Page 43 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
P. 43
JOCOTOCO ANTPITTA
big story
A chance encounter on a forest trail led to
the discovery of a previously unrecorded bird
and the birth of a conservation movement.
By Neil Glenn
hen you see an the bird’s habitat then came to be protected
unusual species takes in a pioneering surgical technique for
for the first time, retinal detachments, some Russian chemistry
have you ever put professors, BBC One’s iconic Life on Earth
yourself in the series, a clutch of conservation bodies and
walking boots some amazingly benevolent people.
Wof the person This is how the story unfolded…
who actually discovered it? Imagined the On 3 November 1997 Mercedes
thoughts and feelings of those pioneers who Rivadeneira married Xavier Munos. The
first clapped eyes on, for instance, an ostrich following day, as is the tradition with
or a tapir? In the case of South America’s newlyweds, Mercedes set off on an exciting
charismatic, robin-like and very rare jocotoco trip; more unusually, Mercedes’ new husband
antpitta, I know exactly what those explorers was unceremoniously left at home. In his
felt like – because I asked them. place her travelling companions were Bob
The jocotoco antpitta was unknown, to Ridgely, an ornithologist at Philadelphia’s
science at least, until 1997. The story of its Academy of Natural Sciences – a man with an
discovery that year involves a honeymoon (of encyclopaedic knowledge of South American
sorts), a group of friends, a deep knowledge of birds; John Moore (author of Vocalizations of
neotropical birds and a tiny sprinkling of luck. Birds of the Neotropics); John’s wife Ruth, and
Equally unlikely, the remarkable tale of how Lelis Navarette, an expert local bird guide.
