and the local police of Pedro Ruiz Gallo baby Umin was confiscated with very little trouble. When we found her she was very small, hungry and drunk (her owner showed us proudly how she likes drinking beer) but is now recovering at the IKAMA Peru rescue centre in Moyobamba where she will eventually be housed with other rescued woolly monkeys of her species and hopefully reintroduced into the wild when she is older.
During July Yunkawasi had great success in organising the bi-regional painting competition, funded by NPC and the Monkey Sanctuary Trust, this work has made a big impact in introducing environmental education and particularly monkeys to the school curriculum. Hundreds of children from about a dozen schools in Amazonas and San Martin turned out to participate in the painting competition. The winners will be chosen by an international panel of experts and announced later this year. The best pictures will also feature in a calendar that will be freely distributed to further publicise primate conservation.
A Pudu, the smallest deer in the world, was caught by a local taxi driver whilst trying to cross the highway. He thought it was a baby and he hoped to keep it till it grew so he could eat it. One of the villagers told him that it was probably a Pudu and convinced him to bring it to us. We immediately explained the mistake and took it back to the forest near where it was caught and released it. this is a very special species that is rarely seen, we felt very honoured to be able to help it in this way and pleased that the villagers are now beginning to realise that there is a need to protect wildlife.
The Nueva Cajamarca police, headed by Major Cesar Ocaña Rivero, together with INRENA from Moyobamba, headed by Cesar Navarro G. and John J. Esteban Romero, quickly agreed to cooperate in rescuing the animals. The next morning we headed out with the police and INRENA and rescued a common woolly monkey from one of the zoos and the spider monkey from the circus. Rescuing the circus monkey was especially important for us as this monkey was most probably watched by thousands of children all over Peru, all of whom could get the impression that monkeys are good as pets which in turn encourages trafficking.
problems such as a shortage of rescue canters, which means that there is nowhere to put rescued animals. Also the authorities are totally un-equipped to handle confiscations. For this reason, IKAMA Peru and NPC have decided to put a big effort into working with the authorities to help with capacity building and to provide much needed equipment.
This month we concentrated on education work in the region with many meetings and seminars, not only in schools and colleges in the areas where we work, but also further afield in other towns and cities; including a presentation for international women’s day in which the engineer, Fanny Fernandez, gave a presentation on water conservation and Noga gave a short talk about hunting and deforestation. We also made a short film about the project which we presented at the same seminar and have since distributed to several local and regional television networks. Fanny Fernandez and Noga also gave television and radio interviews about conservation and
announced the launch of the up-coming national painting competition we are hosting together with Peruvian NGO Yunkawasi.
The Andean night monkey (Aotus miconax) is another endemic and widely unknown species living around La Esperanza. A few days ago a local man told us that a young female that was stuck in some Eucalyptus trees next to the highway in someone’s garden. She was at least 500 metres from the next part of forest and there were 4 dogs sitting under the tree she was in. Thinking of the possible risks she would have to go through if we left her there, we decided to try to catch her. Some of the local men climbed up the trees and took photos of her; these are the first photos of this species ever to be published!!! They managed to catch her after a short while and we released her in the closest big patch of forest.
the idea to conserve their forests.