Elisban

For Elisban – Master of the Jungle

 On Saturday 8^th of June, Jose Alban Armas  Diaz but known by everyone as Elisban sadly passed away at the young  age of 56. Admired by all those who have met him, he will be greatly missed. Not only a loss to those that knew him past and present but for the future also. After living in the Tambopata region all his life he knew and understood the jungle better than any book or dvd could teach you. Guides and Resident naturalist over the years learnt their best knowledge from Elisban. He knew every plant for its medicinal or traditional use, every mammal, bird and insect and its sounds, where to find it and how to catch it. He understood conservation and how to use the forest sustainably. His friendly attitude and easy going approach to life made him a role model for all. This is a little dedication to Elisban – master of the jungle.

Picture Time!

A SLOTH!!!!!!!! And at its most vunerable moment ...

when its doing a shit. poor thing only comes down from the tree top once a week todo its business and i was lucky enough to whitness it!

 This a Blue morpho butterfly these buterflies have the brightest blue colour in the animal kingdom on the inside wing, unfortunatly i have this nice picture of its eye spots insted because its flight around the forest is like a drunk on speed.

Red necked woodpecker














This is my favorite snake of all the amazon and was so chuffed when I finally saw it. look at those crazy eyes!!!!










White throated Toocan my favorite bird in the amazon and can often be heard in the afternoons around the lodge and in the forst. These birds can realy make a racket! noisey buggers.

Me looking a bit mental/crazy holding a white caiman.
















 Caracara -  it has red eyes!!!!












Me holding a teeny tiny sidenecked turtle.

 Beautiful blue and yellow macaws.

A little story about a big experience

Spider monkey experience 

After a frustrating wet and blustery morning, the afternoon was warm with scattered white clouds. With our bellies full of a delicious lunch mixed with eagerness to get into the forest to burn off some excess energy myself and fellow resident naturalist Jo threw on our jungle clothes wiggled into our wellies and took off into the jungle, with machetes in hand we headed down a very flooded trail called Laguna Chica. Our destination in mind is a section of another trail called Quebrada trail which is over 1.5Km away which needed some  attention to make suitable for walking.

 However not 100m into our journey I stop suddenly . 10 meters in front of me is a rustle in the long grass. I see nothing. Maybe a small bird like the ground dwelling Tinamou I ponder, so I advance to investigate. To my surprise what I find is nothing of the sort but instead a considerably angry snake. With its mouth wide open and its body reared up to knee height I am quite taken aback. Jo is hot on my tail and as soon as she sees the snake she recognises it immediately as the Fer-de-Lance. This is both an aggressive and venomous snake which has a striking distance the length of its body. Knowing this Jo encourages me to back away and without hesitation I do as she says. And with great luck it whips away and slithers into the under growth. With eye brows raised and now my mouth open I turn to Jo. Wow. She explained to me it was a Fer de lance and I realise I could have been in serious  danger if it had decided to strike. My heart pounding I was thrilled to have just experienced my first  Fer de lance. Being so close to the lodge we decide to head back to refer to our reptile guide book to check our sighting. The book confirmed our finding.

 Still buzzing from that encounter with a deadly snake we head back into the jungle for a second time this time being stopped at 500meters by a loud crash high in the canopy to my left. I pace around the corner to get a better look at “the noise” and there it was eliminated from behind casting a great silhouette of a ... well at first I was unsure.  My thoughts go into over drive considering all the possibilities. Surely too big to be a Red Howler monkey and black howlers do not exist in this area. Then it moved. That is the moment I knew. Spider Monkey! Its locomotion between the trees is undeniable and confirmed its presence. Swinging from branch to branch using swift elegant movements of its long slender arms, and extremely strong prehensile tail it can only be one primate. This primate is the only monkey in its geographic range that is large, black and has a prehensile tail and uses its arms to swing from branch to branch. Eyes wide, Jaw dropped for the second time that afternoon I turn to Jo with a shocked expression. To my delight she is mirroring my expression as she too has come to the same conclusion. In stunned silence we stand in awe taking in this magnificent primate. Keeping a safe distance high in the canopy the spider monkey semi circled around us making sure at all points it could still see us. Just by the way it was looking at us could you tell it was an intelligent creature. It didn’t just look at you it really looked at you, it felt it was acknowledging your existence on earth as much as it is aware of its own existence. It obviously felt alarmed by our presence because it was making loud defensive barks sounds as well as hanging onto branches with its forearms and shaking it aggressively sending fruit, seeds and twigs catapulting towards us. Recognising these alarm signals from other primates in the area such as the curious brown capuchin monkey Jo and I retreated and headed back the lodge for a refreshing cold celebratory beer.

 This sighting is brilliant news for the lodge and the surrounding forest as spider monkeys were previously thought to be extinct in the immediate area and this sighting suggests that there is still a possibility that spider monkeys are still living close by. These are large primates: a head and body size between 416 – 582 mm an incredibly long tail length that would exceed head and body length ranging between 680mm – 899mm and weight  of 5.9kg to 10.4kg. These monkeys live in troops with 20 – 40 members however often split into small foraging groups of 1-9 but will decrease further when food is scarce and reunite when food becomes abundant again. Their diet consists mostly of ripe fruits but will occasionally feed on dead wood and leaves. Spider monkeys have large home ranges of 150ha to 250ha. Group composition generally consists of 3 times as many female adults as males in a group. Reproduction in spider monkeys is low. Females are mature and are old enough to give birth at 4-5 years of age and will only have young every 3-4 years thereafter. Hunting and deforestation across the Amazon is increasing pressures on survival for the spider monkey and they are stated as endangered by the IUCN. Over hunting of this animal for its meat has significantly reduced its number in this area and its recovery rate is very slow due to the low reproduction as described above. It is therefore important to protect this species for the future individuals to be able to repopulate. 

Christmas and New year in the Jungle - Feliz Navidad y prospero año nuevo

Me and the other Resident Naturalists on christmas eve from left to right:Hannah, Jo , Me and Tris 

December 24th - Christmas Eve had beautifully cooked roast pork and lots of beer the pork was so good i dont remember eating anything else, as my mother will know I never eat the crackling at home but i have now been converted into a cracklin lover or it was just the way it was cooked or maybe i was drunk either way it tasted divine!!!

Explorers Inn Staff, guides and RNs

Christmasday was a beautifully sunny day 29 degrees Celcius i remember thinging I have never had a christmas this hot and back to civilisation Puerto Maldonardo where the girls and I were treated to a christmas dinner at a friends house who also guides at the lodge which included a humungus slab of turkey and potatoes accompanied by cocona and chilli sauce the best i have ever had. Cocona is similar looking to a tomatoe but its taste is very different and is used as a popular juice. with the beers flowing (naturally Cusqueña its the beer of peru) we met with other friends and introduced them to English drinking games. went down a storm espcially on the bus, with everybody happy and very merry we headed to the main square where there was a big party with live music and people dancing it was a brilliant way to spend my first christmas away from home.  

Newyear was a similar experience again I ventured to Puerto Maldonardo with a good friend and guide at the lodge Jorge who kindly let me celebrate the new year with him and his family. He has a massive family with lots of brothrs and sisters, cousins nephews and nieces it reminded me of new years at my nans with all my cousins aunties and uncles who would be there which was a realy lovely to be around especially at that time of year as his family was very warm and welcoming to this little blonde white girl in there house. Here in Puerto they have a tradition that on the strike of midnight they set fire to what I would discribe essentially as a scarecrow figure who represent a figure of authority eg a major or president and depending on how many people set fire to you determines how popular you are and in a crazy way the more people burn you the popular you are. After recovering in puerto for a couple of days it was time to head back to the jungle. once back at the lodge i started to feel a bit weird i thorght i might be getting my first tropical disease, without dinner I went straight to bed at 7 oclock and barely comeing to till about 10 o clock that evening where scampared down from my bunk bed rushed out side where i proceeded to projectile vomit everywhere on and off for a couple hours. lovley start to the year.  Concluding that it was only food poisoning after experiencing it for the first time only 4 months before. therefore thankfully I was right as rain the next morning.

January/Feburary High Lights

So the new year begins and that means so does work monitoring projects to complete and research todo however apart from this Janurary at the lodge saw some lovely visiters a couple particularly come to mind. firstly a lovley woman called Vivviana. let me paint a picture she is a british woman traveling alone and must have been in her early 70s she had the best british accent i have ever heard she prounounced all her words how they are suposed to sound and used such exciting discriptives in the most mundane of conversations, she has a wild and crazy side with a hippy edge and told the cutest of stories one of my favorites being of a story about a cat named bob. She is an artist and came to the jungle to get inspiration for her work. She stayed for 7 days which is unusual long stay for visiters her who normallay stay for an average of 3 nights. during her stay I think its fair to say everybody fell in love with Vivianna and we were all sad to see her leave, her charm and spirt to enjoy every moment of life i will always remember. 

A film crew came and stayed at the lodge they were a bunch of nutters and brought alot of soul to the lodge for the few nights they were here. they were film some survival documentary type thing that is to be shown on the discovery channel  in may, for the life of me i cant remember what its called however it was exciting to meet these people who were hard working and we all enjoyed a beer together on there last night of filming.  

below are the links to the December and January newsletter that the RNs put togethr every months i hope the links works there a fun read and gives you more of an insight to whats happening around the lodge and in the jungle. 

  https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=28079d4c608f1701#!/view.aspx?cid=28079D4C608F1701&resid=28079D4C608F1701%21137&app=Word

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=28079d4c608f1701#!/view.aspx?cid=28079D4C608F1701&resid=28079D4C608F1701%21139&app=Word

    

          

Holy moly its nearly christmas

wow its been 3 months in the jungle.

Am currently in Cusco for a little break away from the sweaty jungle and wow is it a little chilly here, its been fun but am missing the jungle already. its the first time I have been on the internet for over a month and literaly cant remember any thing that has happened in the last month but Im sure it was a good one.

the lodge is going through abit of a management changer over so things have been abit different and have been helping out with the running of the lodge inbetween continuing with my resident naturalist duties and research.. so,  had a leaving party in Puerto for the manager and assistant manager who have both left. maybe drank a little to much. the new manager is nice she has two little girls with her so recently a lot of engery is being used in entertaining them which is not what i signed up for, alot of maintenance of bridges is needed so have helped carry bloody heavy wood on my shoulders for a couple kms, just generally being doing the same old jungle stuff, an awsome couple of califorinian tourists stayed at the lodge for just over 2 weeks and were so inthusiastic and deadicated about wildlife they were out in the forests early and would return late at night battering against the mosquitoes, horse flies, humidity heat, rain and the jungle bathroom but amazingly for them it paid off as they were lucky to see close to 30 mammaals in there short stay one of which spotting a Puma with two cubs at dawn one morning!!! absolutly amazing!!!!! since then puma tracks are regularly being spotted up and down two of the trails which run parallel to each other.

Unfortunatly my camera was stolen (sorry dad Ill get you a new one)  so i havnt got any new photos two upload . there was one point for about a week where i was managing to contract one tick daily its so gross i still have to get poor jo to get them off me.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my friends and family i love you and miss you all so much and I realy do appriciate all the support you give me while I am out here in the jungle . Get stupid drunk and crazy over the holidays as i will be doing here. Will be spending christmas at a guides house with his family who have so kindly invited us RNs round for a traditional pervian christmas which im am looking foward to and with a possiblity of returning to cusco for new year boom! Also thank you to my dad who has been keeping me updated with everything thats going on at home with his own day by day blog its realy nice to read when i do get the opportunity.

Not looking foward to a 10 hour peruvian coach journey back to Puerto Maldonardo but am looking foward to the heat.Goodbye untill 2013...

October

sunset at Cocococha lake

Saddleback Tammarin

Red Howler monkeys

October has been an awsome month. I have realy settled into the peruvian way of life in the amazon. Most days are spent in the jungle untill it gets unbearably hot or the attack of the mosquitoes gets too bad before they send you absolutely crazy. I mentioned in my earlier blog that the rainy season was here o how i was wrong it was just a little rainy, most of this month has been crazy hot and humid with the odd day of rain to cool things down but only for a few hours. Some days you see lots of animals others you dont its so unpredictable but one of my favorite days so far was when i went for a short walk to the tower in the morning hoping to watch a few birds fly by before the heat of the day sets in and the wasps find you. so in my walk little 1.5km walk to the tower I spot a few nice looking birds a Nun bird and a Tinamou and a Pale winged trumpeter the forest felt still and quiet on this day so I reach the tower and start the 42m ascend or the 130 steps approx to the top of the tower which rises slightly above the canopy. not even making it to the top I notice close by a family of 7 Red Hower monkeys chilling in one of the larger trees in the area a couple of the watching me watching them and there i stay contently observing there behaviour for it must have been around half an hour while i hear parakeets and blue and yellow macaws fly over head then suddenly i hear near by on the ground loud rustling, grunting and movement of vegetation, it moves closer, its big, i come to one conclusion a massive herd of pecceries! brilliant! i would guess at around 50 individuals maybe even more, hearing the group making there way closer to the tower, transfix on this moving vegetation hoping for a glimpse of this group then suddenly i see a part of the group as they forage for food on the forest floor before they disappear again in the undergrowth wanting a better look at these creatures i take off my welly boots and run down the tower in my socks so i don't make a sound down the metal tower as to not alarm the peccaries. for such a big noisy group they sure can disappear quickly in the forest i followed a trail close to wear the peccary's disappeared but unfortunately i lost them but i saw so much more than i expected to see in such a short amount of time the forest came alive above me two scarlet macaws were shouting and fighting over fruit in a tree which they insisted on breaking open the seed cases then dropping them to the floor i dont know what kind of seed case it was but it was big and weighty and if it landed in your head it would most definalty knock you out so retreating from under this tree i catch a glimps of 2 beautiful woodpeckers on a nearby tree but then fly off, however running down a neigbouring tree a red tree squirrel with a big fluffy tail, then something else catches my eye tammarins i count only 3 but with the dense forest they are difficult to seen inbetween the vines and lianas this group was shy and retreated into the saftey of the forest quickly then lastly i catch a glimpse of a tree creeper circle a tree on the trunk before flying off then the forest went still again with only the noise of the cicadasand mosquitoes filling the air,  this all happened so quickly it was thrilling yet exhausting i didnt know where to look or stand it was amazing. you can walk for hours some days and see nothing but today was a good day. This was just one of the amazing days this month. Also one of my favorite things todo at explorers Inn is to camp at Cocococha lake as part of our RN duties we have to camp at the lake twice a month to monitor the black caiman which can only be done at night which i think iv mentioned before but one day me and Tris (fellow RN and class mate) camped at the lake just because we could. we set off on the 5Km walk in afternoon with our hammocks, mosquito nets, food and water on our backs it was a humid and hot day and the walk was not at pleasurable but it was all made worth it by seeing Tammarins and Capuchin monkeys, a green vine snake and a collard peccary so close if i had stuck out my hand i would have been able to touch it. we were only able to get this close because we we still and quiet  distracted by this vine snake effortlessly making its way up this treelet. peccaries have poor sight and will usually run away from human noise and footsteps but hearing a crunch behind us we turn around and BAM a collard peccary totaly unaware of our presence it bumbles around foraging on the floor it heads straight for us then all its hair on its back stands on end and it looks right at us it must have recognized a foreign smell as it turns 45 degrees and bumbles back into the forest completly unalarmmed. Tris managed to capture amazing footage of the whole experience. seeing wild animals in there natural habitat doing animal things its such an incredible feeling its the best thing in the world. this wasnt the end of our animal sightings for the day as we were luckley enough to see the giant otters feeding in the evening and they came very close to the little canoe there such beautiful animals its a shame there are so rare and I feel very privileged to be able to see them when i come to the lake after watching the otters till they finished catching dinner they head on to land and into their burrows, a group of Red howlers made there way to the biggest tree at the lake where they settle down for the night. yet another great sighting. with the moon low in the sky and the sun setting we enjoy dinner on the lake and wait for it to get dark enough to search for some nocturnal species we found mainly black caimen. with lightening and thunder getting louder and closer we decide to head to the hide where our hammocks are and call it a night but but there was one more surprise in store. due to the weather we decide a night walk is off the cards getting stuck in a possible storm is not wise but watching the lightening fork across the sky is probably one of the best natural shows iv seen it was truly beautiful lucky the storm missed us and on my way back from a visit to the jungle bathroom i hear a rustle in a tree and with my torch i see only 15 meters away up a tree an elusive night monkey! perfect way to end the day! so that's just  2 of my favorite days this month among a bunch of brilliant days i thought id share.

Giant river otter

Facts and figures total:
times iv fallen in the jungle: averaging 2 times a weeks*
wasp stings: 1
ant stings: 1 (painful luckley not a bullet ant)
ticks: 6
mosquitoes bites: uncountable
volleyballs to the face : 1
times iv been lost in the jungle: 3
bottles of repellent used so far: 5
times held a bullet ant: 1

  

* excluding near misses

As part of our RN duty we produce a monthly newsletter Iv added the link below if you would like a quick read, this month includes rare sightings of the month, resident naturalist monitoring programme's, Ants of the rainforest article, the canopy article and personal research going on by the RNs in our free time.


https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=28079d4c608f1701#!/view.aspx?cid=28079D4C608F1701&resid=28079D4C608F1701%21129&app=Word
  hope this link works
   

What a Month

Me next to a massive strangler fig 

I’ve been in Peru now for a month and what a month it’s been. The rainy season has officially arrived and wow does it come down still getting high temperatures of around 34⁰C with Humidity anything between 48-87% so very different to England temperatures. Jumpers are coming out when the temperatures drops to the 20s which is odd usually the t-shirts and shorts are out in true Brit style but not here. Everything is odd here even the moon is at odd angles, I use the word odd in a positive way.

Giant otters at Cocococha 

Days here vary some day’s full and busy helping researchers with collecting data for their Master’s degree. So far have helped in data collection for two different research projects going on in the reserve near Explorers Inn one involving a massive 10 year project on the productivity of the rainforest looking at the carbon cycle, root establishment, tree growth and the composition of carbon within leaf falls just to name a few of the components in the research investigation within this complex project. Another project is to do with the importance of termites within the rainforest ecosystem and how different food sources effects termite efficiency dependent on various factors one including the isotopes found within C3 and C4 plants for example.  Otherwise mornings can be spent trekking in the forest on the lookout for mammals, reptiles, birds ect include a bit of tree climbing or monitoring of the otters at the lake or birds at the claylick and you’ve got a good morning well spent then in after lunch when the temperature has cooled I like going back out into the jungle or the other week a few of us went to a nearby river beach for a cool down tip in the river. It was fun once you got over the conversion between sand under your feet to weird sludge feeling mud and what were swimming in the lake with you … caiman, piranha, giant catfish, parasites that can get up inside of you (so no peeing in the river) and sand flies on the sand that carry a flesh eating bacteria that if they carry the harmful protozoa and if bitten, can infect you with this disease…so once you block out that it’s a joyful experience with a gorgeous backdrop of the jungle and setting sun its real a stunning place to be.  

Cocococha lake 

Hannah and I also spent a night at Cocococha Lake a 5km hike from the lodge, it was awesome sleeping in hammocks under the stars then monitoring black caiman at night in a little tin boat. Although caiman aren’t aggressive like crocodiles these black caiman have been known to grow to lengths of 6meters! I haven’t seen any that big yet but they are incredibly primal looking and being up close to a 2.5meter caiman gets your pulse racing. Cocococha lake is also home to the largest family of the endangered giant river otters in the Tampobata area and on occasion have had the pleasure in sighting these amazing mammals. The group consists of 11 individuals who can be seen early in the mornings or in the late afternoon catching fish and socialising with one another around the lake. These are curious creatures who will cautiously approach the boat while bobing their heads up and down in the water combined with caution growls to warn you not to get to close in their territory but seen otherwise unfazed by human presence and will cruise on to the next patch of lake and continue catching fish.

Red howler monkey

After being out here for a month I have finally started on a couple of monitoring projects for my own fascination and experience. Firstly I am collecting data on different species of snakes in the area. Because I don’t a have research permit I means I can’t go out with intentions to capture mark and release this animals I have to just record statistics on the ones that I or the other RNs or the guides come across while out on the trails. Although there are great variety and numbers of snakes out there they are incredibly hard to come across because or there incredible stealth and camouflage and generally flee with any disturbance near them so this is going to be a 9 month project where I can interpret the data nearer the end of my time here. Meanwhile I have also decided to monitor the primate groups around Explorers inn.  Studies in the location of primate groups have taken place periodically over the last 21 years in the immediate area by four different Resident Naturalists. The last study to have taken place was in 2004 so I am going to collect my own data during the wet season then collect some more data during the dry season then using the old data going back to 1990 I will hopefully discover some patterns in group numbers, sizes and territories over the years.      

On top of learning as much about this incredible jungle as I can while staying in Peru you need a break or to do something different so I am also learning how to play chess and speak Spanish. I have also learnt to play a new game call Rumikub which apparently is massive in Europe apart from in England and the card game S**t head which is a great game to pass the time in the evenings.                

Beautiful humming bird found with two eggs in a nest on a trail close to the lodge

Left:toad infected by a fungus,Right poison dart frog found on a night walk. Right below: Amazon grass hopper and Below red and green macaws in the wild amazing!