We were lucky enough to have Dr. David Archer share some of his photos from a recent trip to the Amazon at the Napo Wildlife Center in Ecudaor’s Yasuni National Park.
Located in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Yasuní National Park* encompasses one of the most biologically diverse forests in the world. The park has a tremendous variety of tree species, as well as a record number of species of birds, bats, insects, frogs, and fish.
Yasuní is home to healthy populations of top carnivores like jaguars and harpy eagles, the most powerful bird of prey in the world. Yasuní also shelters more than 20 globally threatened mammal species, including the white-bellied spider monkey and the rare golden-mantled tamarin.
Yasuní National Park is home to some of the last indigenous peoples still living in isolation in the Amazon, the Tagaeri and Taromenane clans of the Waorani. The Waorani and Kichwa ancestral lands sit atop Ecuador’s largest undeveloped oil reserves.
The future of the landscape as a whole, as well as that of its flora, fauna, and human inhabitants, depends on the smart, responsible development of the region and the continued protection of the amazing Yasuni Biosphere Reserve.
Below are selected images from the Eastern Slopes VENT Birding tour with David Wolf.
The images are arranged in chronological order beginning at the Napo Wildlife Center adjacent to Yasuni National Park and proceeding upslope to the paramo at Antisana with stops at Wildsumaco Lodge, Cabanas San Ysidro Labrador and Termas de Pappallacta.
All Photos Copyright Dr. David P Archer
Blue-gray Tanager, Thraupis episcopus coelestis
Piratic Flycatcher
Red-Headed Cardinals (Nepo)
Ringed Kingfisher (Shorline at Napo)
Collared Trogin (San Ysidro)
Mountain Velvet Breast
Tropical Screech Owl, Otis coliba, Napo Center
All Photos Copyright Dr. David P Archer
Editor’s Note: If you have photographs you would like to share with our readers please send them in jpeg format to editor@chilliwacktoday.ca.