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, June 15, 2012

Streamwalk Spotting


Four days after arriving at GVI base camp in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, I got to go out on my first nighttime stream walk.  I thought it would be the most amazing thing cause I would easily see so many cool things. Well as the stream walked progressed I became very worried that my eyes were not the greatest at night, as animals weren't popping up left and right as I had expected. But all was not lost, as, about 3/4 of the way though, I suddenly spotted a nice bright pair of orange eyes peeping at me out of the water!!!  To my surprise it was an amazing Smooth Fronted Caiman (Paleosuchus trigonatus), such a beautiful animal, this was defiantly a highlight of my stay at GVI Amazon! 


After my first Visual Encounter Survey (VES) it became a lot easier because I became aware of what to look for. Night surveys and VES’s became my favourite type of surveys at the GVI program, no doubt they are the most fun and you get to see so many amazing amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. So what was the perfect way to end my expedition here? Going out on my second, and last, stream walk and spotting a caiman again!  So amazing, and tops off my bittersweet departure from GVI Amazon, the most amazing experience of my life so far.

Samantha Jalabois, GVI Amazon volunteer, May 2012

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