Week 2 in the High Andes

Not a whole lot has changed weather-wise up in the páramo. It’s still darn cold (got snowed on again) and getting around is a little muddy.

Just another frosty morning at the base of Antisana.

The car got a bit dirty, but it apparently loves it.

However, I did manage to take a sweet photo of an Ecuadorian hillstar at an altitude of 4320 meters (that’s about 2.7 miles, for the metric challenged).

I mentioned how these guys survive frigid nights in a past post. Turns out the hemoglobin in their blood is specially adapted for thin air as well by being more efficient at capturing oxygen (Source). But was is a hummingbird to eat at these elevations? Blueberries! Or rather, nectar from Disterigma flowers, a South American genus of blueberry.

Also managed to find three life birds in a day, including this gorgeous Aplomado falcon.

These guys are found as far south as Argentina and as far north as the southern tip of Texas. However, the road to see them there in Texas is terrible, as my mother can attest.

It also happens to be the season of catsos in the páramo. What are catsos? Catso is the Kichwa word for “beetle.” What does one do with a catso? You toast it with garlic and corn!

While definitely counter to the general notion in the US that bugs aren’t food, catsos have a nice crunchy texture and don’t really have much flavor, other than that of what they are cooked with. In other words, they’re not bad.

Oh, I mentioned ibis decoys last week. Well guess what? They’re done!

The beginning of two ibises.

And done!

We have yet to officially field test them, but for now they are handsome steeds.

Yeehaw!

It may be a while (2-3 weeks) before the next post, as this next week is my last full week of data collection and then I have some writing to do. After that, I’m off to present my paper to the study abroad group in some as-of-yet undisclosed location. Until next time!

¡El Cóndor Pasa!: Antisana Ecological Reserve and Hacienda Hosteria Guáytara

That glacier-covered mountain is not only a site of snow and ice very close to the Equator, but it is also an active volcano. Its name is Antisana and is the mountain which Antisana Ecological Reserve is named after. See that little shack in the foreground? That was a home of the famous naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.

Laguna Micacocha, an important source of water for the city of Quito.

The name for this type of habitat is páramo, which essentially means “tropical alpine grassland and scrubland. While the landscape may look a little bleak, there is actually some really cool plant and animal life hidden away in the grasses and shrubs

Flower of the Puya, an alpine member of the pineapple family and source of nectar for the giant hummingbird.

Purple gentians growing near tussock grasses and cushion plants.

Individual plants from a cushion plant colony. Cushion plants retain dead organic material below ground to soak up water and preserve nutrients.

Some of the wildlife isn’t necessarily hidden. It’s pretty hard to hide when you have a ten foot wingspan.

That would be an Andean condor, Ecuador’s national bird. The IUCN classifies the worldwide population of this bird as “Near Threatened” and estimates that its population is declining (Source.) Fewer than 100 condors remain in Ecuador, making them endangered in this country. Condors face a variety of problems, including cattle ranchers killing them due to the belief that they eat cattle, lack of food, and habitat loss. Condors principally eat carrion and only take live prey (such as newborn livestock) rarely (Source). In order to provide food for the condors, the Hacienda Hosteria Guáytara, a private ecological area near Antisana, sacrifices cattle to provide food for these gigantic birds, thus aiding in their conservation in Ecuador.

Speaking of Guáytara, its land has hundreds (or potentially thousands) of chuquiragua flowers, which are a favorite food of a very special hummingbird.

The Ecuadorian hillstar is found in no other place but the Ecuadorian Andes. At night it nearly halts its metabolism by going into a state called torpor, which allows it to survive frigid páramo nights (Source). Other hummingbirds also enjoy chuquiragua nectar, including the black-tailed trainbearer.

While found in Quito, Guáytara is simply swarming with them. You can hardly go a minute walking the trails without hearing a male sing.

If you want more information on Guáytara, check out their website. The accommodations are quite nice and the wildlife is spectacular. I saw four condors during breakfast one morning, and you can reportedly see over fifteen at a time on a good day.

Well, it might be a while before I post, since I’m off to the Amazon on Friday and will be staying there for a whole week. I’ll be sure to update if I do anything cool in the next few days, but if I don’t expect another post in a couple weeks!