Tag archives for Ecuador
Uncontacted Group Kills Two Natives in Ecuador
Posted by Scott Wallace on March 11, 2013 Mounting pressure from oil exploration and illegal logging blamed for eruption of violence that leaves two natives dead at the hands of uncontacted indigenous group in the Yasuní National Park.
Support for People and Wildlife Merge in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on March 6, 2013 Along Ecuador’s eastern border with Peru sits Yasuní National Park (YNP). At close to one million hectares, Yasuní is the largest expanse of protected lowland tropical forest in the country. Designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1989, the park is one of the world’s biodiversity jewels, containing at least 170 species of mammals, well over 596 bird species, more than 382 fish species, and a fantastic variety of flora.
Science in Yasuni Sheds Light on Impacts of Oil Development in Amazon
Posted by Guest Blogger on December 26, 2012 
By Kelly Swing In 1993, Universidad San Francisco de Quito and Boston University administrators asked me to suggest possible sites for a new biological field station somewhere in Ecuador’s eastern rainforests. Instantly, I was fantasizing about all the wondrous things that we could do and see at such facilities, if the location were chosen wisely.…
Posted by Following tests on smaller islands, the government of Ecuador today begins the second phase of dropping massive amounts of specially designed poison on a Galapagos island thought to be infested with nearly 200 million invasive rats. Introduced centuries ago by pirates, whalers and other visitors, the rodents wreak havoc among the wildlife of Galapagos by preying on eggs and hatchlings of bird and reptile species.
In 1835 Charles Darwin arrived on Floreana Island in the Galapagos, noting in his journal that it had long been frequented, first by buccaneers, latterly by whalers–and then political dissidents exiled from mainland South America. The giant tortoises Darwin saw on Floreana have since been extirpated from the island and the prisoners and pirates exist only in history. But the scenery he described remains much the same, and a tradition of leaving mail in a “post office barrel” for collection and delivery by passing ships has endured for two centuries.
This is the second post in my account of a ten-day exploration of the Galapagos, on board the National Geographic Endeavour. In the first post, I described our arrival on the island of San Cristobal and our first visit to a Galapagos beach. We awoke on the first full day of our expedition to…
Bewitched, enchanted, beguiling. Those are just some of the terms explorers across five centuries have used to describe the Galapagos, an unmatched archipelago of islands drifting in the vastness of the open ocean, in the middle of nowhere.
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A graduate student at Auburn University has just identified a new species of suckermouth armored catfish. He made the discovery from five specimens that were collected in 2008 by DePaul University scientist Windsor Aguirre in Ecuador’s Santa Rosa River (map). Aguirre had sent them to Auburn for identification. The Auburn scientist, Milton Tan, told…
2011 Buffett Award Winners
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on June 21, 2011 
This year’s winners of the National Geographic Society/Buffett Award for Leadership in Conservation are a community leader of the Huaorani people from the Ecuadorian Amazon, and a Kenyan wildlife conservationist who uses blogs to connect conservationists with supporters around the world.
For 20 years, field scientists participating in Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) have been exploring some of the world’s most abundant, mysterious and threatened tropical ecosystems; to date, they’ve discovered more than 1,300 species new to science.
Forest set-asides are at the heart of the United Nations’ climate negotiations, but a Native American restoration specialist says it will get the wrong people out of the woods. As nearly 200 delegates gather at the Conference of the Parties in Cancun, Mexico, writer Dennis Martinez points out that Indigenous peoples and their advocates have no official…
The Galapagos Islands have been removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger, despite IUCN´s strong recommendation to the contrary, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said today. The Galapagos Islands, which have been called a unique “living museum and showcase of evolution” were inscribed on the Danger List in 2007 because…
By Daniel Grossman Quito, Ecuador–For anybody who needed convincing, the Deepwater Horizon accident has proven that tapping the Earth for oil can be hazardous for workers and the environment. But oil wells harm the people and wildlife around them even when no pipes break and no fluids leak. South American tapirs, such as this one,…
By Daniel Grossman Quito, Ecuador–The Deepwater Horizon accident reminds us that oil drilling is dirty business. Ecuadorans know this fact. They’ve lived off, and with, oil for more than three decades. For many Ecuadorans, oil promised riches but delivered ruin. Along with great wealth, for a few, it stimulated political vice and the noxious excretions.…
By Daniel Grossman Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Ecuador–Do the world’s tribes enjoy any pastimes in common? Probably not. But one lazy afternoon, four guys raised far from one another delighted in a mutual passion in the forest of the Amazon basin of eastern Ecuador, giving renewed hope of cross cultural harmony. Two visitors to the Tiputini…
Exploration 101: The dream jobs begin with a slog
Posted by Stuart Pimm on October 25, 2009 Conservation biologist Stuart Pimm has a long and brilliant career as a scientist. Author of numerous research papers and books, he has given lectures in distinguished forums across the world. Yet he is never happier than as a teacher and mentor. In this blog entry Pimm addresses what it takes to be a young explorer in…
Camera trap photo by C Santiago Espinosa/WCS This is one of 75 pictures of jaguars taken by camera traps in the first large-scale census of the elusive big cat in the Amazon region of Ecuador. The ongoing census, which began in 2007, is working to establish baseline population numbers as oil exploration and subsequent development…
An adult male of the pink iguana from the Galápagos on the rim of the crater of Volcan Wolf. The newly recognized species of iguana may already be endangered and could become extinct, scientists warn. Photo courtesy of Gabriele Gentile Had Charles Darwin explored the Volcan Wolf volcano when he visited the Galápagos in 1835…
