Rewilding in the Amazon

My name is Erin Grossman, I am a third year majoring in Biology and Environmental Studies. This summer I used the international WIG funding to complete an immersive summer internship with Hoja Nueva in a refuge of the Amazon rainforest on the Las Piedras River in Peru.

This section of the pristine Amazonian jungle is managed by Hoja Nueva, a nonprofit organization that was started by ecologist, Dr. Samantha Zwicker that focuses on the rewilding of felids, the only of its kind in South America. Felids of the Amazon are primarily jaguars, ocelots, margays, jaguarundis, and pumas.

Hoja’s efforts to restore these predators and meso-predators to the Amazon has also allowed for a deeper research and rehabilitation process that I experienced firsthand. While here, I split my time working as an intern at the Khan Rewilding Center and supporting the ongoing projects including monitoring meso-predators using camera traps and estimating populations of dwarf and white caiman.

My days were spent harvesting tools like fruit and vegetation, to use as enrichment for both sanctuary (non-releasable) and non sanctuary (in process of re-wilding) animals, and assisting in feedings ranging from tortoises to jaguars.

Afternoons involved setting up camera traps to record species data in new habitats still unmonitored and sorting through data to estimate trends in species occupancy and inform mammal ecology. For instance, the past camera grids analyzed jaguarundi occupancy and habitat preferences and supported the updated IUCN assessment for this species. All projects like these provide crucial data for this habitat and region of Las Piedras, which lacks research and and understanding overall.

I will never forget my time spent living in the Amazon and the amazing people and animals I got to experience. 

From nights surveying caiman under the stars, teaching conservation methods to the local school, rescuing baby pumas from wildlife trafficking, and saving unwanted puppies, I learned the true importance and range of conservation for this threatened area, ones that most people will never have the chance to experience.

The biodiversity of the Amazon is an intricate web of balance and only through personal efforts can we do our part to protect this vital ecosystem: an ecosystem that changed my life.