My time in the Peruvian jungle is over.. It was a great time at Taricaya and I'm so grateful Rachel gave me the possibility to come back after three years.
Thanks a lot!!
Three years is a long time. The jungle by itself didn't change but everything else did.
Some animals at the Rescue Center Taricaya are still the same, like Simba the Puma or Teo the Tapir (& more) but most of the animals are new residents. During my time in the jungle 3 new baby spidermonkeys, 2 Tamarin Monkeys, 1 Blue and Yellow Macaw, 5 Colbalt-winged Parakeet chicks, 2 Chestnut-eared Aracari chicks and 1 baby Ocelot arrived at the station.. This shows how many people keep wild animals as pets and how important it is for a rescue station like Taricaya to exist!
Taricaya isn't the same than in 2013 but somehow it's still Taricaya. I already miss this place, the people and can't wait to come back one day!
I really enjoyed my last week in the jungle!
We had a sloth who was a bit lost in the Mahogany workshop. He climbed down from a tree and walked into the workshop. As he didn't find the way to get out, he tried to hide on the shelf, imitating a piece of wood and waited for help. With Wendy and Rachel we transported him back into the jungle at the other side of the creek.
Furthermore we had a look at the thinning in the Mahogany plantation.
Forest photo 1: plantation with thinning
Forest photo 2: plantation without thinning
Twitch Twitch
During my last few days I spent my time birdwatching and birdringing. Besides waking up at 4 or 4:30, it was great! We had time to ring at 3 different places and caught awesome birds!
The first place was called "HOB", an old plattform under the canopy. Highlights there: Plain Xenops and Collared Trogon. Furthermore we caught a Reddish Hermit which was for me the tiniest bird I've ever held in my hands! The weight of this bird was only 2 grams. The size of the bird is 8,5cm... the size of the bird without tail and bill was only half of my thumb!
The second last banding place was at the Laguna with cool birds!
The water was higher than the first time and the vegetation grew a lot. Best birds: 2 Amazon Kingfisher, 1 Little Woodpecker, 1 Spotted Sandpiper and the highlight for me Amazonian Royal Flycatcher! During the whole 2 months I tried (and 3 months in 2013) to catch it in the mistnets without any success: only one sighting of the bird in the front of the net. All the more I was happy to catch him in my second last ringing activity!
The last ringing activity was at the Canopy-platform during one whole day.
Actually we expected more than 14 birds for a whole day of catching but we got one bird from our wish list so we can't complain! -- Turquoise Tanager and a new frog species for Taricaya.
Furthermore we caught more than 100 different species during the last 2 months and ringed more than 350 birds! (more detailed summary is coming soon).
Ringing in the jungle this year was crazy! About 82 of all the species we caught were new for me! The same with observations. In total I recorded 218 species in the last 2 months, 166 are new for me and 5 new for the reserve! Also I have never seen so many mammal species, one highlight was definately the pregnant Jaguar in the Tombopata reserve!
It was hard to leave this place but I'm happy too! My next destination is waiting - Heredia in Costa Rica! Excited to be there soon :)