RN MONITORING TALK Wildlife Monitoring and Otter Management at EI Structure: Introduction Caiman counting Parrot & Macaw monitoring

Wildlife logs & mammal transects Otter management Conclusions/questions (this list can be written onto a whiteboard along with a map of Cocococha & the list of main threats to otters) INTRODUCTION Introduce myself and welcome people to the talk Say that I am here as an RN together with (introduce other RNs) Give a brief list of what we do & say that this includes monitoring the wildlife around the lodge (i.e. one of the main things we do) Explain that this is both as a way of recording species are here and to make sure that the lodge activities are not having a negative impact. There are 5 main things that we do: monitor caimans and otters at Cocococha, monitor parrots and macaws, perform mammal transects and we also keep records of wildlife sightings and monitor trail use. Im going to talk about what we do and how we do it, why its important to monitor the wildlife here and briefly, what weve found in recent months. CAIMAN MONITORING Ok, first the Caimans. As I said, we do this monitoring at Cocococha lake (where most of you have been to see the otters). We do this at night about twice a month. What we do is to take the catamaran around the perimeter of the lake (draw this on the board to illustrate), doing half the lake each time its takes about 2.5hrs.

 We do it the same way as the caiman search that you do on the river, using a torch to search for the eye shine and counting how many caimans we find. Once we spot a caiman we record its location on a map along with details of the species, its approx. size and any behavioral notes. We use the data for our own records and a report is written at the end of each month. (The lake is very beautiful at night, if sometimes a little scary!) So why do we do this? Well the main species found on the lake (well the only species that ive seen there) is the black caiman. As you may already know this is a highly endangered species-its on the highest appendix of CITIES (Conventionetc), which means that it is in danger of becoming extinct. The population today is only 1% of what it was 100yrs ago mainly due to over hunting and there are only remnant populations left. We have a good population at Cocococha and so its important for us to keep an eye on it so that we can see if the population is increasing or decreasing, and to see if we are having any impacts. So, in the last few months we have found.. Talk about: no. of caimans spotted, what species range of sizes where most are found anything else of interest! Something else we have started recently is to monitor the tourist caiman searches here on the Tambopata River. We join a search about once a week & record how many caimans are seen, what species they are, where we find them, how large they are, and, most importantly, how they behave when our boat approaches. We would like to know if the searches are scaring or affecting the caimans in any way, and if so, if there is anything that can be done to reduce our impact on them. Finally one more thing that we want to start up is to search the swamps and streams around the forest for

any of the smaller caiman species. This is something that would be best done in the wet season. PARROT AND MACAW MONITORING Ok, next the parrot and macaw monitoring. This is mainly done at the collpita about 5 mins downriver from the lodge. We go with the tourists about once a week, early in the morning and record the species that we see, the no. of birds, the time that they come, whether they feed or not, and any disturbances. We also record the no. of tourists, the number of boats that pass on the river and, for example, whether the birds get disturbed by any noise from the hide. We also have a log book that the guides fill in each time that they come back from the clay lick to record the no. of species that they see. As for the caimans, we summarize all the findings in a short report at the end of each month. These birds are an important tourist attraction and its important both for their sake and our own to make sure that we arent disturbing them. Our monitoring is just part of a larger scale monitoring that is going on at clay licks in the whole area. (talk about recent findings no. of species seen etc. say it depends on luck some days we see nothing, other days there are hundreds etc) Say that a girl called Hannah Clegg did a 2 month study here last year and found that the tourists didnt seem to be disturbing the birds, although with larger groups sometimes the birds were scared away from the lick more often. Another thing that we are doing is to count the macaws, parrots and oropendulas (the birds nesting outside the dining room). We do this both at the dock and at Cocococha Lake as often as possible once in the morning and once in the early evening. We do this as it is a way of monitoring bird abundance in the area, and a way to find out how our presence and the weather and season affect the birds. We use these species because they are important tourist

attractions here, and they are also quite large, obvious and easy to spot and count. The same counts are being done in Manu National Park to compare the 2 areas. Give a summary of recent findings. MAMMAL TRANSECTS AND WILDLIFE LOGS

Next, our wildlife logs, trail monitoring and mammal transects. (The mammal transects have only recently been started at the time of writing = add something on this) One of the things that the RNs and guides do together is to keep 2 log books. One for trail use and mammal sightings, and the other for all wildlife sightings (this includes birds, reptiles, frogs etc). Every time someone walks on the trails they record their sightings in these books. There are 3 reasons for this. First, its a way of recording what species are here and when they are being seen, secondly by recording trail use along with sightings, we can see for example whether trails that are used more often have less wildlife sightings. And finally it is for you guys, to provide you with information on what is being seen here. Give a short list of recent sightings. We also record any tracks that we see (although its hard to see any in the dry season).

GIANT OTTERS Finally, the giant otters. Ive left this until last because they are one of my favorite species here and also one that we are quite involved in trying to protect, so I want to talk in a bit more detail about them. There are 2 things that we do first, we keep a log each day of how many people go to the lake, the times that they are there, whether or not they see any otters, and if so, how many, where, and what they were doing. The second thing that we do is to spend a whole day at the lake, twice a month, to watch for the otters and to record their movements and behavior.

 We are also very keen to start monitoring the other lake, Katicocha we know that there were otters there 2 years ago but they have not been seen recently. Very few people visit the lake so it is not known whether there are otters present or not. (Update this with recent info about otters at Katicocha) All the data we collect on the otters goes to the Frankfurt Zoological Society to be used as part of the otter monitoring programme that they are running in the whole of south-eastern Peru. The reason why all this work is being done is that the Giant Otter is a highly endangered species. It used to range from Venezuela to northern Argentina, but now only a few populations exist and it is estimated that there are only around 1000 to 3000 left in the world. (20-25 in this area, 65 in Manu- possibly highlight the problems of dispersal between these areas due to river use & the siting of Puerto Maldonado in-between). Like the Black Caiman it is listed on CITIES Appendix 1 mainly due to over hunting for fur between the 1950s and 70s when more than 20,000 pelts were exported from Peru alone (and thats only the ones that were declared!!). One otter fur was worth more than several Jaguars. The species has been protected by law since 1973 but they are still occasionally killed, for example by settlers who do not know about them, who see them as a threat to fish stocks, or who want to take the cubs as pets- something which usually leads to the death of the cub and can even break up a whole family group. [Point to the board] Ive also listed here some of the other threats currently facing the otters. (List: overhunting, habitat loss, overfishing, water pollution, disease and human disturbance). Habitat loss is probably one of their biggest threats nowadays. Overfishing is also a problem, reducing their principle food source. You may also know that gold mining is big industry here. Well, the gold mining process uses mercury which can escape into the environment and into fish. As otters eat a lot of fish this can build up in the otters and potentially poison them. Disease is another factor. A disease called parvovirus that is

prevalent in dogs and cats in Peru can be transmitted to the otters. This may be an increasing threat to them in the future. Finally, otters are particularly sensitive to human disturbance, be it from tourism, locals, or the ever increasing boat traffic on the river. I will talk more about this in a minute. So why are the otters endangered? Well, there are 3 factors that increase their susceptibility to all these threats. They are the top predators and at the top of the food chain, so they naturally occur in low numbers. They also need large areas to live in, and have a limited distribution, being found only where there are suitable rivers and lakes. So, they naturally have low populations with limited distributions and so they cant withstand even a small drop in numbers, especially as the loss of just a few individuals can potentially disrupt their whole social structure. But why should we protect them? First, for their own inherent value they are beautiful animals and you could argue that we have a duty to protect them. Secondly because they are at the top of the food chain and removing a top predator can have unpredictable results on the rest of the food chain. Also they are what is known as bio-indicators. Since they need relatively undisturbed areas in which to live, their presence or absence in an area can indicate the health of that area if the otters go you know that there is a problem and vice versa. Finally, they are also a flagship species - being charismatic and popular they attract a lot of interest and conservation effort. To protect the otters you must also protect their forest home, and by doing that you also indirectly protect all the other species that live there. There are various ways that we can try to protect them: Firstly by educating locals and tourists about the otters, their needs and their value. If the local people and government can see that the otters have a value to them, for example, revenue and jobs generated by tourism, then they will be more likely to protect them. Hunting bans also need to be enforced and fishing

regulated as, as well as protecting their habitat possibly by creating new National Parks. It is also possible to decrease the amount of mercury used in the gold mining process. Finally tourism needs to be regulated. Most of the lakes here are regularly visited by people, and as mentioned before, the otters are very susceptiable to disturbance, especially around the natal den. One study has found that the 3 most visited lakes in Manu were home to one third of the areas otter population, and that the reproductive success of these otters was only one third of what you would normally expect. Inexperienced tourists can also lose fishing hooks, which can sometimes then end up in the otters themselves. So, tourism must be well planned, and organized with a knowledge of the potential effects on the otters for example you can use hides and limit access to the lake. We are very privileged to have an otter family at Cocococha so we have a responsibility to protect it it is our interests and those of the tourists too. As well as monitoring here, we also follow the guidelines laid out by the Frankfurt Zoological Society youve probably heard about these. For example, we only use part of the lake, and after this was implemented the otter sightings went up by 70%. How can you help as tourists? Well you can try and respect the regulations and understand why they are there and you can make sure others respect them too. You can respect the otters, for example, by not making too much noise and you can also make sure that you only travel with companies who have acceptable tourism policies. Also, if you are really interested you can donate money to the Frankfurt Zoological Society to help support their work (or to TReeS?) Finally, our findings from the monitoring in the past few months. (Summarize findings) no. of otters seen How often tourist groups see them Behaviours seen etc.

evidence of CONCLUSIONS

If you think that we have seen disturbance etc.

I Hope that this has given you a better ides of some of the research that is currently being done at Explorers Inn, and why its important to monitor the wildlife we have here. We are very priviliged to have so mush wildlife, including several endangered species, and I hope that you can understand why we want t o minimize our impact on them. If nothing else it makes sense for us to make sure that they are still here for tourists in the future! (By coming here you are indirectly helping to support the monitoring programmes we do here) Finally, if you want any more information, please dont hesitate to ask myself or one of the other resident naturalists. Ok, thats the end of my talk, thanks for listening. Does anyone have any questions?