Page 44 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10

The 1997 expedition to Cerro Tapichalaca Above: the
– an unprotected tract of cloudforest on the
eastern slope of the Ecuadorian Andes – was
organised by Mercedes and Xavier’s company,
Neblina Forest. The aim of the trip was for
John to obtain further sound recordings of
birds to update his project and for Bob to
wrap up work on his forthcoming
magisterial volume The Birds of Ecuador.
Off the beaten track
After 11 strenuous days of surveying the area,
Bob suggested that the group should walk
along a narrow trail he’d read about but had
never visited: Quebrada Honda. The day’s
specific target was to record the calls of the
golden-plumed parakeet, a beautiful bird
classed as Vulnerable. But as things turned
out, the rare parakeet was not to be the star.
“I was the first person to see the mystery
bird,” recalls Bob now. “I was some way from
the others in the party. We’d first heard it
soon after dawn, at a great distance, but didn’t
know what on earth it was – which in itself
was a bit unusual. I figured that was that: we’d
never know. But then came the miracle: three
or four hours later, there was that wonderful
ringing call again – a repeated ‘jo-jo-jo-jo-jo.’ I was able to take a mediocre photograph to
This time the bird was much closer. “I
was able to whip out my microphone,” Bob
44 BBC Wildlife
Right: Bob
jocotoco antpitta Ridgley’s hazy
feeds almost first photograph
entirely on the of the jocotoco
large earthworms antpitta as the
whose habitat bird hopped
is waterlogged around amidst
seepage zones on the bamboo
the forest floor. while feeding.
remembers, “and get a long recording. I
played it back, and out the bird hopped
through the bamboo. It was bold and
approached quite closely. Instantly, I knew that
this was something no other scientist had ever
seen. The first words out of my mouth were
not suitable for a family magazine.”
By then the others had come down the
valley. “We all ogled the bird for the next
half hour,” Bob says. “I had neglected to
bring my camera that day, so I dictated
meticulous notes into my cassette tape
recorder – this was 1997, after all.”
The friends changed their plans for the rest
of the trip, and returned to Quebrada Honda
the following two days. “Despite lots of rain
prove this fabulous bird was not a figment of
my fevered imagination,” Bob says. “And, of
course, I had those historic recordings too.”
As you’d expect, people living in the area
already knew the call of the bird. But, more
surprisingly, they had never actually seen what
was making the noise. “The locals told us that
they called the bird jocotoco, so that’s how it
eventually got its English name,” says Bob.
Conservation threat
Soon it became apparent that the expedition
had a problem. Chainsaws could be heard all
around the area in which the new antpitta had
been found. There was a constant passage
of mules carrying freshly cut wood along the
trail. As no scientist had seen this species
before, there was every possibility that it had
a very small population and was possibly
found only in this corner of southern Ecuador.
Something had to be done – and fast.
October 2018