Further tales from the Amazon jungleBy Giles Knowles
The noise at night is amazing. The insects and amphibians begin their chorus at about 6:00 pm as it is getting dark. The headlight beetles float amongst the trees looking like aircraft. It is mind-blowing! There are no seasons here – just the wet and the dry season. Birds breed all the year round and plants flower indiscriminately.
We had what are called Satellite Camps. We had to walk to these in the afternoons, food in rucksacks, and sleep in mosquito-proof hammocks in the rainforest. A fire was lit in the evening to bake potatoes and to keep the ‘bugs’ away. We would sing a few songs, although I went straight off to my hammock!
We would be up at dawn to set up the mist nets, which we would then inspect every half-hour. It was like opening a Christmas present; you never knew what you would find: Hummingbirds, Jacamars, Barbets, Ant birds, Tyrant Flycatchers, Manakins, Tanagers, Broad-billed Motmots, Woodpeckers; once, a Slatey-Backed Forest Falcon got caught while chasing a Manakin. The birds would then be measured, weighed, ringed and released, although the hummingbirds were too tiny to wear a ring.
The butterflies were amazing; they were trapped, identified and then marked. Their traps were baited with fermented bananas. Some butterflies seek out carrion or nectar. If the butterfly could not be identified, photographs were taken and books consulted on return to base. It was amazing to handle these insects. They look so fragile!
Documenting the evidenceAll the scientific data is processed at Camp, together with vegetation and climate data. This then gets compiled in a report written by GVI staff and is shared with the local partners Yachana and Ecuadorian Museum of Natural Sciences in Quito, which correlates it with data from all of the rainforest countries. Any unidentified species requires further searches. Some data goes to our own Natural History Museum; we had quite a few! Results do not mean much over a three-month period but, over five years, they show up patterns that may be relevant to the health of the rainforest as a whole, a particular habitat or to a specific group/species.
Camp duty involved cooking for 35 people, all three meals of the day plus a snack at 10:30 am, as well as washing down the kitchen, cleaning the ‘loos’, the showers and the wash basins, sweeping out the living and communal quarters and clearing leaves from all the pathways. Sometimes ‘guys’ were up at 5:30 am to ‘do a transect’, and then off at 7:30 pm to do another transect or stream walk.
We had a half-term break after the first five weeks. A crowd of us went to Banos, in the highlands, where the volcano was on yellow alert. We had meat at last, a cold beer and hot showers! We could also swim in the volcanically heated baths. I had a massage which helped my back. Bliss!
Learning from Hector
We had two sessions of three days with Hector Vargas; he owns an island further down the Rio Napo from Coca, which he is turning into a rainforest haven both for the animals and plants and also for the local Indian children; he has a little school there. Hector was exiled for committing industrial espionage because he stole some dynamite and destroyed the wiring required to carry out seismographic surveys when the oil people moved in. He moved deep into the Huaorani community in Yasuni National Park and lived with the communities there for over two years. We spent three days on his island.
On this trip he taught us a great deal about the medicinal plants, how to make a blow dart and shoot it, how to trap a mammal and how to catch fish (which he did and made us a superb fish stew). His knowledge of the rainforest is amazing but he has lived in it all his life. The Tamarinds and Woolly Monkeys were amazing, as was his barbecued chicken!
The second time we met Hector was on a smallholding, where the farmer was
doing research into Turtle breeding. As before, we slept in hammocks. The
farm was in The Yasumi National Park. We walked in the forest, looking at
plants from which they produce curare, contraceptives, a lotion that relieves
muscle ache and even a good machete.We saw hundreds of parrots; they come to the clay-licks in order to obtain the minerals they need to neutralise the toxins they have taken in from poisonous seeds. We heard Howler Monkeys, saw a Pigmy Marmoset, which is the world’s smallest primate, the footprints of a Jaguar (Hector: “Three hours old: he was hunting peccaries! Female, with two young!”), Scarlet Macaws and the most beautiful sunsets over the Rio Napo.
Moments of joy
The whole trip was the hardest work that I had ever done in my life, both mentally and physically. Learning the Latin names of amphibians, plants and beetles did not come easily! For many of them, you had to recognise both the call and the appearance. I scored nine and a half out of 48 on my first test; the pass mark was 45! I scored 47 the second time, but it required a great deal of work on my part and so much help from the Staff.
There were moments of sublime joy when you looked at an amphibian, correctly identified a rather tricky dung beetle, watched some monkeys cavorting in the high canopy, or listened to Hector. There were frustration and tears over the written work, a job ‘cocked-up’ or maybe sheer exhaustion. There were moments of almost total bewilderment at the environment, the families that it supported and the biodiversity of the rainforest. And moments when you stood or sat, stared and listened and thought how lucky you were to be there, just to be a witness and to contribute a little to the ecology of the Amazon Basin.
GVI has stations all over the world, in places such as Costa Rica, Mexico, South Africa, Nepal, Borneo, Kenya and the Seychelles, amongst others. To find out more, contact www.gvi.uk or www.gvi.org.uk.
I shall be giving an illustrated talk about my trip in the Parish Hall on Friday 9th April at 6.30 p.m. Please come along. A glass of wine and some nibbles will be available. The talk is free but any donations for Global Vision International will be gratefully received.