This past week we spent a few days in the Amazon rainforest, more specifically Yasuni National Park, even more specifically the Tiputini Biodiversity Station. This is a research facility that was created in 1994 by the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito and it is only accessible to students at USFQ, such as myself, and a select few researchers. To get to Tiputini is quite the process. We took a bus, then a plane, then a bus, then a boat, then an open truck/bus, then another boat and then we were finally there. The entire travel took about 8 hours. While there we mainly hiked while tracking animals using sounds and prints, we also floated down the Tiputini river during a storm which hosts piranhas, anacondas, electric eels, caiman and more, we canoed, we went on a night boat search for caiman and we climbed 100 feet into the top of the canopy where we saw tons of beautiful birds and monkeys playing around in the tree next to us for hours. No matter where you looked the forest was full of life, and something particular I noticed is that things can get quite big in the forest. The ant pictured here was huge and is known as the Bullet Ant. It's sting creates a pain ranked worse than any other insect on the Schmidt sting pain index. Its bite contains a venom that makes the victim feel as though there is a fire inside his body or as though he has been shot, hence the name Bullet Ant.
Since our class is titled Wildlife Conservation Management we decided to take a look at another approach of management while we were in the area of Coca. We stopped by the Coca zoo, which is a free entrance zoo that solely contains animals that have been rescued, mainly from the illegal pet trade. This zoo hosts dozens of species, many of which roam freely throughout the premises. Some, like the monkeys and coatis easily climb over the short gate that encloses the zoo, but they always come right back because they love their home. This puma pictured was kept by a community in a 2 x 3 m box for four years before the government made them hand it over to the zoo. The zookeepers have tried to release some of their animals, but they always make their way back to the zoo because they have been domesticated through the pet trade. However, if they are brought injured animals that only need to stay a short period at the zoo for recovery then they are generally able to release the animal back into the wild.
We also visited various oil wells in the area to see the impact on farmers and wildlife. In Ecuador the country owns all of the mineral rights. So essentially if there is oil found on your land, the state has the right to that oil and can completely displace you with no compensation, which happens often. This area used to be largely agricultural, but the men have gone to work for the oil companies, leaving the wives alone with the family for extended periods of time, completely changing the culture of this semi-isolated group. The private companies, such as one from Canada that our professor previously worked for as the environmental consult, generally do a much better job at following the environmental guidelines because the state, or green police, carefully monitor them. However, when state oil companies such as Ecuapetroleo decide to drill they have no one to answer to and therefore do not follow any of the rules. As you can see below there is oil under the well and also in the cement pool. This oil is supposed to be emptied everyday so that when the rain comes it does not overflow, however it is rarely emptied. We also took a look at the farmer's drinking water supply and it was completely full of oil as well. The cancer, abortion and mutation rights have skyrocketed as a result of oil in drinking wells. Until 2005 the roads built around the area were constructed from a mix of half cement and half crude oil that continuously leaches into the surrounding soil.
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