The End of an Era

After over 6 years of intensive research and community development work in and around the Yachana Reserve, GVI Amazon is coming to a close. We have finished our final research project (look forward to our Road Effects paper, coming soon!) and are handing over the project to our partner, The Yachana Foundation. They will continue to maintain and monitor the reserve, using it as an hands-on science education center for students -- we're very excited to see what fabulous things this next generation of scientists find! For more detail on GVI Amazon's closure, and our accomplishments over the years, please read on...
GVI Amazon Closure Statement

Friday, December 3, 2010

The Wet Season Has Arrived!

Pitfalling today didn’t go quite according to plan. At 7:00 this morning, 5 of us set off from camp on a mission to find any frogs or lizards which had fallen into the buckets overnight. On the ridge and just 5 minutes into our journey, Black-mantled Tamarins (Sanguinus nigricollis), a type of monkey, were spotted jumping in the trees a little way off. This was exciting as they were the first monkeys I had seen at Yachana. We made our way out onto the road and along where the pitfalls had been set up.

We set about checking the four buckets of the first pitfall before moving a few hundred metres to the second. The first two proved unsuccessful and by the end of the second one a thunderstorm had begun.

The rain made the trail far more muddy and slippery causing us to slip and slide to the next three pitfalls. It sure became more adventurous as the path turned into a stream and hillsides became near impossible to clamber up. This was enhanced by the occasional flash of lightning and crackle of thunder. We legged it to the next two pitfalls but found no wee critters in either. By this stage we were completely drenched and my wellies were full of water making my toes squish together as I hurried along. I had slipped three times already and had got mud everywhere. At this point we decided to abandon the last pitfall and hurry back to camp. Just one of the things to deal with when pitfalling in the Amazon!

Lucy Dickie - GVI Amazon volunteer, Nov-Dec 2010



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