Tapiche Reserve

Sunrise chorus at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve, Peru

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.] Update: July 1, 2021 Sound up! We invite you to enjoy one minute of sunrise sounds at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru. Imagine: the sun is just beginning to peak over the rich, green crowns of giant, ancient trees. As the sun's rays paint the jungle with warm, golden light, the animals begin to stir. Like clockwork, the lanky Red Howler Monkeys (Alouatta seniculus) start their boisterous dawn chorus just as the night sky slips into day. Their roaring howl can be heard up to a distance of several kilometers - the vocalization of Red Howler Monkeys is said to be among the loudest in the world. Some researchers say that their morning call serves as an announcement to other groups of howler monkeys about their location and group composition, issuing a warning not to get too close. Though the howler is the biggest primates we have at Tapiche, their diet largely consists of leaves, supplemented occasionally with fruits and flowers. Past visitors to the Tapiche Reserve probably remember the distinct, inimitable experience of waking up to the howlers' infamous sunrise chorus—leave a comment if you're one of those visitors! We'd love to hear from you. If you are interested in immersing yourself in nature and witnessing this kind of sunrise in person at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in Peru, please visit our website to get started: https://tapichejungle.com If travel isn’t in your future, you can still make a big difference by supporting our conservation work with a donation to our GoFundMe Tapiche Jungle Wildlife Protection Fund: https://gofund.me/4ab0c49c We present jungle information based on the understanding of natural phenomena available through research combined with our own firsthand observations of the jungle. We humans are constantly learning new things about the natural world, and the combined body of knowledge is always

Join us in a happy dance as we celebrate the very first hatchlings from our rescued turtle nests in 2021! All thirty-six strong, healthy, beautiful baby turtles came out of the nest with not a single egg lost. These tiny yet mighty little turtles are symbols of hope, renewal and vitality, and we are so happy to welcome them into the world. Only 10,970 eggs left to hatch, so stay tuned for more updates! If you're thinking of shaking off the COVID blues and having a little adventure somewhere, we invite you to consider visiting us at the Tapiche Reserve. Come soon to see all the baby turtles in our nursery! If travel isn't in your plans but you'd still like to support us, our GoFundMe gf.me/u/x92tzd will remain open, and funds will be used to help sustain operations since we still don't have a stable tourism income. You can read more about this past Turtle Rescue season in the Turtle Rescue collection on our blog: www.tapichejungle.com/blog/category/Turtle+Rescue Thanks and much jungle love to all!

Red Uakari Monkeys at the Tapiche Reserve, Peru

The Red Uakari Monkeys (Cacajao calvus ucayalii) are a rare and fascinating species that unites incredible agility, strength and beauty. Visitors from all over the world have come to visit the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the Northern Amazon of Peru to observe this distinct species in the wild. Encounters with these stunning new world monkeys never fail to amaze us. Not a lot has been reported on their natural behaviour in the wild and it is truly amazing to be able to make these first-hand observations of such a special mammal. The Red Uakaris are easily distinguished from any other monkey by their distinctive and unique colour: their long fur is a bright orange and their faces are bright red. This bright red and orange colouring perfectly contrasts to all the different shades of green of the jungle which makes the Red Uakari pop out visually, yet when they want to hide, they simply duck into the inner branches of the trees and blend into the shadows. Their faces and the top of their heads are bald which makes their red faces appear very human-like. Unlike other species of monkeys at the Tapiche Reserve that might use their long tails to hang down from branches or swing from tree to tree (known as prehensile tails), the Red Uakaris only have little, stumpy tails (non-prehensile tails). Because of this, they have developed amazing agility and strength in their arms, legs, hands and feet. They move through the trees elegantly and with amazing agility, leaping fearlessly and grasping branches with impressive strength. When foraging for food, we often observe them hanging down from their feet and toes to better reach the food, as you can see different individuals do in the video. The Red Uakaris feed on seeds and fruits, leaves, nectar and insects. One of their main food sources are the yellow Aguaje fruits (Mauritia flexuosa). The Red Uakari Monkeys are classified a vulnerable species by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), their main threats be

Releasing 2020's Rescued Baby Turtles at the Tapiche Reserve

Releasing 2020's Rescued Baby Turtles Are you ready to welcome some positive jungle energy into your home? We at the Tapiche Reserve invite you to enjoy these adorable turtle hatchlings of the 2020 Turtle Rescue season being released into the Tapiche river in the Northern Amazon of Peru. Throughout the last months, a new generation of thousands of healthy baby turtles made their way into a life of freedom at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve. The turtle rescue season of 2020 was very challenging for the team at Tapiche. Our on-site managerial team of two at the lodge worked incessantly and went unsalaried in order to aggregate funds to pay local staff, but it wasn't enough. We were only able to add a couple of salaried local staff thanks to support from our GoFundMe campaign. With no volunteers or guests for additional support, the Turtle Rescue Project required extra dedication and energy from the few people we had on site. In 'normal times,' guests and volunteers would help us rescue the turtle nests and care for the turtle hatchlings. Guest involvement also helps to boost morale and inspire the Tapiche team. Our local staff members in particular really appreciate seeing the spark of delight and discovery in guests' eyes when finding a turtle nest and watching how carefully guests retrieve the eggs from the nests and re-bury them at the lodge. The learning experience is mutually beneficial as guests learn about the turtles and the ecosystem and locals are encouraged by the care, admiration and enthusiasm of visitors. The locals are really proud to share the results of their conservation work with guests, and we consider this to be a significant step towards establishing a conservation consciousness in a region where the dominant attitude has been to regard the turtles and their eggs simply as a commercial commodity. Whereas before the locals would only see value in collecting the turtles and their eggs to sell on the black market, now our local staff sees value in co

[Our internet access has been very limited since we've minimized expenses, so here are updates from the past few months] Update: March 10, 2021 Teaser for our new camera trap video: Two Nights under the Guava Tree at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve There have been some busy nights under our guava tree at the lodge of the Tapiche Jungle Reserve. In only two nights of placing an infrared trap camera under the guava tree at the back of the lodge, we got nearly 100 recordings of animals passing through and feeding under the tree. Appearances are made by several big terrestrial mammals including Pacas (Agouti paca), a Nine-banded Long-nosed Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) and even the biggest rodent in the world: the Capybara (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris). The water level at the Tapiche Reserve is high at the moment and most of the forest at the reserve is flooded. This means there is very little land left for terrestrial animals to forage on, which leads to a higher density of land animals on the higher ground areas during flood season. Placing camera traps around the reserve allows us to get a good look at animals that are usually hard to observe closely. One reason for this is that some of these animals like the armadillo or the paca are nocturnal, but mostly because these terrestrial animals have been and are still heavily hunted in our region. The excessive hunting for the meat of these animals can lead to adaptive behaviour changes like naturally diurnal animals becoming mostly nocturnal, as capybaras sometimes do. Outside of the protected area of the reserve, these bigger terrestrial animals are almost never to be seen anymore. It really encourages us that inside of the reserve which we work so hard to protect, we are able to see these animals and they even come close to the lodge. It is especially rewarding to see bigger as well as smaller Pacas, meaning they are reproducing inside the reserve in their natural habitat. Please visit our YouTube channel to see th

Timelapse of Yellow-Spotted River Turtles (Podocnemis unifilis) in the turtle nursery at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve, Peru

[Our internet access has been very limited since we've minimized expenses, so here are our updates from the past few months] Video Update: 28 Jan 2021 Enjoy this timelapse of almost 2 hours in our nursery of rescued baby turtles at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru. We've released some of the earliest rescues, but there are still 3000 turtle hatchlings growing and thriving in the nursery, the majority of them being Yellow-Spotted River Turtles (Podocnemis unifilis). You can observe them swimming around, basking in the sun and feeding on water lettuce. We built the turtle nursery to best simulate the natural environment of the turtles while also providing them with a secure space to grow and thrive. It is closed up with wooden planks on all sides and covered with a metal net to keep out potential natural predators. The metal net provides a secure protection from above while not reducing the incoming sunlight in the nursery. You can see the turtles coming out of the water to climb on the wooden planks to expose their bodies to the sun. Turtles are cold-blooded (ectothermic), meaning their body temperature is not regulated by internal processes, but they rely on their surroundings to warm up their body temperature. They need several hours of sun exposure a day, which is why they come up to the floating wood and the dry areas of the nursery. Shortly before this timelapse was made, we put around 12kg of fresh water lettuce in the nursery and you can see the turtles feeding on it. The water in the nursery does not have any current, meaning the water lettuce is pushed around only by the strength of the young turtles feeding on it. When the turtles sense anything approaching the nursery, they quickly jump back into the safety of being under water. Even after several weeks of living in the nursery, they always keep very alert to any potential threat and do not get used to humans or animals coming near the nursery. You can see this in the moment w

We've weathered some devastating blows this year, but we try to take inspiration from the way the jungle constantly renews itself. Even as we experience loss, signs of new life are everywhere. This year, with the help of donors to our GoFundMe, we rescued about 8,000 turtle eggs, and we've raised the strongest and healthiest baby turtles ever as part of our turtle rescue project. This video shows some of the earliest hatchlings being released. We've still got thousands of baby turtles at the reserve scheduled for release over the next few months, so it's not too late to help via our GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/ymiuz2 Thanks to everyone for your support. We wouldn't have made it through this year without you!

Happy Turtle Hatching! We are so happy to share with you that the first turtles have hatched from their eggs! While just about a week ago we found the last turtle nest of this season, yesterday the eggs from the first nests we found on 22/06 have hatched and we welcomed 96 Yellow-Spotted River Turtle hatchlings to the Tapiche Jungle Reserve. These 96 babies are the very first out of 150 eggs which is a great percentage! We have collected almost 10k eggs through june, july and august. Thank you so much for your help, without it we couldn't do it! We have successfully transferred the hatchlings to our nursery at the lodge from where they will be released into the lagoons inside of the reserve once their shells have hardened. Thank you so much to everybody supporting us, we could not do this without you! It is such a big reward to see those baby turtles hatch and get a chance of survival in the Tapiche Jungle Reserve. We are incredibly thankful for all the support we have been receiving these past few months and weeks and want to share these amazing pictures with you. It saddens us that you can't be with us at the reserve at the moment to witness this first-hand, but we are so happy that we are able to share this virtually! Please enjoy and share it with your friends to pass some of nature's magic moments. We haven't reached our fundraising goal yet and that the turtles are hatching means that there still is a lot of work to do. Now we have to closely monitor the hatchery to make sure we transfer the new hatchlings into the water as fast as possible. We have to go out to the lagoons regularly to bring food like aquatic plants back to the lodge and also are making sure that the hatchlings are protected from and natural predators. You see, we are very busy fostering those little hatchlings and are thankful for all the support we are getting. You can still support the Turtle Rescue Project on GoFundMe: https://gf.me/u/ymiuz4

5 Aug 2020 IG Live, Turtle Rescue Project Testimonials, Tapiche Reserve Peru

[For English subtitles, go to settings at the bottom right of the video and make sure "Captions" are on] See how our local staff feels about our turtle rescue project at the Tapiche Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru. Normally the Tapiche Reserve operates on tourism income, but we still do not know when we will resume tourism operations and/or when visitors can come. We need your support so that we can keep our local staff in their jobs and so that we can continue our turtle rescue efforts! With your contribution, you're not only helping us rescue turtles and conserve the environment, but you're also making it possible for local people to experience nature in a way that they may never have experienced before if they grew up or live in degraded areas. We're proud to provide an example of what a healthy jungle and ecosystem could look like if we all work together, and we hope that the positive mindset gets passed down to local kids and the next generation! Our wondeful friend Louisa has set up a GoFundMe here: gf.me/u/yfyp75 Learn more about the Tapiche Reserve at our website: tapichejungle.com

Turtle Rescue News from last week: We have found a nest of the Arrau turtle (Podocnemis expansa), also known as giant Amazon River Turtle at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the Northern Amazon of Peru! The Arrau turtle has almost been extinct from the region and last year was the very first nesting season that we were able to find a nest of this species. While the nests of the Yellow-Spotted River Turtle mostly contain between 35 and 45 eggs, this nest of the Arrau Turtle had 139 eggs! The eggs are rounder and are very similar to ping-pong balls regarding size and shape. The sand that looks darker than the rest of the beach is the sand that the turtle has been moving and digging while making the nest. While the size of the nest is a lot bigger than that of the Yellow-Spotted River Turtle, its structure and the way the eggs are arranged inside of the nest are similar. This is only the third nest of the Arrau turtle that we ever have found. We are very excited and very happy to see that the Arrau Turtle is still present and reproducing inside the Tapiche Jungle Reserve. We want to thank everyone supporting the Turtle Rescue Project, we are so happy that we were able to hire our local staff back. Having our local staff back, being able to support them and working on the Turtle Rescue Project together with them is incredibly rewarding for us and would not be possible without your help! Thank you! GoFundMe: https://gf.me/u/ymiuzy

Taricaya Turtle Rescue Project Update 19 July 2020, Tapiche Reserve, Peru

THANK YOU to our Tapiche friends and family for supporting us and making it possible to hire some of our local staff back for this month! Murilo and Jana have been managing the lodge and operating the turtle rescue project on their own, and this help has been a much needed blessing and relief. Since we don't know yet when it will be safe to re-open the lodge and resume our ecotourism business, please help us spread the word about our fundraising campaign. We hope to raise enough funds to keep our local staff working for at least the next few months even if we don't have tourism income. GoFundMe: https://gf.me/u/ybhaqg Thank you again to our beloved supporters! We are deeply humbled and honored.

*Turtle Rescue Update* The weather here in the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the Northern Amazon of Peru has been very rainy and relatively cold during the past week which means that the turtles didn't lay any nests. We have observed that the turtles only lay their eggs in the dry and warm sand, so the weather conditions have not been what the turtles like and need. As you can see, the strong rain has destroyed the beaches. The rain has taken a lot of the soft sand and what is left is mostly muddy and still wet. Yesterday was the first day of strong and hot sun during the past week, so the turtles came out to check out the beaches again - and look how many!!! Even though a lot of them just checked the beaches and did not lay their eggs yet, we still found about 500 eggs yesterday evening. We are currently at a count of 1875 eggs and this is just the beginning of this year's nesting season. Unfortunately nowhere else in this region you would find a beach looking like this - with LOTS of turtles walking all over the beach to search for a place to lay their nests. There are almost no turtles left outside of the reserve due to them being heavily poached. The taricaya (Podocnemis unifilis) along with the cupiso (Podocnemis sextuberculata) and the giant charapa (Podocnemis expansa) are technically protected by conservation law against trading due to the high risk of species extinction, but enforcement of the laws is weak to non-existent in our region, and the lure of high black market payoffs continue to entice poachers. Often they will even wait for the mother turtle to finish laying her eggs before taking her to market, too, which wipes out two generations in one move and devastates the life cycle. That's why we are working very hard collecting the nests and protecting those future baby turtles! Even though it may be a while before you can visit and support us in person, please consider helping us with the Turtle Rescue Project from afar: https://gf.me/u/yabgw7 Fi