Today we reached the pinnacle of our exploration into the Amazon as we explored deep into the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. This is the most remote and pristine place we have been on our journey; the heart of the flooded forest. Amongst the colorful blue-and-yellow macaws and the playful squirrel monkeys we had the opportunity to see one of the Amazon’s more timid creatures, the yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle (podocnemis unifilis). These turtles are highly exploited throughout the Amazon for their eggs and meat, and wild populations are becoming more and more depleted. However, inside the reserve the turtles are protected and great efforts are being made to help this species recover. We were able to see this firsthand at a small station dedicated to their conservation. Here they collect the eggs of the turtles and incubate them in protected beds of sand. Once they hatch, they release the baby turtles back to the wild after their shells harden (about 2 weeks) to give them a ‘head-start’ in life.
The turtles we saw had just recently hatched and were about the size of an Oreo cookie. To many predators that is exactly what they are; a tasty treat. These little turtles have a tough road ahead of them but they are well equipped with strong webbed feet to swim through the flooded forests in search of shelter and food. It will take many years for them to reach maturity on a diet of water hyacinth and fruits. Of the thousands that are released every year only a lucky few will ever make it to adulthood.
Later, in the warm, afternoon sun we cooled down with a swim in a black water lake. The water was cool and refreshing which attracted some locals; pink dolphins. Along the banks we spotted a few of the adult turtles basking on logs. After learning of their plight, we felt lucky to see these incredible survivors. Unfortunately, the story is much the same across the world as over half of all known turtle species are considered threatened with extinction. Since they are long-lived and slow to mature, turtles do not typically recover quickly from a population crash. Continued pressure on turtles from centuries of human exploitation is pushing them to the brink of extinction around the globe. But there is hope for the yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle, which still has the expansive areas of intact, wild forest found in the reserve. It is critical to all species’ conservation that they have habitat to live in. Turtles are just one of the many animals that the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve helps to protect, and we have been fortunate to experience this in all the beautiful creatures, great and small, that we have met on our journey.
