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I was asked if i wanted to help survey the Pampas del Heath in Bahuaja Sonene National Park along side Rio Heath and the Bolivian border for a week before i go to the jungle to survey giant otters. If you google map look for Puerto Heath in Bolvia and follow the Rio Heath south. We will be in the brown patchs to the west of the river. But dont be alarmed it is actually in Peru depsite what google says! I will be there until about 2nd Sept then will have 2 nights in Puerto Maldonaldo before we head up Rio Madre de Dios & Rio Manu.
Tasks: The work will invlove survying and mapping the micro habitats, checking methology for hecatare transects to survey birds such as grass crakes. The flag ship animal is the maned wolf, which is a long legged fox like canid that eats rodents. It needs its long legs to walk through the 1m tall grass. We are also going to try and find new base camp sites for future surveys that have water. We will also be putting out 50 camera traps, ie, remote auto cameras that take pics of anything that passes.
Getting there: It is a 6k walk to the base camp from the river. We leave Cusco wednesday 25th at 5am in the pick up truck, head up over the andes, passing snow peaked maintains. Going from dry mountains to lush cloud forests on the other side of mountain pass, dropping into lowland jungle Its a 9 hr drive. We will spend the night in Puerto Maldonaldo (the gateway to the jungle in south Peru and Boliva and Brazil. On Thursday 26th we take the boat down the Rio heath which is also the border of Boliva. Dont worry aparrently there are national parks both sides of the river that are bandit free! The main worry thouhg is the drought has caused the river level to drop and we have a lot of kit on the baot, so may have to get out and push. Rob hopes it will take a day to get up the river, but it may be longer! We will camp in tents using a gas stove for cooking
WIildlife: There will plenty of jaguars to see too! Rob wreckons very good chance of seeing one and if we dont i have brought a curse with me! The maned wolf, giant otters, grass crakes, macaw licks, cabibari, large ancondas.
The only downside to the field trip is i will not have to time do the inca trail, but to be honest i am glad i am going to the Pampas del Heath insted as might record some new species for Peru! inc a rare wild cat
