Taking a busman’s holiday the last two weeks of August - GCBO staff and members met up with Fundación Jocotoco board and staff to visit the Narupa Reserve, Ecuador. Pictured here (L to R) are Mike Gray, Cecilia Riley, Joan Holt, Scott Holt and Carol Jones of GCBO; Dr. Robert Ridgley and Francisco Sornoza of Fundación Jocotoco.

 

Climbing the steep slopes we toured the newest tract acquired with funding from GCBO's Tropical Forest Forever Fund in March of this year. The 166-acre tract connected the original reserve properties to the Sumaco-Napo-Galeras National Park providing a biological corridor from the higher elevation forests of the National Park to the foothill forests of the Narupa Reserve. This Amazonian foothill rainforest located along the east slope of the Andes was lush with vegetation, a beautiful, rushing river, and lots of beautiful birds expertly identified by our host and guide, Dr. Robert Ridgley – President of the Jocotoco Foundation. All of us look forward to more land purchases that will continue to expand this beautiful reserve – and to more field trips to see them!

During the first week of August the Whooping Crane capture team successfully captured 12 fledgling Whooping Cranes and fitted them with GPS telemetry devices in Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Using a helicopter to locate the family groups, the capture team was let out in a nearby place with a safe approach to the ground and then made their way to the chick by navigating through the Boreal marshes and forest ridges. At the time of capture the chicks needed to be between 60 and 70 days old and within a few days of being able to take flight because any chick strong enough to take its first flights would be impossible to capture. The data from this study will help determine important stopover areas throughout the migration corridor and help in determining causes and locations of mortality events that occur during the migration period which is when most mortality in whooping cranes occurs. Felipe and other non-Canadian members of the capture team were there at the invitation of the Canadian Wildlife Service to support this cooperative project.