Once you try the waters of Tambopata, you always come back! Setting up a camera to watch Harpy Eagles in the Amazon!
Back in 2015, I had just wrapped up the project I was working on and I remember swimming in the Tambopata River. Gazing up at the canopy of dense trees, full of amazing animal species, and one of my friends told me: “Dani, keep in mind, once you try the waters of the Tambopata you will always come back!” At the time, I just laughed but I didn't imagined that I will Setting up a camera to watch Harpy Eagles in the Amazon.
It turns out, my friends were right.
Six months later, and I was back at Refugio Amazonas, with a new job: manager of Wired Amazon project, the citizen science component of Rainforest Expeditions.
The Wired Amazon Launches Three Projects in One Year
It’s been more than a year, and I’m proud that our team of researchers now has three incredible projects up and running as part of Wired Amazon:
- Discover a New Species: where we have been collecting specimens of five different families of insects to discover new species, with great success.
- AmazonCam: Where we use remote camera traps to study the populations of key mammals, with a strong focus on jaguar ecology
- Aerobotany: Where we are building a database about some of the most important trees in this part of the Amazon rainforest, and monitoring the population of Brazil nut trees within the concession where Refugio Amazonas sits.
In each of these projects, our goal is for our guests, as well as citizen scientists, from around the world, to get inspired into doing science and contributing to the projects and the knowledge of our rich ecosystem, while raising awareness of its fragility.
But Something is Missing for Me...
I have been happy conducting all these wonderful projects, making science happen every single day, but personally, I felt that I was missing something. I was missing the connection to the “flying dinosaurs” that brought me to this place and originally gave me the chance to fulfill my dream of becoming a conservation biologist in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
So, since the beginning of the Wired Amazon, Mark Bowler (the lead researcher of AmazonCam) and I had talked about the possibility of surveying the couple of harpy eagles that we have near Refugio Amazonas. We knew that their frequent presence near the lodge meant we had an incredible opportunity to study one of the most elusive raptors in the world. We agreed that the right moment would be when they were breeding again.
The HarpyCam Idea is Born - and we work fast to get it off the ground (wayyyy off the ground)
That happened in mid-May. At that moment, we had to act fast. We had to get all the surveillance equipment, climb the tree, and set it up before the egg hatched – and we had no idea when that date might be. Remember, this nest is in the middle of the Amazon, so one of our first concerns was power. It took solar panels, batteries, wires, a lot of sweat, and an incredible team of biologists who love to climb trees (these are my colleagues: Juan Diego & Diego Balbuena). The team completed the incredible feat of getting a working camera trap, setting up a camera to watch Harpy Eagles in the Amazon, poised to capture the Harpy Couple, all at 30 meters high (about 90 feet).
Amazon rainforest at dawn. Photo by Paul Bertner
Because of this work, AmazonCam is providing the opportunity to conduct an in-depth study about the diet, and, the reproductive and social behaviors of the top aerial predator in the Amazonian rainforest. No secrets about the harpy eagle’s life anymore!
The Footage of Harpy Eagles So Far has been Incredible
Here is one of the most incredible videos that I have had the great pleasure to analyze. It shows how the male harpy, Baawajaa , brings home dinner for the family. Take a look: