Howling in the forest

Sat. Aug 7  (from Alberto’s diary)
Our first night in the heart of the Amazon forest was a short one. Falling asleep thinking of all the black caimans under our beds in the floating cabin of the Uakari lodge was not easy. Soon as the tiredness that goes with living on the equator won against the worst nightmare, but not for long. Although remote and very distant from the noises of civilization, this place never stops living and at night you hear all sort of animal sounds never heard before at our latitudes. With the first lights of dawn, an eery scary snore woke us all up. It could have been a caiman snoring under the floating cabin, right under our beds… or a new monstrous forest animal whistling from a distance .. or even wind from a distant storm, getting stronger and stronger as it approached. A continuous roar reverberating through the entire forest, a … howl coming from all directions at once !  Three of us children got out of the bed to knock at professor Ab Osterhaus door to find refuge .. and an explanation !  Guess what it was ?

Of course, we should have remembered ! One of the characteristic sounds of the Mamirauà reserve is the howler monkeys ! They are territorial animals, but not very fast since they eat leaves from the forest trees and it takes time to digest them ! So, Ab told us,  to scare off other animals from their territory, the males developed a hollow bone at the tip of the tongue and that’s where the howl is produced. A smart evolutionary adaptation to life in the forest !

I forgot to say who is professor Ab ! He arrived this morning to join us for a few days. He is veterinarian, so he knows a lot about animals, but he is also a leading virologist. From the virologist perspective, humans and animals are not so different. Virtually all viruses which make us sick, have originated in animals. So studying the life and health of animals is important for more than one reason. One of his specialities are aquatic mammals. He was already enthusiastic when he stepped out of the boat yesterday afternoon. « First I saw one pink dolphin, then we were in the middle of a group of at least sixty of them, » he said. « This place is fantastic. » And we all agree about this !

from Kai’s diary

Meals in the Uakari-lodge are delicious, with lots of tropical fruit, fish, fresh juices and manioc, a product made from roots from the rainforest. I have noticed that life for the local people in the communities around here is often hard, but enjoying your meal at sunrise in the Uakari-lodge, you could easily think you’re in paradise.
Surprisingly (or not), at breakfast we all had to admit that we had been scared during the night. It gets dark early, because Mamirauá is close to the equator. When the sun has set, the jungle becomes even more alive. Lying in your bed, you can hear animals everywhere.

The roaring of howler monkeys, the whooshing of the big Pirarucu fish surfacing to breath air, birds hitting all possible pitches, bats hitting us when we cross the bridge to our floating cabin, other flying animals tripping over the roof of the cabin. At some point I heard « crick, crick » as if an animal was entering the cabin. And, in my imagination, I  saw a caiman that had landed on the boardwalk !

A warm caimans’ welcome to Mamirauà

Fri Aug 6

« There’s more caimans than people in the Mamirauá reserve » said one of the eco-tourists boarding the same boat as us from Tefé. « Actually the ratio is 90 caimans per 1 person ! » Added the indigenous driver of the boat. That was a nice way to start the trip, making us feel the Amazon more in terms of its « jungle » definition than  « forest » (see blog Aug 2). Even though during the one and a half hours boat trip to the Reserve we saw more of the nice animals (yes, we did spot our first pink dolphins and quite some rare birds !) than the frightening ones, the prediction revealed correct when we approached the Uakari lodge.

« We are surrounded ! » screamed the children almost at the same time, looking around the boat. In any direction we looked, we spotted  black caimans (Melanosuchus niger) floating, motionless until you get very close. With a length up to 6 meters and a weight up to 200 kg, they are the most massive predator in continental America. These prehistoric looking animals, with their thick, profiled skin, hypnotizing, almost human looking eyes, and sharp teeth sticking out their long jaws, are the last terrestrials remnants of the giant reptiles of the Mesozoic and lived together with the dinosaurs 80 millions years ago. Their looks have not changed much, if you look at the fossils of that time.
With four species of crocodiles, the Amazon basin is one of the major centres of crocodilian diversity in the world, and three of these species are present in Mamirauá. All of the black caimans seem to have rallied right at the entrance to welcome us to the reserve!
The real welcome awaits us on the central platform of the floating lodge, where Bianca, a biologist and guide, and the six indigenous members of the team (guides, cooks, cleaning ladies, who all come from the four indigenous communities in the Reserve) introduce themselves friendly and warmly. « Forbidden to swim » is one of the strict rules.  That we will be easy to respect, even for a group of children that has just come back from the swimming Paradise, Noronha, with the king of the forest in the water at all times.

At the end of the day, Bianca gave a presentation about the Mamirauá reserve, which is in the middle of the Amazon, the biggest forest in the world and larger than Europe. There are thousands of species of animals and fish living here (1,500 species of fish in Amazonia, of which 300 in Mamirauá), some of which are threatened with extinction. Now we could use our experience from former expeditions, to ask the right questions. Alberto inquired about the effects of the protection programs for turtles and was very demanding on the numbers. The more you learn about the Amazon, the more questions come up. Bianca answered all of those patiently. It was already late when it was time for the last question, by Polina. ¨How high can caimans jump out of the water?¨  « About two meters, in less than a second », Bianca said. This fact was presented to us just before we made our way in the dark to the cabins over the boardwalk, where we had seen caimans floating patiently all day, as if they were waiting for the right moment to jump. Guess how easy it was to fall asleep with jumping caiman nightmares and the strange whistle we were all wondering about just as we were closing our eyes.

On our way to Mamiraua..

Tefe, 6 Aug 2010


This chaotic lively village on the banks of the Amazon river is our last contact with civilization for the next week. Until Friday August 13 we are going to be unreacheable by phone and mail.. since the Mamirauá reserve is deep in the rainforest and only communicates via radio with the Tefe office. No more updates on the blog till then! We invite you to go through all previous posts that we have just updated with more text and photos.

Boat trip on the Amazon to Tefe

5 Aug 2010

Fred and Polina have arrived!

4 Aug 2010

from Polina's diary

Last night we have arrived in Manaus after a long flight from Amsterdam, via São Paolo. A good thing I have made friends with the cabin crew, who have showed me around the airplane. Brazil looks so impressive from the sky, all the mountains, plains, forests and rivers. Not at all like The Netherlands, where I am from.

In Manaus you can feel the jungle is around you. It was already dark when we drove to the Mango Guest house from the airport. But I could see big trees everywhere. But it is also a very big city (with 2.7 Million inhabitants). Mike told us at breakfast, there are 30.000 new people arriving every year, who think living in the city will be better for them.

The Mango Guest House is a nice place, with rooms which are around a big tropical garden. We are staying in the Piranha room. When I woke up it did not take long for me to find out that Maxine, Alberto and Kai are in the Tucunare room. The names of the rooms are all fishes from the Amazon River. On the rooms are beautiful paintings of every fish.

Who could have expected, that we would start our expedition with a big splash in the swimming pool of the guest house. Probably the last swimming pool which we will see, because swimming at the Uakari lodge, where we are going from here, is dangerous, because of the crocodiles and piranhas in the water.

After breakfast Maxine told me what the children have been doing so far. Her report of letting the baby turtles out of their nests under the sand crawling to the sea is so exciting! I have made a drawing of the turtles, which we can put on the blog later. Well, that's it for now. In a minute we will be going to the zoo, to see all the animals before we, hopefully, meet them in the wild. Later this afternoon we will go to a special place, where two rivers stream together (Encontro das Aguas). Both have a different colour, which mixes into one.

We have brought a vaccine against rabies with us, which we have stored in the fridge of the guest house. It is just in case any of us gets bitten by an animal. Professor Ab gave it to us before we left. But the best advice he could give us: don't let an animals bite you.

Animals in the wild and in cages: a visit to the Manaus military zoo (CIGS)

The zoo of Manaus is really beautiful! The animals are from the Brazilian jungle and they are kept by the army. We saw jaguars, toucans, anacondas, araras, small monkeys and even a black panther. Although they live in captivity, the cages of the zoo do not look bad at all. The animals have a lot of space and in the cages there is water, trees and plants, so they can climb and hide themselves. Since I am here I want to drink water all the time. Sometimes it even seems better to me than ice cream.

After our visit to the Zoo, we have made our first trip on the Amazon river. The river is huge. It looks like the sea from a distance. A fast boat took us to the place where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões meet. Both rivers are totally different. Rio Negro (‘negro’ means ‘black’) comes all the way from Colombia and is very dark, Rio Solimões (‘solimos’ means ‘wild’) comes from Peru and has a much lighter colour. The rivers also flow at a different speed. That’s why the water keeps flowing apart in the Amazon without mixing for many miles.

We stopped at some floating houses where the people are keeping big fish in basins in the river. A man gave us some poles with a rope and small fish tied to it. He let us feed the big fishes, which came jumping out of the water, as soon as they noticed their meals. Later we ourselves had lunch too, in a restaurant which was floating in the river. From there we made a walk over a long wooden bridge into the jungle. At the end of the bridge was a platform where you could see beautiful water lilies. These plants have enormous round leaves. Funny, that some tourists had been throwing coins on the leaves. I wonder what they have wished for. Not to go swimming, I bet. Because we saw some alligators glide through the water. It’s amazing how many things you see there. Our first trip into the jungle was a good training to keep quiet. That’s something I find really hard, I must say. But once we get to Mamiraua it will be important. Our guides say that our screaming will scare the animals making them want to hide for the rest of the day.

On our way back, Maxine and I were sitting on the front deck of the boat. From there we had a good look on the little wooden houses among the river shore. We have visited one of these houses, where children showed us living animals. The smallest girl, called Leticia (3 years old) had a baby alligator, which was really cute. Her older sister, Franciana, was holding a big anaconda, which was very strong and looked dangerous. She said her father caught it for her. I also asked her where did the anaconda sleep at night and she said in a closed box. The middle sister, Etilene, was holding a baby sloth, which Alberto found was the cutest of the three animals since it looks like it’s always smiling. We were wondering why they keep these animals in their house. Wild animals are beautiful, but they’re not pets. Our guide told us, that is how the children here make some money, by showing animals to tourists.

-------------------------------

The encounter of the waters (Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes)

Manaus Opera

MUSA (Museu da Amazonia) and Jungle walk in the Ducke park

3 Aug 2010

Leonardo Rodrigues, biologist and coordinator
of the Verde Perto educational project

Luciana, indigenous physicist! painting Maxine according to tradition

The paint!

Collecting plants in the forest

Verde Perto children (Brazilian MiniDarwins)