Discovering and Protecting Spectacled Bears in Peru's Coastal Desert

Say hello to our latest project partners, IIECCO, who are doing fantastic work to conserve Andean bears in the Peruvian coastal desert!

In this guest blog we learn all about IIECCO's work with Andean bears (also known as Spectacled bears), how the project is using trail cameras to learn about the bears and some of the unique challenges that come with camera trapping in landscape that lacks trees!..

Hello fellow camera trappers! My name is Jennifer McFarlane from the Institute of Ecology and Conservation Research (IIECCO - the Spanish acronym) here in the La Libertad province of northern Peru. I am the research coordinator for the Andean bear project, and I am delighted to be supported by NatureSpy and would like to take you on a walk through our exciting work. Vamos! (Let's go!).

Andean bears hiding amongst the rocks

Discovering Andean bears in the Peruvian coastal desert

We are working in partnership with park rangers at Calipuy National Reserve - SERNANP, situated in the western Andes in La Libertad province, southwest of its main city, Trujillo. Calipuy reserve spans 640 km2 with elevation ranging from 350 – 4050 m, housing a variety of habitats. Starting at the lower elevation sector we can find coastal desert and cactus belt habitat, with many cactus species, shrubs, and the famous native Palo Santo tree, known for its aromatic properties. As we climb to higher elevations we will see montane shrubland habitat, home of Calipuy’s renowned guanacos - a species related to llamas - and its elusive puma population.

Andean bears are usually associated with cloud forest and high Andean grassland habitat, however they also inhabit dry montane forest and desert habitats such as those found here in Calipuy. It is these habitats that represent a unique ecosystem inhabited by the bears, yet very little is known about these populations and how they are using the area to survive. Calipuy potentially represents the most southern remaining Andean bear population of the western Andes and one of the last links to central Andean populations, with sightings by locals and park rangers throughout the year.

IIECCO Andean Bears - Project Map

Better conservation of Peru's Andean bears

Calipuy’s bear population has largely been overlooked and unrecognised by the wider scientific community. Our project aims to make the first camera trapping assessment of the distribution and habitat use of Andean bears in Calipuy National Reserve.

The results will directly contribute to the Peruvian National Conservation Plan for Andean bears by improving the knowledge of the population distribution, and will help develop management plans specifically tailored for coastal populations in order to prevent the species range from shrinking.

 IIECCO team on fieldwork

Using trail cameras to find elusive bears...

Camera traps are great for recording cryptic species such as Andean bears directly, offering increased detections and more reliable results than using indirect observations along transects. They are a non-invasive method, using a passive infrared sensor that detects movement and body surface temperature differences (compared with the background scene) to automatically trigger the camera lens. The photos also act as permanent records and offer insights into the activities of an otherwise elusive species.

We’ve teamed up with Calipuy National Reserve, Bears in Mind, Idea Wild, and NatureSpy to bring together 60 camera traps to sample areas across the reserve. Cameras will be spaced out at 1 km intervals, to help cover bear home ranges, along the elevational gradient and access routes.

Setting up a trail camera

No trees to attach cameras to? Use rocks and cacti instead!

One of the challenges of working in the reserve is the hot and humid desert climate. We have been walking around 15 km over rocks and boulders under 30+ degrees without shade on our camera checks during the first set-up phase in the lower elevation sector of the reserve.

Due to the lack of trees, we have had to be more creative in how we can install our cameras, with some mounted in a “rock pyramid” and others on cacti, although it’s a little tricky to avoid their spines, ouch!

Trail camera in a rock pyramid

During this first phase of the project the species has remained elusive, having only detected indirect signs of Andean bears, most of which were old, such as faeces, feeding scratches on cacti, hair, and a fresh footprint. We are about to begin the second set-up phase which will dramatically increase the number of sample sites, so only time will tell when we get our first photos of Andean bears!

Thank you to Jennifer for introducing us to this exciting and vital project for Andean bear conservation, head over to our IIECCO Andean Bears project page to learn more!