Andean bear habitat, below the town of Marcapata and above the town of Quince Mil

Quince Mil, District of Camanti, Province of Quispicanchi, Department of Cusco, Peru

I’m in Quince Mil working on the logistics and planning for the first year of a long-term conservation research project on Andean bears Tremarctos ornatus, which are also known as spectacled bears because the markings on their faces sometimes make them look as though they’re wearing eyeglasses.
Andean bears are currently considered to be at “high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Because their populations are believed to be declining, for years South American researchers have conducted heroic research on Andean bears, trying to determine where they live and what habitats they use. However, because these bears typically live in forests, spend so much time in trees, and avoid humans, we still don’t know very much about them. (For more information on why I’m working on Andean bears, see my blog, Conserving Ursids: Andean Bears) I’m working in Peru because it’s thought to contain about one-third of the remaining Andean bear habitat and because there’s been relatively little research done here on Andean bears. One of the objectives of this program is to mentor and train students and parabiologists, thereby improving conservation science capacity in Peru.

I’m in Quince Mil, a town on the east slope of the Andes in southeast Peru, because this is where my collaborators are based. To understand the ecology and much of the behavior of the Andean bear, biologists have to understand how bears interact with their habitats. I am definitely not a tropical botanist, so as I looked for potential field sites I also looked for potential botanical collaborators. I was fortunate enough to find some botanists who are working to describe and understand the plant diversity of the forests of southeast Peru. These investigators are with the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program (AABP) of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. The co-director of the program, Dr. John Janovec, moved to Quince Mil with his family last December, just in time to experience the most fantastic rain storms of his life. When you consider that John has spent years working in lowland Amazon rain forests, you can understand why I was impressed with the weather. The town gets an average of 8 meters of rain per year; that’s about 26 feet of rain per year!! I was here last February, which was still during the rainy season, so I’m finding it hard to believe that I’ve been here for three days and it hasn’t rained yet.

Quince Mil and the surrounding area have been developed for decades for small farms, logging, and placer gold mines. There might have been bears here at one time, but now the closest bears live higher up the valleys. To study the bears and their habitats we’ll have to do a lot of hiking in some very rugged terrain. I’m not going to kid you: it will be a challenge to make the transition from the sea-level mesas and canyons of San Diego to the Andes Mountains!

Taken in February, this shows a landslide across the only road from Cusco to the area of the field site, below the town of Marcapata and above the town of Quince Mil.

At present the only road through this area is a dirt road just wide enough for two vehicles to meet. However, a major transcontinental highway, the Interoceanica, is under construction through this area. When finished in the next 24 months, this highway will run from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to the Pacific coast of Peru, and it will probably have major economic and ecological impacts on the area. Because of the construction of the highway, private cars are only allowed on the road on Sundays. So, rather than wait days to hire an expensive vehicle, I have two choices for travel from Cusco to Quince Mil. Catch a ride on a truck traveling at night between Cusco and Puerto Maldonado, or take an overnight bus on the same route. Although riding on a truck is cheaper, I prefer the comfort of the bus. So far this ride has taken me anywhere from 9 to 14 hours, but I’ve heard that when there are landslides it can take days to make the voyage. I hope I never have that much fun!

I’ll return to the U.S. in mid-December. Until then I’ll attempt to post blog updates when I’m not in the field and when I can access the Internet. This is going to be an exciting and challenging project, but with any luck we should be able to determine why Andean bears use the forests as they do, even if we can’t see the bears for all the trees.

Russ Van Horn is a senior researcher in the San Diego Zoo’s Applied Animal Ecology Division.

Listen to an iZoofari Chat with Russ”¦
Listen to an iZoofari Chat with an Andean bear keeper”¦

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