What happens when a team of scientists and local Awajún guides go on a 38-day trip into the Alto Mayo region of Peru? Over 2000 species are identified, of course! Tucked in this lush landscape where the Amazon basin meets the Andes mountains, were 27 species of animals previously unknown to science. It makes us wonder, what else is out there that the scientific community hasn't seen? And who already knows about it? Check out photos of all the critters we mentioned — and more!Other ecosystems or critters you think would make a good episode? Let us know by emailing [email protected]!Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the story behind the expedition in Peru?
You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, short wavers, it's Regina Barber. And the story I have for you starts in northern Peru, where the Amazon basin meets the Andes Mountains.
The Altamayo is this lush valley surrounded by mountains. You have a high diversity of different soil types, different vegetation types, and microclimates as you change in elevation. And that creates this really dynamic and vibrant mosaic with all different kinds of life.
Chapter 2: What makes the Altamayo region unique?
That's Tron Larson. He's an ecologist at Conservation International, a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Virginia. He says that this area in Peru straddles two preserves, the Altamira Protection Forest and the Cordillera Escalera Regional Conservation Area. And it's being deforested. It's also under threat of more deforestation.
Because all that lushness makes it a great place for growing major agricultural products like pineapples, coffee, and chocolate.
There's also significant human presence. It's very much a human-dominated landscape.
Trond and a team of 12 Peruvian scientists led a 38-day expedition into the area in the summer of 2022, guided by experts from the local indigenous tribe, the Awahun. And along the way, they set up data sensors to complete the survey. The goal was to create a management plan that benefits both the local people and the land, based on a survey of all the local plant and animal life.
The very first night after arriving, I wolfed my dinner down, and I was so eager to get out on the trail into the forest, get my headlamp on, and see what might be out there, things that I'd never seen before.
And almost immediately, it became clear. There were a lot more critters out there than they thought.
Just a few minutes after walking into the forest, I look around and I'm looking in the vegetation and just about chest height is this small, bronze, beautiful salamander on a leaf with stubby little legs and a stubby tail, robust, chunky tail. And it was just so exciting because salamanders in the tropics are very rare to see.
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Chapter 3: What discoveries were made during the expedition?
This little bronze salamander climbing in the vegetation turned out to be more than just rare. It was completely new to science.
You wake up every day, it kind of feels like Christmas. Well, what am I going to find today? You know, we set out traps to catch things and you go and, you know, revise the previous day's traps and what am I going to find? And you get these incredible new discoveries. So every day there's unexpected things.
And they continued to make many more discoveries over the course of the expedition.
We were very surprised by the number of species we found. We documented over 2,000 species over this time period, which is a shocking number. Finding so many species of vertebrate animals, of mammals, four new species of mammals, that's almost unheard of on an expedition like this.
In all, the team recorded 2,046 species, 27 of which were previously unknown in the scientific world. Today on the show, preserving Peru. We take a look at the species the researchers found in the Altamayo and their importance to the Oahu who live there. Plus, my personal favorite, the blob-headed catfish. I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
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So this expedition all started with Conservation International trying to understand the local habitat in this area of Peru to either protect what was there or, if needed, work to restore parts of the habitat so that all of the wildlife could continue to move around easily and healthily. To do that, they really had to understand the ecosystem, what's there, how it moves, how it lives.
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Chapter 4: How many new species were identified in Peru?
And that's how Tron, plus the Peruvian researchers and their Awa Hu guides, ended up starting this assessment.
So the idea is that we looked at the landscape and said, what else is there?
Diego Durullani is an anthropologist with Conservation International. His job was to help the researchers work alongside the people living with the land, who already know the landscape. He said he was only there for a few days of the expedition and followed Tron during that time.
We went up this mountain, very steep and very tricky to go up.
So he stayed put as the team continued up, photographing some of the species the team found, and he even had a favorite finding. But he didn't get a seat in person.
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Chapter 5: What role do local indigenous guides play in the research?
My favorite species, I think, has got to be one of the mammals. I would say maybe the rat, but my wife hates rats.
The rat Diego's referring to is actually a mouse, a swimming mouse that Tron said belonged to a group of semi-aquatic rodents.
Chapter 6: Why is the conservation of the Altamayo region important?
You know, they're among the rarest groups of mammals in the world. On this expedition, we were really lucky to find an individual in this small patch of swamp forest. It's a kind of mouse that has partially webbed toes because it lives a lot of its life underwater where it swims and it hunts and preys on aquatic insects.
And that wasn't the only new male. The team documented three more species that were new to science. A squirrel, a bat, a spiny mouse. On top of that, there were eight new fish species. One of them was my personal favorite from the study, the blob-headed catfish. It had like a body of a catfish. It was gray, spiny fins, the tail like you would expect to see.
But then the head, it just transitions into this cartoonish, swollen squidward nose. But the interesting thing is that blob-headed fish wasn't a new discovery for everyone. Like, it definitely wasn't new to Yulisa Tiwihuahay, an indigenous woman on the team.
For me, it's funny because we've been taught the fish that they discovered, well, we've always eaten it, right? It's in the river. We eat it frequently in traditional dishes. So for them to say that it's something new, well, this is something that we've eaten since childhood.
So when a scientist comes and tells us that this is something new, for the scientific community, we just say, wow, like, that's new, that's different. Let's take a look at all the other species we have.
It's not just the blob-headed catfish that's integral to daily life for locals. Yulisa says the forest has always been a really critical part of the Oahu culture.
Because our people, without our forest, we are not Awahun. Like, our customs are in the forest. Our traditions are in the forest. Our worldview is in the forest.
For example, the Awahun have a long tradition as warriors. And there were stories that Yulisa's grandparents would tell her about a specific kind of frog, the telepus frog, that warriors would use to poison the tips of their weapons.
Centuries ago, times ago, we lived in war, so it was something very much needed and sought.
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