Xavier's Amazonian Adventures

Xavier Tobin, Rainforest Concern Biologist, Ecologist and self described weird bug enthusiast, has been deploying 50 camera traps deep in the Brazilian Amazon with Rainforest Concern and Instituto Juruá support. Although the local people have affectionately called him “O Gringo da Floresta”, in truth it is likely that he is the only ‘gringo’ in a 200 mile radius.

Xavier has worked on various projects with jaguars, giant otters, black caiman, arapaima, pink dolphin etc, including with National Geographic. Using camera traps, his current project will analyse how terrestrial animals use the Amazon Rainforest, move between different sections of the forest and when they do so. In doing so this study will improve understanding of Amazonian ecology. Application of this understanding will strengthen protection measures as they could be better designed for the species/habitats they are trying to protect. We have asked Xavier to give a brief account of the realities of fieldwork so deep in the Amazon Rainforest:

The Brazilian Amazon presents the most impenetrable jungle on Earth. It is hot and humid, thick and thorny; I understand that to many people moving through it voluntarily for days on end probably sounds quite mad. However, I love this forest and believe that this project is something I can do to make a great difference to our understanding of it and eventually its protection.

Our day starts just before sunrise, normally around 05:30. At one of our study sites, just getting to the study site from our base requires two canoe rides and a trek, taking up to an hour and a half to be in position to deploy the first camera trap. If a path does not already exist, it is physically impossible to move through much of this jungle without cutting through it. After several hours of cutting through this jungle without gloves, each arm will look like the result of Pyrrhic victory in a struggle with several furious cats. With gloves, perhaps just the one feline. Where possible we cut around the patches of densest jungle, but it can still take over an hour and a half to move each 500 metres. We take machetes of several sizes - we need a larger heavy blade to cut through the really thick stuff, but we also take smaller ones as to swing the heavier blades all day would inflict a further level of suffering on our arms. The mosquitos swarm (apparently impervious to any of DEET, Permethrin or Icaridin); as discussed with my local colleagues “eles gostam do sangue do gringo”. We have encountered several species of venomous snakes, including the infamous bushmaster. Its camouflage was shockingly effective; I did not see it until we were perhaps a metre from it and (fortunately for us) it moved. I have never felt my fight or flight reflex kick in so hard. I have seen local people wearing metal shinpads, but I don’t think this fashion will make it to Mayfair. A good day is the deployment of five camera traps in a straight line (a transect), each 500 metres from the last, to give a total of two kilometres, ideally completed in less than eight hours. Using GPS, the next day we repeat the process 500 metres to one side of the previous transect and so on. This the diagram used to plan the first grid (where we were lucky enough to have an existing trail to work off of) with a team of local forest-community members:

We have not yet run out of water in the field (always carry a surplus), but catastrophically we have before run out of ham sandwiches.

On a more serious note, this work will tell us what terrestrial fauna inhabit these forests and allow estimation of how many of each. This study will provide novel quantitative evidence that maximising the connectivity between upland and seasonally flooded forests is vital in conservation planning. Protected area boundaries are often natural features and do not consider connectivity, thus failing to truly protect ‘straddling’ and mobile ‘landscape’ species. By analysing animal movement I hope that conservation efforts can be strengthened through informed targeting/improved reserve design. I am grateful to be working with the Brazilian Institution Instituto Juruá and I am extremely lucky to be supported by Rainforest Concern.