It was a tough 10 days in the forest and the weather on a few occasions prevented us from walking the trails, but I am pleased to announce that Nicola and I have completed our census data collection at the first study site. If anything it has made us realise how dependent we are on the weather, so we will take that into consideration for the next site.
We both had a few great encounters with our study species and I even went out and helped with some of the night surveys. The forest is a completely different place at night, but it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, it's actually really pretty when the moon is out and there are fireflies everywhere...the only downside are the moths that fly into your face due to the head torch.
As we were leaving the campsite we came across a group of yellow-tailed woolly monkeys, which seemed the perfect end to our trip.
However, we could also hear chainsaws again in the distance and after all the groups of monkeys and other wildlife that we have encountered during our time in El Torro, it is really sad to think that they could lose their homes.
As an example, the photos that you see above, those trees were cut down during the the 10 days we were in the forest. But it is not all doom and gloom, by supporting NGOs like NPC we can protect the forests and find sustainable alternatives for local communities.
For now we are back in La Esperanza re-charging the batteries and catching up on some much needed sleep before heading to the next study site - El Colan national park, it is at a higher altitude and we have just found out that no one has previously conducted any census research there. So all very exciting :)
Sadly we will be saying goodbye to one of our Peru Girls (Asli), she is leaving us on tuesday to go off on some wonderful travels around Peru, she has been a great help during the project and we are all going to miss her lots and wish her a safe onward journey!
Until next time bloggers
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