Tambopata Rainforest – Macaw Clay Lick Chuncho 2days

Day 1 :

Tambopata Ranforest Colpa of Macaws the Chuncho:

We will start at 8:00 am from our lodge or we can pick you up at your hotel, we will have 2 hours per fall in a 4X4, the first part will be on the high road and the second part will be on a dirt road until we arrive to the Tambopata river, near the limit of the reserve. Our boat will be waiting for us to take us 25 minutes along the Tambopata River to reach our Lodge, we will have a good chance of detecting capybaras and many coastal birds along the river bank, arriving at the cottage we will get a Welcome drink and the manager will give us everything we need to know about our hostel and its surroundings will explain.
After lunch we will go for an introductory walk for the first time in a secondary crop forest and then in a primary forest full of huge trees and vines and vines, at the same time, we will talk about the most important economic activities of this region . The possibilities of detecting some capuchin monkeys and Brown squirrel monkeys will always be possible.
When it is getting dark we will return to our lodge to get our torch and we will go to our boat and we will do one of the most exciting activities … it will be the spotted Cayman, we will go to look for Blanca and black alligators along from the riverbank with a great spot light, we could see more capybaras and we always have a good chance of detecting and ocelot or jaguar by the river too.

Day 2:

 Tambopata Rainforest Return to Puerto Maldonado:

We will get up around 5:00 in the morning, we will get a hot drink to get some energy and we will take our boat through the Tambopata for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Crossing the checkpoint. We will have all the sunrise just for us on the ship, and we will have very good chances of detecting shorebirds, capybaras, white alligators, and why not talk about … A jaguar or an anaconda, I would like to say that we have a 20 % chance of seeing one of these guys by the riverbank. How to get to our destination, we will get a show in the Collpa, parrots and macaws green, red, blue and yellow birds around us, flying and making loud noises, it will be spectacular, this behavior of these birds. We will explain the reason why every day all year round for these birds go to the cliff to eat clay. We will pass from 6:30 am to 11:00 am approx. Our breakfast is in front of the Collpa activity.
At the end of this activity, on our way down the river to the lodge we will make a brief stop at the checkpoint to learn more about the small museum here, after this we will continue to our lodge to get an unforgettable pool in the stream or they may be in the Tambopata river.
We will get our lunch and then we can take our boat for 30 minutes by the river to go for an afternoon of fishing in the Gato stream, there are always hungry piranhas waiting for some meat that would be our debate, the current is a very good place to swim too much after we catch some piranhas, it is an unforgettable experience. Short We will walk to explain that a little about the local farm.
In the afternoon, around 4:00 a.m. we will start the way back to Puerto Maldonado where we will take our boat then private mobility:

Includes in the Tambopata Rainforest Tour 2 days:

• Professional guide for the Tour;
• Motor Boat Transportation;
• Ground transportation vehicle for the transfer;
• A professional cook,
• Meals: 1x Breakfast, 1x Lunch, 1 Dinner and drinking water (Note: vegetarian option on request, at no additional cost);
• 1 Night in hostels;
• First aid kit, including poison extractor, mosquito bite treatment and an antidote against snake bite;
• Communication radio ;
• Rubber boots (Jebe).

Not included in the Tambopata Rainforest Tour:

• Airport taxes on flight departure;
• Travel insurance ;
• Entrance to the Sandoval lake reserve;
• Vaccines;
• Breakfast of the first day and Lunch of the last day;
• Drinks ;

• What you need to take with you to the Tambopata Rainforest Tour 2 days:

• Mosquito Repellent (DEET 35 recommends at least!)
• Original passport,
• Small backpack ,
• Long-sleeved cotton shirts (preferably green),
• Long cotton pants,
• Long cotton socks
• Comfortable walking shoes,
• Sandals or light shoes,
• Rain gear (for example, rain poncho)
• Swimwear ;
• Binoculars (We also rent)
• Camera and charger,
• The plastic bags that are used for clothes and a camera,
• The hat as protection against sun or rain,
• Small towel ,
• Toilet paper,
• Sunscreen ,
• Sunglasses,
• Flashlight and batteries
• 1 Bottle of water (1 liter minimum),
• Pocket money (Soles) to buy some drinks

Tambopata Rainforest Macaw Clay: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has listed 7 species of macaws in its Annex II, which lists species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but are at high risk of extinction unless trade is closely monitored. Appendix I, which lists the 5 species that are most critically threatened and endangered, contains 11 species of macaws, 3 of which (the blue-headed macaw, the red-fronted macaw, and the scarlet macaw) are endemic to the Tambopata region.
One of the main drivers of the declining populations of macaws is their natural form of low reproduction rate. Macaws are generally highly selective of their nesting habitat, preferring the deep and dry nests of centuries-old trees that only occur in abundance of approximately one for every 12 to 20 hectares of rainforest habitat. This selectivity of suitable habitat makes it difficult for macaws to nest and raise young. Even when the macaws make a nest, usually only a small fraction of their eggs survive, due to the predation of eggs by jays, crows, and toucans. Even if the eggs survive until hatching, parents often only care for and feed one or two of these eggs (usually the strongest of newbies), leaving the little ones to die of malnutrition.
While the naturally low reproductive rate puts macaw populations at a disadvantage, the greatest drivers of their danger are anthropogenic: namely habitat destruction and exploitation for the pet trade. With agricultural bar and burning, urbanization and projects such as the South Interoceanic Highway, the rate of deforestation in Peru has increased significantly from 0.14 percent in 2005 to 0.22 percent in recent years. The Interoceanic Highway, which was completed in July 2011, crosses the Tambopata reserve and has destroyed much of the ecosystems and biodiversity in this region. In addition to projects like these, selective logging in the Peruvian Amazon often targets the few centenary trees that rely on macaws to nest. Since its acceptance of the TMP torch, Brightsmith has taken the level of macaw research to new heights, publishing countless works on first-hand observations of his macaw behavior team, physiology, reproduction habits, and phylogeny. The location of the project in the Peruvian Amazon basin is ideal for research of macaws, with the largest clay macaw clay lick, the “Collpa Colorado”, right on the river from the port of the CVR. Research conducted in this frequently visited colpa has led to newly discovered information for more than 15 different species of macaws. In addition, several different macaw breeding projects have been implemented in order to educate the increasingly scarce population figures. The new approach to the project under Brightsmith is aimed at providing opportunities for satellite projects from other countries in South America to spread TMP conservation efforts to other areas of threatened macaw habitat.
Some of the improvement strategies that the CVR has inaugurated include several breeding and breeding strategies to introduce the numbers of macaws increase in the natural environment, as well as the construction of artificial nests to promote natural reproduction. In 1991, Nycander led a project in which 30 macaws were raised by hand and released in CRT; these “boys”, since the TMP team knows them now, still make frequent visits to the CVR. Artificial nesting strategies range from the    Cut the tops of the palm trees in order to promote the natural decomposition of the cavity formation (nesting), for altered PVC pipes are hung from the trees. The effectiveness of these different nesting and breeding techniques will be the central theme of this work.
Rainforest Macaw Clay Tambopata Hypothesis: While the objectives of the Macaw Tambopata Project are to benefit macaw populations, more practical strategies they have implemented have, to some extent, broken the barrier between man and the macaw. From birth to lodging, the nature of the macaws of this region has been altered by TMP researchers, which is based on the risk of natural ecological disturbance and human dependence. Such concerns have led to the two hypotheses of this project:
1. Strategies for the construction of macaw nests that best mimic the natural ecology of species are more beneficial for the conservation of species than more artificial approaches.
2. Artificial breeding is less successful than natural reproduction, since it interferes with the chicks’ ability to develop familiarity and behavioral adaptations to their natural environment, establishing a dependency on human care for their survival
Recommendations Tambopata Rainforest Macaw Clay: The first successful artificial nests were created in the TRC in 1990. The nest boxes were made of Ireartea palm trunks and were inhabited by wild macaws. This resulted in the red macaw (Ara Macoa) being the first species to plump young one of the nest boxes. However, these nest boxes were not sustainable, in which they rotted in less than two nesting seasons. A new nest box made of cedar wood was tested in 1992, and proved to last longer than the palm trunk nest boxes, but it could still rot very quickly (Brightsmith, 2000). This led Eduardo Nycander to design the first PVC nest box in the hope of being both successful and durable for the macaw breeding. The boxes had tropical cedar tops and funds to more closely mimic the nests of natural trees. The results showed that of the five nest boxes, red barnacles use the four of the 1992-1993 nesting season. In 1999, nest box designs were refined, replacing the upper and lower wooden parts (which rotten) with metal discs. That the 12-year-old boxes were created to be inhabited red macaw, nine of which were used to nest. Based on the success of these boxes, the plans began new artificial nest boxes specially designed to be inhabited by other species of macaws and durability in their natural habitats. (Brightsmith, 2000).
In 2006, Donald Brightsmith conducted an experiment in which the boxes of artificial PVC nests were hung on palm trees live in order to increase the nesting sites of blue and yellow macaws. The nest boxes were hung in the palm swamps near the research center, where the blue and yellow macaws nest naturally. The palms of this 10 One of the wooden nest design boxes in the area, Mauritia flexuosa, has been known to be important nesting resources for macaws, both for the abundance of fruits it produces and the cavity that forms when the palm dies The PVC pipes were left open at the top to mimic the natural cavities of the palms, themselves. Next, the lodging of these artificial nests was compared with the lodging of natural nests in that area.

Their results showed that the blue and yellow macaws did not use any of the artificial PVC nest boxes in the swamp and the birds were not seen entering the PVC nest boxes. Less than ten miles away, 33 blue and yellow macaw nests were observed in the dead M. flexuosa palms. Brightsmith suggestes that “thermal characteristics, shape, drainage, or other basic characteristics of PVC nests were unacceptable to blue and yellow macaws” (Brightsmith, 2006).
In the same study, a new attempt to promote the blue and yellow macaw nesting was carried out in which the tops of the flexuosa M. palm trees were cut, leaving the palm to rot slowly, more accurately mimicking the natural habitat of nesting macaws. 12 blue and yellow macaws make nesting attempts on these cut palms. In a nest, the bottom of the nest collapsed, destroying the eggs that were there. In another, a chick born from an egg, but was preyed upon and did not survive. In six nests, a full-fledged chick and survived. Four other nests were inhabited 11 by pairs of macaws, but not feathers any chicks. While the palms of the cut hands seemed to offer a better blue and yellow macaw nesting habitat than the PVC nests, the palms had a half-life of about four years, after which the palms fell. In swamps with dead palms naturally, this is also the case, but 1% of the palms in these swamps die per year, so that dead palms fall every four years, more palms die, producing new nesting sites adequate. Brightsmith concluded that for such a swamp to succeed, a 100-year rotation cycle would have to be implemented, in which the palms are cut and grown again (Brightsmith 2006).
Data from hundreds of blue and gold, red and green Macaw nesting observations, and scarlet were collected by the CVR to compare the effectiveness of natural nest structures, PVC and wood. These results showed that natural nests had a 65% success (hatching of the chicks) rate, while PVC nest boxes only had a 41% success rate. The wooden nest boxes were not inhabited by macaws enough to draw significant conclusions (Brightsmith, 2003).
Artificial Strategies of the Tambopata Raining Rainforest Macaw Clay: In 1994, in order to gain a better understanding of the comparative health of captive macaws and wild macaws, a survey of the health of red limps of parents and hand-raised was conducted in the Reserve Zone Tambopata-Candamo in southwest Peru. The physical examination for the birds consisted of blood samples were analyzed for diseases. The results of this test showed that hand-raised macaws were more susceptible to Salmonella. Those who tested positive for Salmonella were known to have visited the CVR on a frequent basis. The birds that have contracted Salmonella in the kitchen of the country house were suggested, where chickens have been known that have been carried on multiple occasions (Karesh, 1997).
In 2005, a collaborative study done by Donald Brightsmith et al. in the use of raised hand-red barnacles for reintroduction in Peru and Costa Rica. In this study, 20 young chicks were removed from natural and artificial nests in Tambopata at the age of 5-15 days. Many of these girls were from nests with 2-3 chicks, and would not have survived naturally due to malnutrition associated with preferential parenting. The chickens were taken and incubated in the CVR, after which they were raised by hand in small boxes. No effort was made to isolate these girls from human contact. As the birds grew, little or no pre training  Throwing for the chicks happened. The birds were not carried out in cages, so the releases occurred naturally, as individual incipient birds flew into the forest 80-100 days after the initial removal of the desert. The birds returned to the shelter to be fed within a range of 12 hours to 3 days.
Of the 20 macaws that were published, 74% survived their first year. Of that 74%, 96% survived next year. As of March 2002, 55% of the original hand-raised individuals were still alive, despite the threat of 5 known raptor species that are widely prior to this area. It is assumed that previously untreated birds have learned so much from the feeding and survival techniques of the surrounding wild populations. The birds released showed no fear for humans, and even returned regularly to the CVR for food. In the CVR, supplementary feeding actually promotes social interactions among flock members. This herd cohesion establishment helped the thrown 13 birds effectively called alarm to see the predators and return to the shelter for safety.
Conclusions of the Tambopata Rainforest Macaw: After research and comparative analysis of the results, the initial hypothesis that “strategies for the construction of macaw nests that best mimic the natural ecology of the species are more beneficial for the conservation of species that the most artificial approaches “have been found to have been plausible and compatible. As the data show, macaws have been observed to prefer their natural nests over artificial nests, often leaving artificial nests uninhabited. Historically, artificial nests made of palm trunks and decapitated Mauritia flexuosa palms have been more successful in terms of macaw housing and reproduction than more artificial PVC and wooden nest boxes. However, although these more natural nests (both inhabited) by macaws are preferred, they were definitely not as durable or sustainable as the most artificial PVC nest boxes. Therefore, it can be argued that if PVC boxes were somehow made more favorable to macaws, it would be more beneficial for the conservation of macaws, since they would be more sustainable than natural nests in addition, the second hypothesis of that “artificial breeding is less successful than natural reproduction, since it interferes with the ability of chicks to develop familiarity and behavioral adaptations to their natural environment, establishing a dependency on human care for their survival,” has been refuted by further investigation. At present, artificial hand-breeding can really allow a higher survival rate of 14 total chicks in a nest, especially in cases of nests with multiple eggs, since on average only one chick would receive adequate nutrition from the parents, leaving others to die of malnutrition. However, greater human contact also increases the risk of exposure to diseases such as salmonella, which requires more controlled breeding practices.
As exemplified by the “boys” of the CVR, hand-raised chickens can survive the incipient age and be reintroduced into the natural environment. Although these hand-raised macaws return to the cottage for an easy meal, they are able to survive in the surrounding desert on their own, probably learning from other wild members of their species essential survival techniques. In addition, supplementary human contact after the reintroduction of the macaws can actually promote social behavior, which the sea swallow promotes cohesion, mating, and protection against predation. However, you could  argue that these results could be different if the study area was not protected from poaching and pet trade, as is the case with the vast majority of macaw habitat not reserve. Such threats call for caution because of the degree to which exposure to human contact is of great help to the conservation of the macaw in different contexts.
Expressions of gratitude in the Tambopata Rainforest Macaw Clay: This study would not have been possible without the program of the second year student university, especially the course: Conservation and Development Dilemmas in the Amazon. I would like to thank Professor Bill Durham and Professor Julia Novy-Hildesley especially for the organization of this course and who teaches us a lot about ecology, resilience, politics and indigenous cultures at the heart of the dilemma surrounding the Amazon. I would also like to thank Rainforest Expeditions for their wonderful hospitality and for providing our group with a phenomenal set of informational guides. Special thanks also to John Sutherland and Karen Alderete for their great attention to detail in all aspects of the logistics of this course. In addition, I would like to thank Marika Jaeger and Robert Chun for their photographs that appear in this document lastly, I would like to thank all the students and alumni who have participated in this course, whose vivacious and exploratory personality made this incredible experience On many levels.

Intricate designs of macaws distinguish them from the rest of their family from parrots. Both its colorful feathers and distinctive facial patch are said to be as unique as a fingerprint. However, these differences are so subtle that two macaws are practically indistinguishable from each other. The size range of Macaws varies from the smallest species, the Red-Shouldered Macaw, or Hahn’s Macaw (Diopsittaca nobilis), 30 to 35 cm in length, to the largest, the Red Macaw (Ara macao), from 81 to 96 cm in length. More than half the length of a macaw is attributable to its long tail, which, together with its impressive wingspan, makes it an apt, agile steering wheel with the ability to reach speeds of up to 56 kilometers per graduated hour. Macaws have zygdactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward and two backwards pointing out that, from functioning as hands, they allow them to easily pick up food and bring items to their mouths, as well as perch solidly over and walk on branches of trees.
Unlike most large birds, macaws are not birds of prey, but rather generalist herbivores (Gilardi, 2012). Apart from a small amount of snails and insects, their diet consists mainly of fruits, berries, palm stems, flowers, nectar, foliage and nuts found in their jungle environment. Its powerful angular peaks, with the estimated bite force up to approximately 500 to 700 psi, support the macaw’s diet, allowing them to break open even the toughest Brazil nut shells with ease. Their tongues, with dry scales actually contain a small bone that allows it to function almost like a small finger, a useful tool for licking bites of food in their beaks. As a way to decrease competition in the diet, macaws tend to feed on green fruits and hard nuts that are too difficult for most other creatures in their habitat to eat.
In the lowlands of the Peruvian Amazon (the focus of this work), many of the fruits and nuts present in the mature macaw-low diet contain toxins and other caustic materials that plants have adapted as physical and chemical defense mechanisms . The ability to digest these toxic fruits allows macaws to exploit a large amount of nutrient-rich foods, through both rainy and dry seasons (Gilardi, 2012). While macaws are able to digest these substances, they can cause serious dietary problems if ingested in large quantities. As a way to neutralize these toxins, macaws eat clay rich in sodium outside the river banks, also known as “collpas” or “collpas”, which neutralize these toxins; clay particles actually bind together with toxins, which prevents the absorption of toxins, which are passed with fecal matter (Brightsmith, 2003). While the clay of these macaws’ diets are rich in antioxidants, macaws seem to be more attracted to clay with a high sodium content rather than a higher antioxidant content (Powell et al. 2009). These findings, as well as evidence of macaws feed on salt from salt mines, have resulted in theories of sodium cravings in the Macaw diet. Whether it is antioxidants or the satisfaction of a salty appetite, macaws are forced to congregate in collpas almost daily, with a strong influence of climatic conditions and breeding conditions .