Between the Routine
As one busy week ends, another begins. All of the EMs who stayed in camp last week went on plenty of surveys, split more or less evenly between birds, benthic invertebrates, amphibians, and dung beetles. On Friday, the EMs who weren’t already there went up to Yachana College to help the students finish up some end-of-term work. Don’t worry about having to write essays, though – their main assignment was to plant yucca and help clear the football pitch of unsightly piles of dirt and wood. In Ecuador this is what is known as a Minga, where communities get together to help each other out with bit tasks. The idea is that at the end of a successful days work all involved get fed a hearty meal. It's a great way to feel like we are participating and helping the lcoal communities as much as we can. When the now complete group of EMs were preparing to board the canoe back to camp, Andy noticed a pair of pygmy marmosets (Cebuella pygmaea) watching them from the trees. Later on Saturday night, they had a campfire; and what they believed to be a juvenile Great Tinamou (Tinamus major) flew up within two meters of the fire and sat there watching them for nearly an hour. Seems like the wildlife was surveying them that day!
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