Dispatches
Maquipucuna Foundation – Ecuador, Part II
April 18, 2009
Arrived in Quito around 4am and took a bumpy two hour ride up to the Maquipucuna Lodge and Reserve. The sun was just coming up as we arrived, and we quickly jumped into our bunkbeds and tried to get a few hours sleep. Around 9:30am, we regrouped. Two members of the team were down for the count and pretty much out of commission for the rest of the day. Alex and Rob were left to interview a few staff members, get shots of the area, and basically pick up all of the slack for the other half of us (THANK YOU!!).
Despite rainy conditions (they seem to follow us throughout this trip), Alex and Rob ventured out with a couple of herpetologists also staying at the lodge to watch them set up traps. They have several bug traps but also a giant, white sheet strung across two poles with a light behind it to tempt insects. Even around the campsite, the walls were quickly filled with moths and other insects of all sizes. We got some really good footage of a mantis that apparently eats moths stalking a about 50 moths that attached themselves to one wall. Though he seemed awkwardly built for his job, he was rather fast and could get right up to the moths and then grab them with both front legs, almost in a hug; it was fascinating.
