LETTER FROM THE AMAZON - Amazon Conservation Association

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LETTER FROM THE AMAZON 

NEWS FROM THE AMAZON CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION’S 

BIOLOGICAL STATIONS 

JANUARY-MARCH, 2010 

THIS ISSUE: 

THE RAPTORS OF 

CICRA: Margaret 

Shrum………p.5-6

Letter from the Amazon January-March, 2010 

Contents: 

Cover: the “awesome caterpillar” spotlighted in 

“Jungle News,” a short video series by CICRA 

resident artist Lucy Cooke (spotlight p. 3). Photo by 

Sarah Federman. 

Page 3: Letter from the director: 

Page 4: Current research, CICRA and Wayqecha 

Page 5: Margaret Shrum: The Raptors of CICRA 

Page 7: Research: recent publications, CICRA and 

Wayqecha 

Page 8: Staff, Community, and News, CICRA and 

Wayqecha 

Page 9: Long term visitors, recent arrivals, and 

courses, CICRA and Wayqecha 

Page 10: Publications this trimester, CICRA and 

Wayqecha 

Page 11: About our stations, CICRA and 

Wayqecha 

Macaws at CM1 by Sarah Federman 

Our Contributors: 

This issue’s special editorial from CICRA: 

Margaret Shrum: A PhD 

candidate at Clemson 

University, Margaret 

studies mercury 

accumulation in birds of 

prey at CICRA. This issue, 

Margaret has contributed 

the editorial The Raptors of CICRA (p.5), which 

speaks about her doctoral research. 

Permanent fixtures: 

Sarah Carbonel: A candidate for her 

licenciatura (certification as a 

biologist) at San Marcos University, 

and CICRA’s assistant logistics 

coordinator, Sarah is interested in 

the relationship between beetles and 

their host plants. 

Sarah Federman: A fellow from 

Princeton in Latin America, Sarah is 

CICRA’s assistant research 

coordinator. She is interested in 

dispersal ecology and forest stand 

regeneration in areas impacted by 

human presence. 

Laura Morales: A fellow from 

Princeton in Latin America with 

Wayqecha, Laura is interested in the 

ecology of watersheds and water 

quality. 

Adrian Tejedor: CICRA and 

Wayqecha’s director of research, 

Adrian is interested in bat evolution, 

ecology, and biogeography.


Fins and Feathers 

Letter from the director: 

Dr. Adrian Tejedor, Director of Research 

How does a research station benefit me? Why should I 

care about science? One reason these questions always 

crop up is that the answer is not straightforward. The 

benefits of science surround us in agriculture, 

technology, and medicine but the link between the 

original bits of discovery and their practical applications 

is rarely direct or well publicized. 

How many hundreds of millions of us owe our existence 

to the penicillin used by our ancestors - only one or two 

generations back - to cure infections that before the 

1950s were life-threatening? Who could have foreseen 

that this savior antibiotic would come from a mold whose 

effects were discovered by serendipity and put to work 

only 20 years later? Given enough time, the rummaging 

of scientists, often demeaned by non-specialists as the 

search of the ‘leg of an ant, the fin of a little fish, or the 

feather of a bird’, can have momentous consequences 

for the quality of life of everyone on Earth. 

Macaws, renowned for their beautiful feathers, by Sarah 

Federman. 

At its research stations, CICRA and Wayqecha, ACCA 

seeks to foster both pure and applied science to solve 

the most pressing environmental issues of the southern 

Peruvian Amazon and the Andean cloud forest. In 

addition to updates of the many projects and activities at 

our stations, in this issue of the Letter from the Amazon, 

you will find answers to one of the region’s most urgent 

questions: how badly is mercury, used in gold mining in 

the Madre de Dios River, contaminating aquatic and 

terrestrial ecosystems? The evidence has come from, of 

all things, fi ns and feathers. 

Looking at the muscle at the base of the dorsal fin of 

fish, CICRA’s grant program awardee Dr. Luis 

Fernandez has figured out to what degree river fish, an 

important source of protein in the Amazon, are being 

contaminated by mercury. As you will read, the little fish 

turn out to be the least contaminated and the best to eat. 

Madre de Dios River by Sarah Federman. 

Feathers, on the other hand, show us that mercury is 

traveling away from the rivers through the food chain. 

This story is told by Margaret (Peggy) Shrum, a longterm 

researcher at CICRA who has discovered 

potentially lethal concentrations of this toxic metal in the 

Amazon’s top aerial predators: birds of prey. If this 

pattern repeats in terrestrial food chains, it may indicate 

that mercury contamination, with origins in river mining, 

could reach further into terrestrial ecosystems and 

persist for a longer time than previously realized. 

These examples demonstrate that science can help us 

make sensible choices when deciding what to eat or 

where to look for what we eat in the Peruvian Amazon. 

So then, should we fund scientists proposing to study 

legs, fins, or feathers? I think we should. 

The Andes glimpsed beyond the rainforest’s canopy; a sight to 

revel in, a view worth protecting, by Sarah Federman. 

3


Research: current stories 

CICRA 

Of fieldwork and teamwork 

Mrilani Watsa’s project on chimersim and population 

genetics and their correlates with 

affiliative behaviour in pichicos (Saguinus 

f. weddelli), really picked up this trimester 

with the addition of 3 new dedicated 

assistants to the project. The pichiqueros, 

now consisting of six team members, 

work hard, heading out at 5:00 am and 

often returning at 5:00 pm. They caught (literally) and 

processed one more pichico twin as it fell from the 

canopy in a poorly calculated jump. This trimester Mini 

and her team have been formulating and testing a few 

new trapping strategies to optimize the captures of 

CICRA’s pichicos. Best of luck to Mini and the 

pichiqueros! Follow Mini at: www.primatesperu.com. 

Sarah Federman. Pichicos by Sarah Carbonel. 

Lucy Cooke: Resident Artist 

Lucy, an experienced documentary filmmaker, is also 

an amphibian conservation enthusiast. Her desire to 

make accessible to a wide audience the fantastic 

world of frogs, the chytrid blight, and the many 

obstacles facing amphibian conservation, brought her 

to CICRA for the month of January. Here she spent a 

month documenting the long-term research going on 

by shadowing investigators, as well as frogging in her 

free evenings; lucky for her that she came in our rainy 

season. One of Lucy’s many contributions to CICRA 

during her stay was the direction and filming of 

Jungle News, a short series about life at CICRA 

(CICRA is featured in Lucy’s piece in The Telegraph 

International in print as well as their online edition, 

complete with video clips titled: My Scatological 

Jungle Adventure (www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/7429086/Myscatological-jungle-adventure.html). 

Lucy’s quest was brought 

closer to its realization when the BBC began 

overtures regarding the possibility of making a 

documentary with her on the chytrid crises! Follow 

Lucy on her amphibian-oriented odyssey: 

http://pinktreefrog.typepad.com/amphibianavenger/. Sarah 

Federman. Lucy with frog, Sarah Federman 

Sarah Carbonel: the “Sarah” in Cerambycidae 

Sarah, as highlighted in our last issue (p. 10), is 

completing her Biology degree at San 

Marco’s University in Zoology. Her focus is 

on the association between long-horned 

beetles and their Sapotaceae host trees. 

Sarah has had 50 bags of harvested 

Sapotaceae wood housed in her ‘beetle 

house’ out near CICRA’s staff dorms for 

over one year. She scours each one with the zeal that 

only a true entomological enthusiast can muster to 

collect any and all traces of beetle. She plans to identify 

her specimens in Lima to better understand host 

specificity. Sarah Federman. Isthimiade sp. by Jose Roque. 

Wayqecha 

Secondary effects of climate change 

The alteration of plant distribution ranges 

due to climate change could affect 

herbivore communities, which would in 

turn affect their impact on the vegetation. 

In mountain ecosystems, such as cloud 

forests, vegetation is projected to be 

visited by higher numbers of insects. 

Seedling response to these increased rates of herbivory 

is essential for these populations’ survival. Richard Tito 

(UNSAAC) studies Weinmannia bangui seedlings 

transplanted to different elevations to investigate 

changes in herbivory levels as related to the distance 

from their current distribution range. He aims to project 

plant responses to changes in the ecological relations 

with herbivores caused by climate change. Laura 

Morales. Polygalaceae by Virginia Boyce. 

But it’s just a little cow… 

Vegetation, along with fauna, is expected to 

migrate upslope in response to climate 

change, but there are human factors that 

could impede this movement. In the cloud 

forests of Peru, cattle grazing by high- 

Andean farmers is a factor which puts 

vegetative migration at double risk: the 

burning of plots of forest to generate new 

grass, and grazing on said grass which also 

destroys surrounding vegetation. Under the 

sponsorship of NORAD, Marlene Mamani 

(ACCA) and Angela Rozo (UNSAAC) are 

undertaking a study with 5 inclusion and 

exclusion plots at the forest-grassland 

(puna) ecotone to quantify how grazing by 

local cattle affects the growth and 

colonization by the forest. The study will be 

carried out for 6 months in order to 

determine is if cattle could really act as 

impediments for the migration and 

development of the forest towards higher 

land. Laura Morales. Cows at Wayqecha by 

Laura Morales. 

. 

Frogs in the Face of Global Warming 

As with many other mountain fauna, Andean 

frogs will be rapidly affected by global warming. 

The temperature increase could affect their 

metabolism, infection rates, and have repercussions on 

their behavior. Yet the response of any particular 

population of frogs to such a change is unknown. 

Simulating warming, Sandra Almeyda (Univesidad 

Nacional Agraria de la Molina), has transferred 

Psychrophrynella usurpator frogs from a population 

native to 3400masl to 2900 masl, and will follow their 

mortality, physical conditions, and call rates for a year in 

comparison to a local population. She hopes to evaluate 

any differences that arise between the two populations. 

Laura Morales. Measuring a frog, by Laura Morales. 

4 

SPOTLIGHTS


The Raptors of CICRA 

While working as a field assistant for Ursula Valdez 

in 2004 and 2005, I noticed that the mining along 

the river Madre de Dios had almost tripled over the 

course of the year. Because the miners use 

mercury to extract gold from the sediment, I began 

to wonder about the presence of mercury in the 

area, and particularly its effect upon the wildlife. 

Because mercury bio-concentrates over the lifetime 

of an individual, and bio-magnifies in the food web, 

top predators like raptors are ideal for diagnosing 

and monitoring mercury contamination in the 

ecosystem. In August of 2006, along with my 

collaborator Juan Carlos Galvez, I began a study to 

measure and monitor mercury levels in the raptors 

of Los Amigos. 

Mercury is one of the most toxic substances on 

earth. It is a teratogen (causes birth defects), a 

mutagen (permanently changes genetic material), a 

carcinogen (causes cancer), and a neurotoxin 

(affects nerve tissue including the brain); it also 

causes blood chemistry and cytochemical changes. 

In birds, dietary mercury exposure can be directly 

lethal, or can have sub-lethal adverse effects on 

reproduction, growth and development, behavior, 

metabolism, and blood and tissue chemistry. 

In the field, we capture raptors using mist nets or 

Bal-Chatri (BC) traps and take blood and feather 

samples for mercury analysis. Feather sampling is 

an easy, non-invasive method of determining 

mercury levels because mercury is deposited in 

feathers as they grow. The concentration of 

mercury within the feather has a direct correlation 

with the individual’s mercury level. Samples are 

later analyzed at Clemson University. 

Roadside hawk (Buteo magnirostris); Margaret Shrum. 

5


We have captured 186 raptors from among 16 

species. The results indicate that these raptors are 

indeed carrying elevated levels of mercury, an 

indication of mercury contamination in the 

ecosystem. The birds sampled had levels ranging 

from 0ppm (n=5) to 10.1 ppm (n=1) with the 

majority ranging between 4.0 ppm and 6.0 ppm. 

While no toxic reference values exist for any of the 

species sampled, levels of greater than 1.0ppm 

have been shown to cause symptoms of mercury 

toxicity in birds; and levels of 5.0ppm have been 

shown to cause reproductive symptoms, even 

reproductive failure. 

The results of my study show that the raptors of 

Los Amigos are at risk for mercury toxicity, but 

because no toxic reference values exist, I am 

unable at this point to say how profound that risk 

may be. This unanswered question has taken my 

research in a new direction. My previous objective 

was simply to determine levels of mercury in the 

raptors. My new objective is to actually determine 

the risk that the mercury poses to the raptors. That 

is, I want to know if the levels that these birds have 

is significant enough to threaten their health and 

their reproductive success. 

Last November, I began placing radio transmitters 

on the tails of selected individuals in an attempt to 

find their nest and monitor their nesting success. 

Upon finding an active nest, I will be looking for 

things like poor hatchability, poor nest or nestling 

care (a behavioral change in adults), birth defects, 

and overall success or failure. I will be comparing 

nesting success or failure with the mercury levels in 

the adults to determine if a correlation exists. 

The overall success of my project is largely due to 

the assistance and field expertise of my partner, 

Rene Escudero. His help, insight and inspiration 

have been invaluable. I would also like to thank my 

many field assistants over the years; their help and 

companionship have been warmly appreciated. 

Thanks to Juan Carlos Galvez for all his help in 

making this project happen. Thanks also to Ursula 

Valdez, who introduced me both to the area and to 

the profession with enthusiasm and wisdom. 

Margaret Shrum 

Margaret and Rene with a captured Ornate Hawk Eagle. 

(Spizaetus ornatus) by Rene Escudero. 

6


RESEARCH: Recent 

Publications 

Mariajose Deza: arachnids of CICRA 

Mariajose received her BA from 

la Universidad Nacional Agraria 

la Molina. As an ACCA grantee, 

she studied the abundance and 

diversity of spiders (Aranaeidae) 

at CICRA for her certification as 

a biologist. Mariajose’s study, 

Diversity and species richness of the family Araneidae 

(Arachnida, Araneae) in CICRA (Madre de Dios—Peru) 

was completed and accepted for publication in Ecologia 

Aplicada this past year. 

Editorial continued below. 

Alison Ravenscraft: Ants and plants 

Alison Ravenscraft, Harvard ’09 was featured 

in our last letter in current research (p. 3). 

Many people traveling out to CICRA’s trail 6, 

especially in the crepuscular hours, return to 

the comedor with puzzled faces and questions 

about the ‘ghost town.’ Trail 6 has become a 

phantasmagorical trek through the woods. To 

exclude herbivores, Alison and her team have 

hung 52 large, white mosquito nets, each 

resting with an ethereal stateliness over their 

respective Cordia nodosa tree. The exclusions 

assess whether the plant invests a significant 

amount of resources in its resident ant colony. 

Ants defend the tree from the insects that eat 

it; but, if they are excluded, are ant colonies 

detrimental or beneficial to the tree? In 

January, Alison and one field assistant 

recently changed the mosquito nets of the 

ghost town; sadly, the new nets are a little 

more austere than the last ones, lacking the 

lovely aesthetic touch of the last bunch: a lacy 

fringe. Keep up with Alison and her adventures 

at holahormigas@blogspot.com. Sarah Federman. 

Photo of Alison at her ghost city by Sarah 

Federman. 

Mariajose collected over 4,000 individuals which were 

distributed across at least 25 genera and totaling 154 

species. Sarah Federman. Spider at CICRA by 

Katharine Fountain (top) Sarah Federman (bottom). 

New taxonomic classification of a frog from 

Wayqecha 

A small frog from the locality of 

Quebrada Toccoruyoc and Esperanza 

at Wayqecha Biological Station 

previously described and classified as 

“Hyla” antoniiochoai was reclassified 

into the genus Gastrotheca as a result of new specimen 

collections. Aside from general morphology, the 

advertisement call, morphological distinctions between 

adults and juveniles, and habitat have been described. 

Among the six new specimens collected were three 

juveniles and three adults. Among the adults was a 

brooding female, the first female collected as the authors 

believe the female reported in the previous study was 

actually a juvenile. Gastrotheca by Alessndro Catenazzi. 

Editorial continued below. 

To eat or not to eat 

Mercury used in gold mining pollutes the 

waters of Madre de Dios, and those who 

know it, often reject fish in restaurant 

menus. But, how much are the fish in 

Madre de Dios contaminated by mercury, 

really? That question was answered by 

Dr. Luis Fernandez, at the Carnegie 

Institution for Science. Funded in part by 

CICRA’s grant program. Dr. Fernandez 

determined the mercury content of dorsal 

muscle in eleven fish species and found 

that a single meal of the large 

carnivorous cat fish zumgaro (Zungaro 

zungaro) and mota (Calophysus 

macropterus) can overdose you with the 

heavy metal, while the smaller plant 

eating fish paco (Piaractus 

brachypomus) and boquichico 

(Prochilodus nigricans) are safe to eat. 

Good Friday followers will now know how 

to pick their fish. Stay tuned for results on 

more fish species soon. Adrian Tejedor. 

Photo: Looking for fish at the market. Puma 

zungaro (Pseudoplatystoma tigrinum) by Luis 

Fernandez. 

SPOTLIGHTS 

Characteristics which distinguish this frog from other 

Gastrotheca species are its comparatively small size and 

habitat of bromeliads. Some of the specimens in this 

collection were found in bromeliads over 6m high, about 

the height of Wayqecha’s 

canopy; this is the first report 

of a Gastrotheca at such 

heights. It is possible that they 

inhabit both the bromeliad 

habitat and brush. The frogs 

have an altitudinal range of 

2800-3300 masl, from which they appear to share part of 

their habitat with two other species of marsupial frogs in 

the region: G. excubitor and G. ochoai. Laura Morales. 

Juvenile Gastrotheca by Alessandro Catenazzi. 

7


Staff and community 

Staff member from Wayqecha 

Lucio Ccoyo Cordova works on the maintenance 

staff of Wayqecha. An inhabitant of the local 

community of Juan Alvarado Velasco de 

Sunchubamba, he is the station’s longest-serving 

staff member. Lucio has been with us for over five 

years, since Wayqecha’s beginning, working on 

construction and maintenance of the previous and 

current station. Lucio is the proud father of four 

daughters; outside the station he works in 

carpentry, a talent which he has applied to make 

some of the station’s furniture. Besides his talent in 

carpentry, Lucio is also known for his talent on a 

motorcycle. Laura Morales. Lucio by ACA. 

Weather at CICRA, 2009 

Rain in the rainforest? Shocking, we know. 

However, 2009 was our rainiest year since 2003, 

with a surprisingly low cumulative number, 176, of 

actual rainy days. Considering that models of 

climate change in the Amazon predict more net 

rain over less days, these statistics merit a second, 

and perhaps a third glance. Does this year 

represent typical variation for the area? Is global 

warming 

rearing its 

ponderous 

head? How 

do high levels 

of rain paired 

with low days 

impact the 

ecosystems 

and resident 

populations of our forest? Unfortunately, we do not 

have the answers to these pressing questions; 

though happily, we are in a position to make a 

difference through the recognition and continuation 

of the 

important 

research 

occurring at 

our 

biological 

research 

stations. 

This year, 

our rainy 

season coincides with an El Niño event, which 

traditionally brings less rain to the Amazon; we are 

interested to see what the weather holds. Sarah 

Federman. 

NEWS 

CICRA has unwittingly become the site of a new fashion craze: the musmuqui headpiece, everyone’s doing it, really. The story 

goes that one evening Marco, CICRA’s maintenance-man-extraordinaire, encountered a baby musmuqui (night monkey, Aotus 

nigriceps) wounded and wailing in the woods outside of the back cabins. It seems to have been a failed predation event, which 

caused him to fall from his mother’s back and to the ground. Whatever occurred to leave him on the ground, resulted in a baby 

monkey with hypothermia, a broken tibia, a laceration running from his spine to his belly, and a tail severely broken in two places. 

After a wonderful station-wide effort in emergency medical procedures, little Muqui, in defiance of everyone’s expectations, made 

it through that first night and is struggling on splendidly with Sarah Federman (or rather her hair) as a surrogate mother and 

primary caretaker. Sarah and Daniela Lainez of ACCA’s Puerto Maldonado office are working to find Muqui a permanent home, 

and in the interim to get him on a research permit at CICRA. The investigation aims to determine the inherency of musmuqui 

vocalizations versus the importance of imprinted vocalizations by examining responses of CICRA’s resident musmuqui 

populations to recordings of both Muqui and wild Aotus juveniles. Sarah Federman 

Muqui 1) Adrian Tejedor 2) Sarah Federman 3) Sarah Carbonel. 

8


Long-term projects 

CICRA 

Megan Frederickson, Antonio Coral, Alison Ravenscraft, 

and Lisseth Flores The economics of antplant 

mutualism in Cordia nodosa of the 

western Amazon. University of Toronto; 

Harvard University. 

Margaret Shrum, Rene Escudero, Alberto 

Escudero, and Yeverin Arimuya The impact 

of mercury contamination on birds of prey in 

the Peruvian Amazon. Clemson University. 

Sarah Carbonel Longhorned beetles in association with 

Sapotaceae at CICRA. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San 

Marcos. 

Sarah Federman Disperser 

response to anthropogenic 

disturbance of riparian 

succession in western Amazonia. 

ACCA/Princeton University. 

Varun Swamy, Cesar Vela, and 

Ronald Suca, Successional 

regeneration and seed rain in a 

flood-plain of the Western Amazon. Duke University. 

Renata Leite Pitman and 

Emeterio Nuñecca Unraveling 

the secrets of the short-eared 

dog (Atelocynus microtis). Duke 

University. 

Mini Watsa, Gideon 

Erkenswick, Rhea Mac, Emma 

Wallace, Karina Klonoski, and Erin Kane Chimerism and 

population genetics of saddleback tamarins, Saguinus 

fuscicollis weddelli. Washington University. 

New Arrivals 

Carlos Martel Researcher: phenology 

of Chelyocarpus ulei. 

Lucy Cooke Artist in Residence: 

director and cinematographer of the 

short video series: “jungle news” as 

well as the author of “My scatological 

amazonian adventure” in the Telegraph 

International. 

Katherin Fountain volunteer, focus on creating a 

vegetable garden at CICRA. 

Photos: 1) Beautiful fungi by Katharine Fountain.2) The orchid 

and the bee by Katharine Fountain.3) Sunrise from the tower 

by Katharine Fountain. 4) Fly larvae by Sarah Federman. 

Wayqecha 

Matthias Dehling The behaviour and foraging patterns of birds 

for arboreal fruit in relation to an altitudinal gradient. University 

of Marburg. 

Adam Ccahuana. The dynamics 

of carbon emission and soil 

respiration in relation to landslides. 

ABERG. 

Kathryn Clark The role of 

landslides in the export of carbon 

from the Andes to the basins of 

Kcosñipata and Madre de Dios. 

Oxford University. 

Miguel Angel Luza Patterns in 

the spatial distribution of shrubs in 

scrubland. UNSAAC 

Marlene Mamani and Angela Rozo The impact of cow 

grazing on the growth and composition of biomass in the 

ecotone between montane forests and puna. ACCA/ NORAD. 

Laura V. Morales The 

seasonal-spatial distribution and 

dynamics of nutrient levels 

dissolved in the headwaters of 

the Kcosñipata. ACCA/Princeton 

University. 

Richard Tito León Growth and herbivory in Weinmannia 

bangui seedlings in relation to elevation. UNSAAC. 

Walter Huaraca and Liliana Durand 

Inventory of carbon in a cloud forest ecosystem. UNSAAC. 

Sandra Almeyda Analysis of the survival, growth, and 

vocalizations of the frog Psychrophrynella usurpator with 

increased temperature. Universidad Nacional Agraria de 

la Molina 

Photos: 1) The clouds at Wayqecha by Virginia Boyce.2) 

Caterpillar at Wayqecha by Laura Morales. 

9


Visiting courses this trimester 

Westchester University: Field studies in Peru: History, 

Cuture, and Environmental Conservation, ACEER 

foundation. Note: A special thank you to Westchester 

University for their kindly taking all of CICRA’s used 

batteries to be recycled in the States! 

Pennsylvania State University: Environmental Issues 

across the Americas, ACEER foundation. 

There will be Dragons. ACEER foundation. 

Publications this trimester 

CICRA 

Bravo, A., K. E. Harms and L. H. Emmons. 2010. 

Puddles created by geophagous mammals are potential 

mineral sources for frugivorous bats (Stenodermatinae) 

in the Peruvian Amazon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 

26:173–184. doi:10.1017/S0266467409990472 

Deza, M. and J. Andía. 2009. Diversidad y Riqueza de 

Especies de la Familia Araneidae (Arachnida, Araneae) 

en CICRA (Madre de Dios—Peru. Ecología Aplicada, 

8(2): 81-90 

Seddon, N. and J.A. Tobias. 2010 Character 

displacement from the receiver’s perspective: species 

and mate recognition despite convergent signals in 

suboscine birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of 

Biological Sciences. Published online 7 April, 2010: 1-9. 

Theses 

Adams, D. 2009. A preliminary study on vocal 

communication in the Gray’s bald-faced saki monkey, 

Pithecia irrorata. M.A. thesis. Texas State University, 

San Marcos, USA. 

Deza Bouroncle, Mariajosé. 2009. Variación de la 

Araneofauna en las épocas seca y lluviosa en tres tipos 

de hábitat en la cuenca del Río Los Amigos-Madre de 

Dios. Tesis de Licenciatura, Facultad de Ciencias, 

Departamento de Biología, Universidad Nacional Agraria 

La Molina. 126pp 

Wayqecha 

Catenazzi, Alessandro and Edgar Lehr. 2009. The 

generic allocation of “Hyla” antoniiochoai De la Riva & 

Chaparro, 2005 (Anura), with description of its 

advertisement call and ecology. Zootaxa, 2304: 61-68. 

van de Weg, Martine J., Meir, Patrick, Grace, John, 

Atkin, Owen K. 2009. Altitudinal variation in leaf mass 

per unit area, leaf tissue density and foliar nitrogen and 

phosphorus content along an Amazon-Andes gradient in 

Peru. Plant Ecology and Diversity, 2 (3): 243-254. 

Costa, Juan F. 2009. Membracidos (Hemiptera: 

Membracidae) De Los Bosques Nublados en el Parque 

Nacional del Manu (PNM), Cusco, Peru. 

Boletín del Museo de Entomología de la Universidad del 

Valle, 10(1): 8-13. 

Feeley, Kenneth J, and Silman, Miles R. 2009. Modelling 

the responses of Andean and Amazonian plant species 

to climate change: the effects of georeferencing errors 

and the importance of data filtering. Journal of 

Biogeography. 37(4):733-740. 

Zevallos, Maura and Zurita, Cynthia-Teresita. 2010. 

Registro del Relojero Rufo Baryphthengus martii en 

bosque nublado, Cusco, Perú .Cotinga, 31 (in press). 

Jankowski, J. E., Ciecka, A.L, Meyer, N.Y., Rabenold, 

K.N. (2009) Beta diversity along environmental 

gradients: Implications of habitat specialization in tropical 

montane landscapes. Journal of Animal Ecology 78 (2) : 

315-327. 

Interested in ACA merchandise from our 

two stations? Visit our online store at: 

http://www.zazzle.com/amazon_conserva 

tion/gifts 

10


About the Stations 

CICRA is ACCA’s field station in the Amazon Basin. 

Founded in 2000, CICRA has aided the research of 

almost 200 projects. CICRA’s purpose is to protect the 

world’s richest forest by facilitating research and thus a 

better understanding of this fantastic system’s function; 

promoting conservation and environmental education; 

creating space for dialogue between conservation 

ideologies and local communities with the aim to 

integrate human activities; and the protection and 

appreciation of the forest in a sustainable manner. 

Aerial view of CICRA. Photo by WWF 

Note from the editor: 

Dear reader, 

Wayqecha is ACCA’s cloud forest field station founded 

in 2006. Since its inception, Wayqecha has hosted 

numerous scientific investigations. Wayqecha is 

managed out of ACCA’s Cuzco office and seeks to 

conserve the fragile cloud forest ecosystem while at the 

same time fostering community relations. 

A view of Wayqecha. Photo by Adrian Tejedor 

We hope that you have enjoyed this second “Letter from the Amazon”. We certainly enjoyed writing it and 

hope that you feel a little closer to us, the interesting and thoughtful research occurring, and the overarching 

work we realize in our stations. 

Until next time, 

Executive editor: Sarah Federman Princeton in Latin America, CICRA 

Editor: Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica—ACCA 

Special thanks to the contributors and to Carmen Giusti for information on the work going on at Wayqecha and to 

Miguel Moran, Nigel Pitman, and Amy Rosenthal, and Megan MacDowell for their helpful and insightful comments 

during the editing of this letter. Contact us at: communicaciones@conservacionamazonica.org visit us at: www.amazonconservation.org 

and www.acca.org.pe 

11

LETTER FROM THE AMAZON - Amazon Conservation Association

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