Animal Trafficking, Amaru, and The National Aviary: International Conservation Efforts

Captain's Log, Day 101: Two weeks out of Ecuador, it is dawning on me that I won't, and don't intend to, ever be terribly far from the country again. Though talking to Ernesto, Fabian, and my friends from Yarina and Cuenca over the internet can't hold a candle to actually living in Ecuador with them, I can still be involved from far away. We've been talking a lot at the National Aviary about what we can do to further our connections with Amaru, and how we could expand our conservation efforts in Ecuador....

...for example, our work with Andean Condors. Amaru is being offered two juvenile males to start a breeding and education program, and the Aviary, in hopes of starting such a program anew (we used to have one with Colombia), has acquired a breeding pair from another zoo. Andean condors are extremely endangered in Ecuador, so any help we can provide to their ailing population would make a difference. A breeding program like this, paired with new falconry program and education outreaches by Amaru, could change a lot about how Condors are treated and protected around Cuenca.

One of the juvenile males who may be moving to Amaru. Thanks for the photo, Ernesto!

The day of release for the Andean Condors at the National Aviary! 

Lurch and Precious are their names. This is Lurch, the male Condor. Check out that cool crest. 

A more pressing concern for Amaru at the moment, though, may be the problems with animal trafficking in Ecuador.

Meet Martin, one of the three monkeys brought to us by the environmental ministry in my last week at Amaru. His owner of seven years found that he didn't want to care for him any longer, and gave him up. His story is fairly common around here...though we have to wonder how many pet animals are released into the wild instead. With parrots, release is extremely common. 

This baby Chorongo was also brought to us. The ministry estimates that it's only about a month old. We don't have any primate formulas to speak of available to us, so we were feeding it pedialyte and soymilk. 

She'll need round-the-clock supervision and care for quite a while now. When she was seized out of a bag at the bus station by the ministry, she was completely emaciated. 

She'll be living with Ernesto's sister here at Amaru. We'll try our best to give her a better home here, but there isn't ever going to be a replacement for what she'd get from her mother in the wild. 

Three new primates. We aren't equipped to be a high-class primate rescue center; we don't have that kind of support. What we really need at Amaru is a way to slow animal trafficking and raptor hunting in the area so that we aren't constantly having to expand our holding areas to accommodate all our new intakes.

Enter Fabian Toral of Fundacion Mazan and the Environmental Ministry.

Fabian not only has ideas about a Cuenca-wide education program about animal trafficking in schools, but he also has ideas about converting traffickers into animal breeders, and educating the public about the difference between domestic and wild animals. This book is one that he developed for a program in Cuenca schools. Now, the city tells him he needs funding to back the program before 

If we were able to educate the public on the difference between so called "domestic" species and "wild" species, we may be able to save more birds like this little parrotlet, taken from the nest to be sold in a public market. 

If you recall from previous blog posts, Fabian is involved with Aviary Pumapungo in Cuenca. Most of the raptors seized by the ministry around Cuenca are now going to Amaru, but since June 2012, Pumapungo has taken in 151 wild birds of 29 wild species, and 23 individuals of 7 "exotic or domestic" species. The majority of these species have been parrots. When you add in Amaru's additional 200-some parrot individuals and dozen raptors acquired in the last year, and consider that this is only Cuenca, and that the vast majority of trafficked animals die in the trade or are released/mistreated to their ends...trafficking is still a huge problem down here.

Below is the species list of all of those trafficked parrot species brought through Cuenca. Credit and thanks to Fabian Toral of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture and Patrimony. 

WILD BIRDS

No.	Scientific Name	Spanish common name
1	Dendrocygna bicolor	Pato Silvón Canelo
2	Buteogallus meridionalis	Gavilán Sabanero
3	Geranoaetus melanoleucus	Aguila Pechinegra
4	Buteo polyosoma	Gavilán Variable
5	Ortalis guttata	Chachalaca Jaspeada
6	Penelope purpurascens	Pava Crestada
7	Porphyrula martinica	Gallareta Purpúrea
8	Ara ararauna	Guacamayo Azuliamarillo
9	Ara ambigua	Guacamayo Verde Mayor
10	Ara macao	Guacamayo Escarlata
11	Ara severa	Guacamayo Frenticastaño
12	Aratinga erythrogenys	Perico Caretirrojo
13	Aratinga wagleri	Perico Frentiescarlata
14	Aratinga leucophthalmus	Perico Ojiblanco
15	Aratinga weddellii	Perico Cabecioscuro
16	Brotogeris pyrrhopterus	Perico Cachetigrís
17	Brotogeris versicolurus	Perico ala de canario
18	Pionus menstruus	Loro Cabeciazul
19	Pionus sordidus	Loro Piquirrojo
20	Pionus chalcopterus	Loro Alibronceado
21	Amazona autumnalis	Amazona Frentirroja
22	Amazona ochrocephala	Amazona Coroniamarilla
23	Amazona amazonica	Amazona Alinaranja
24	Amazona farinosa	Amazona Harinosa
25	Semnornis ramphastinus	Barbudo Tucán – Yumbo
26	Ramphastos swainsonii	Tucán de Swainson
27	Ramphastos tucanus	Tucán Goliblanco
28	Molothrus oryzivorus	Vaquero Gigante
29	Dives warszewiczi	Negro Matorralero
	Domestic or exotic birds
No.	Scientific name	Spanish common name
1	Anas platyrhynchis	Pato doméstico
2	Pavo cristatus	Pavo Real
3	Nymphicus hollandicus	Cacatua Ninfa
4	Agapornis roseicollis	Inseparables Carirrojos
5	Agapornis personata	Inseparable enmascarado
6	Melopsittacus undulatus	Periquito Australiano
7	Paroaria coronata	Cardenal Gris

This little Forpus coelestis would really appreciate anti-trafficking efforts.

Because a wild life would likely be a better life. Isn't that right, little guy?
As tasty as that quinoa Fabian is feeding you is...

During my time in Cuenca, I was able to visit the Centro Commercial with Fabian to see how he goes about seizing trafficked animals. The Centro Commercial is the largest open market in Cuenca, and the majority of the animals seized locally by the ministry are found here.

Fabian walking towards the market. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's huge. 

And they sell just about everything you could need or want for your house or farm here. 

There was one section of the market made up of stands that had live animals. When they saw Fabian and I coming through, there was a lot of shuffling and words exchanged between shop owners. They didn't want us to be there, and they definitely didn't want us to see what was going on there. We were told to leave by a handful of people. 

Cuy (guinea pigs), chickens, and other "food" animals were the most visible animals being sold on this side of the market...

But there were less identifiable noises coming from other boxes and bags around the large wire cages for the food animals.

More identifiably pet-type animals are grouped together regardless of species: here there were dogs, cats, and rabbits in one cage. 

The cages are often just made of wire, and aren't equipped with water or much feed. Lots of deaths result over the course of a market day under these conditions. 

Beyond the cages, there are the parrot squawks coming from burlap bags, wooden or cardboard boxes, or from under tarps. Fabian says that if you came to one of these store owners with a parrot request, they could most likely find you the species you want to buy. Since Fabain are primarily bird-oriented, we didn't speak too much about how this applies to trafficked mammals. I imagine it might be similar. 

I had to take most of the pictures quickly and discreetly from inside my jacket, so apologies for the quality. They hid most of the illegal animals when they heard Fabian was close, anyway. 

Bags and crates behind cages like these hold the animals that are illegal to sell. This includes all the animals you've seen in my previous Amaru posts...

...but dogs, cats, rabbits, domesticated fowl, exotic birds like budgies and cockatiels are legal to sell. 

Though there are laws about what you can and can't sell, there aren't too many laws about how you sell aforementioned animals. Few to none of these laws are enforced successfully. 

Really hard to convey all the noises, heat, waste, and smells...it's just not pretty. 

Fabian's current mission is to get the environmental ministry more involved in posting anti-trafficking notices around these markets. He also wants to convince current traffickers to join a coalition of educators and pet breeders who will try to fill the ever-growing demand for companion animals while animal welfare and conservation education is made more available to the public. 

We drove home two women who are now breeding Canaries. Fabian is convinced that this conservation issue is, at heart, a social problem--and he's right. The traffickers do what they do because they desperately need the money, and aren't able to access an education that may get them other places. These problems are as complicated as the oil issues in the Amazon...

The fact that these species are all dwindling dangerously in the wild, though, means that if we don't act they are likely to be lost forever. 

Fabian and I sure don't want to see them disappear from the Ecuadorian skies. 

Or from Ecuadorian rivers. There are few species that are safe when so many of Ecuador's animals are considered "charismatic," "beautiful," or even "entertaining." Any education program like Fabian's that could foster a greater respect for wildlife and each species' role in the upkeep of the world's ecosystems...

...could save hundreds or thousands of individuals. The animals of Pumapungo and Amaru are all incredible, irreplaceable species native to Ecuador and South America...and they could really use some help.

If you'd like to learn more about animal trafficking or how you can support the direct efforts of Fabian and Ernesto in Ecuador, you can contact me at nbecich@gmail.com. There's a lot of work to be done down there...

Stay tuned for more updates about how Amaru, Pumapungo, and The National Aviary are working together to bolster conservation initiatives in the near future. 

Cheers, all.