Promperú promueve candidatura del Amazonas por Internet y redes sociales

Lima, feb. 20 (ANDINA). La Comisión de Promoción del Perú para la Exportación y el Turismo (Promperú) promueve en su sitio web y redes sociales la votación por el Río Amazonas/Bosque Tropical en el concurso que elegirá a las siete maravillas naturales del mundo.

“Es una candidatura por la que se vota vía online, así que la idea es que se promocione por esa vía en nuestra página web y a través de redes sociales como Facebook”, declaró Rocío Merino, directora de Promoción de Turismo de Promperú.

Según las últimas evaluaciones publicadas por los organizadores del certamen, el Río Amazonas/Bosque Tropical se encuentra entre los candidatos favoritos para la gran final por los niveles de votación.

Este atractivo natural comparte las preferencias junto a las cataratas Salto del Ángel e Iguazú, el mar Muerto, las islas Galápagos y Maldivas, y el Gran Cañón, entre otros destinos. El certamen concluye este año.

Merino explicó que esta iniciativa de promoción del voto por el Amazonas va de la mano con el proyecto de mejorar las herramientas de promoción del turismo, tanto interno como receptivo, mediante las facilidades que otorga el Internet.

“Hay mercados que hemos analizado y donde el 80 por ciento de los consumidores contratan servicios turísticos mediante la red, que no sólo es importante para que voten por destinos peruanos sino para mejorar la actividad turística”, remarcó.

Dijo que con ese fin se estima destinar un presupuesto de dos millones de nuevos soles, que implicará una web de turismo receptivo e interno renovada y esquemas de e-learning (educación a distancia) para que operadores del mundo conozcan el destino Perú, entre otras iniciativas”, agregó.

 Parque Nacional de Manu

Peru: Tingo Maria National Park celebrates 45th anniversary

Peru: Tingo Maria National Park celebrates 45th anniversary Tingo Maria National Park, which is the second largest protected area in Peru, will celebrate its anniversary number 45 with several different activities, according to its Coordinator, Luis Flores Cordero.

The official highligted the fact that the social aid program “Construyendo Peru” has collaborated to improve the access roads to this park, and said that it will grow by another 12 hectares, after an investment of S/.6 million (some US $2 million).

The expansion of the park will allow to open a new touristic route, which will offer three days and two nights camping tour, including several natural landmarks and birdwatching activities.

“Our idea is turning Tingo María into one of the most important tourism destinations in Peru,” said Flores Cordero.

He added that on Thursday, May 13, they will held singing and poetry contests, as well as beauty pageants: on Friday May 14, there will be sports competitions, and the admissions to the famous Cueva de las Lechuzas will be free.

(Photo: Radio Shalom)

River cruise through Peruvian Amazon among world's best

The river cruise through the Peruvian Amazon, one of the most exciting, memorable experiences in life, is among the best river cruises in the world according to Daily Mail.
"There are still communities whose only connection with the rest of the world are the waters of the Amazon. Iquitos is Peru's third-largest city, yet it is surrounded by impassable jungle and a tangle of waterways," reads a dailymail.co.uk article published today.
The trip takes visitors away from the main river and deep into the flooded jungle of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, where butterflies, birds and monkeys mingle.
The article also includes descriptions of Highland Lochs (Scotland), Amsterdam to Trier, Rhine and Mosel (Netherlands and Germany), Rhone and Saone (Provence, France), Canal du Midi (France), Russian Waterways (St Petersburg to Moscow), Danube (Budapest to Bucharest), and Mekong (Vietnam and Cambodia).
The Best Peru Tour: Tambopata and Manu national Park 

National Park of Manu expects over 3,000 tourists after rehabilitation of road

More than 3,000 local and foreign tourists are expected to visit the National Park of Manu this year, after the reopening and rehabilitation of the road Paucartambo – Kosñipata – Manu which was blocked for more than 40 kilometers by landslides triggered by incessant rains, reported the head of this natural attraction, Vladimir Ramirez Prada.

Some 19 tourist lodges and accommodations located along the route, from the Ajanacu region or Salida del Sol in Paucartambo to the Manu, are ready to receive visitors who couldn't access the site for over a month.

“There are many admission requests and we are authorizing them; we received the visit of more than 40 tourists during the past week,” stated Ramirez.

The government in coordination with concerned entities are working to promote the arrival of tourists, especially from Europe and the United States, and in a lesser amount from Latin America.

Before the landslides in Paucartambo, the National Park of Manu used to attract tourists from different countries who arrived to enjoy the Manu river basin, considered of high tourist value.

More info:

Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru

Manu National Park Map

Manu National Park Photo Gallery

Suggest Tour: Peru Explorer 19 days/ 18 nights

Treasures in Peru's Amazon: Pucallpa

In Pucullpa, you can shape clay handicrafts, take authentic iconography home with you (tattooed on your skin) and learn more about ayahuasca from the Shipibo tribe

“Magical, delightful and traditional,” “an unforgettable experience,” “a visit that must be repeated,” are some of the expressions from tourists after visiting the native community of San Francisco, located just an hour from the city of Pucallpa.

It is considered one of the most representative communities of the region (they still preserve their customs and their traditions, as well as their language). However, San Francisco offers much more than just a cultural trip, explains Giovanna Vega, General Manager of Amazon World, an agency that offers this package to travelers.

The Ancestral Route

In order to arrive at San Francisco, crossing Lake Yarinacocha is necessary. The trip takes an hour, during which you can appreciate the richness of flora and fauna that characterizes the Amazon. A group of small natives will welcome you with a song in their native tongue and they will accompany you from the port to a “maloca” (a typical residence in the area) which is developed for tourist activities which have taken place there for the past two years. It is here where you will find women with long hair and painted faces, and shirtless, barefoot men with dodgy looks and big stomachs. In this instant, you will feel that you are in another world, in the deepest part of the jungle, where time has ceased to move.

To the rhythm of the drum

While the adults play different wooden instruments that they themselves have made, the children will invite you to dance in the intense heat, which at this time, is more than 32°C. The beating of the drum marks the rhythm of the jumps, and the flutes sweeten the tone. While holding hands and forming a circle, the tribe and their visitors don’t stop laughing, as they feel they form part of a festival that climaxes in the applause of the dancers.

Original Souvenirs

Afterwards you may visit Graciala Valles, a native expert in pottery that will demonstrate her talent before the astonished eyes of the visitors. The best part is the handling of the cold dough, formed from a mix of earth and water, and making your own dish and taking it home as a souvenir. Also, women may put their original designs on part of their body as well. For this temporary tattoo, which will last a few weeks, they use a natural dye with which they have dyed their hair since their ancestral times.

Mystic Adventure

The trip will continue until you arrive at the house of the Shipibo painter Alberto Muñoz, who will explain his art and the relationship that it has with ayahuasca. This artist and teacher, who holds the sessions in which one drinks from this traditional plant, explains how the community uses the ayahuasca for medicinal purposes. If you can not drink ayahuasca, when you leave this place you will know much more about its characteristics and you will have the opportunity to try it on your next visit. If you have more time, the program can include other activities such as traditional fishing, where you will have the opportunity to learn how to make arrows.

After various hours of cultural exchange, the time will come to say goodbye. Tourists usually acquire many of the handmade products of the tribe. The prices of their artwork range between 10 and 30 soles. As you board the boat, you will be surrounded by children. The spectacle will climax when they launch themselves from the raft into the deepest part of the lake.

Travelers should spend a day with the tribe, but if they so choose, they can stay living with them for up to a month.

Much More to Visit

If you are planning to go to hot Pucallpa, you can see the cathedral built in 2005, which shows off wood-work and stained-glass made by the craftsmen of Chacas, in Huaraz. Don’t forget to try a succulent patarashca or the famous juanes accompanied by a refreshing local fruit juice. And when night arrives, there is nothing better to do than enjoy a good drink in the discoteca El Perico, located just minutes away from the center. This discoteca also has a restaurant and room for 700 people.

How to Get There

From Lima there are two daily flights to Pucallpa via LAN Peru. The flight lasts 55 minutes.

Discover Arequipa: The fog forests of Antiqua

Atiquipa is a town so small that it hides in the hills of the coast of Arequipa. Only a large welcome sign at kilometer 600 of the Panamericana Sur serves as a confirmation for travelers that they are on the right track and if they take the detour in the direction opposite to the sea, they will find the town.

In the town itself, there is not much to see and the main attractions of the district are scattered around it. Secluded beaches, archeology and nature are the favorite options for those looking to satisfy their explorer soul.

Coming from Lima, we suggest you visit first some pre-Hispanic towns.

One of these is Pueblo Viejo (kilometer 589 on the highway). To get there you must walk for about 40 minutes. You will be able to appreciate their masonry-based buildings with columns, lintels and niches. Then in Ayparipa (kilometer 599), you can see the colcas (deposits) and platforms standing out in the landscape. The Waca gorge in Puerto Inca (kilometer 610) is an archaeological complex you shouldn't miss. The famous chair of the Inca can be found there.

Steep inclines are a constant feature in these walks, so wear sneakers or good hiking footwear.

Of course, the coastal landscapes are the protagonists; especially those decorated by cliffs, green hills and pristine beaches like Jihuay (kilometer 601), or rustic towns like Silaca type (kilometer 596), where it is almost a duty to take a dip in the pools of clear water.

How to get there

Atiquipa is a district in the province of Caravelí, Arequipa.

It's best to go in car, since public transport is difficult to find.

Almost Like Heaven

It is also worth your while to venture into the town of Atiquipa. Go by motorbike or car to the top of the nearby hills, where, 900 meters above sea level, the ecosystem creates a sort of cloud forest. Here, the local people have placed plastic mesh structures, which function as “fog lamps.”

The fog redistributed water and preserves the vegetation, fauna and agriculture intact.

Atop those hills, a cool breeze blows so it is best to wear something warm, even more so if the day is cloudy. The journey takes about 90 minutes.

Get away from modern life and discover Peru through rural tourism.

SUGGESTED PERU TOURS

The enchanted forest of Chaparrí, in northern Peru

The Chaparrí Ecological Reserve is fascinating. Entering it gives you the feeling of being enchanted, in the middle of nowhere and, at the same time, in the center of the world. It makes you feel reconciled with nature, full of life and relaxed to the extreme.

In this natural paradise there is no Internet, no cell phone signal and no cable channels. However, it just takes one look at the impressive landscape of endless dry forest to realise that those urban details are unnecessary.
Waking up to the sweet melody of a bird, having breakfast together with hummingbirds and reading a book while breathing fresh air is a luxury that you can enjoy here.

If you enjoy walking, this place has long trails to do it and you will most likely be surprised by a coastal fox, which is the smallest of South America, or by a spectacled bear pulling fruit off a tree. But fear not “because the animals that inhabit Chaparrí do not feel threatened and therefore do not attack,” explains its director, Heinz Plenge.

Variety
The reserve is located only 70 kilometers from Chiclayo. It covers 34,412 hectares of dry forest and is named after the imposing mountain that dominates the region.

This is an area that suffers long periods of drought that may last up to three years.
In this place there lives about 30 spectacled bears, Andean condors and the White-winged Guan, which was thought to be extinct until this place brought it back to life.

Chaparrí is also home to over 220 bird species, 36 of which are endemic and 5 threatened. The best hours to view these birds are dawn and dusk when the temperature drops. “If you are looking to see bats or the nine species of owls that exist here, you should go for a walk at night,” advises the scientific director of the reserve, Rob Williams.
You can go for a day to tour major areas or may choose to stay overnight at the lodge that operates inside the reserve, thus being able to live a full natural experience.

For a Day
The tour begins at the interpretive center, where a guide will explain more about the fauna and flora of the reserve.
Walking through the trail you will run into a well of natural water that comes from the vines. You will also see small amphibians and plants everywhere.

In the snake-house you can observe 15 species of boas including the famous rattlesnake, which is one of the most poisonous in the area and the cat snake, so called because it only eats mice.
“Another important point is the shaman or Mochica priest ramada, where spiritual sessions are held, tomas de San Pedro and other mystical tourism activities,” says the guide and resident of the area, Juan Carrasco.

And the most fun part for the children will be feeding the young bear that is in captivity. “He is the only one in that condition and we can not release him because he was rescued from a circus, where they removed the teeth with which he feeds,” says Carrasco.

How to get there


Start in Chiclayo and take the route to Chongoyape, which is right next to the airport. You must take a detour to the left on km 63. 150m away you will see the Asociation for the Conservation of Nature and Sustainable Tourism of Chaparrí where you will meet with you assigned guide and pay the entry fee. Then you will drive along a paved road for an hour.
More about Chaparrí

Last year, the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve received more than 5,000 visitors. 85% were domestic tourists.

The reserve has five rangers, who are residents of the surrounding community and know the animals and secrets of the reserve.

Know that it is forbidden to make loud noise, because animals can feel threatened.

Smoking or lighting fires without permission is prohibited.

It is important to wear neutral colors. It is not forbidden, but you should avoid wearing red or orange.

Do not forget to bring insect repellent, sunscreen, a hat, flashlight and a rain cover.

Tennis shoes are perfect for hiking through the area.

Weather
In Peru's summer months (December through March) the area is green. During the winter, it is so dry that it reveals all the species that inhabit it. It is also known that the area is inhabited by wild cats, ocelots and stealthy pumas, which have only been seen by the cameras that were hidden in the plants to study the fauna.

More info
Photo Gallery
Tour Suggested

Hiking to Gocta Falls, and avoiding the siren's call

“¿Quisieran que les cuento la historia de la mistica sirena? Would you like to hear the story of the mystical mermaid?” Señora Teo tapped her walking stick on the trail and glanced over her shoulder. I nodded, too out of breath to answer.

“Not too long ago, there was a shaman named Gregorio,” she began, without a trace of exertion. “He and his wife lived by the river, and he would often go up to the base of the waterfall and speak with the mermaid that lived there…”


Señora Teo leads the way to Gocta falls.


Señora Teo’s story was on the surface a cautionary tale about the caprices of mystical creatures, but stories like this one could help explain why a waterfall as tall as Gocta remained unknown to the outside world until 2006. It’s location in a blind ravine in the remote Peruvian province of Amazonas might help, too: Amazonas’ capital, Chachapoyas, was unreachable by paved road until a few years ago, and the airport has been in sporadic operation since 2003.


Gocta gushes during the rainy season but is a thin ribbon of water in the dry season.


More info on Gocta Falls

Click here for recommendations on lodging in our interview with Rafo Leon, host of the travel show "Tiempo de Viaje."

At 771 meters (2,531 feet), however, Gocta Falls ranks among the world’s giants. Stefan Ziemendorff, the German who first measured the falls, announced in March 2006 that the falls were the third highest in the world. Since then the claim has been challenged, and Gocta is currently rated as 16th by the World Waterfall Database. Part of the challenge relates to Gocta’s segmented nature: the falls are broken into two segments of 230 meters on top and 540 down below.

In three short years a tourism infrastructure has sprung up in the nearby town of Cocachimba, in the form of a cooperative of guides and other tourism industry workers. Our guide, Señora Teo, pointed out the improvements being made in the area for the expected increase in tourism: a large hotel that, when finished, could probably house the entire small population of Cocachimba; a few restaurants, both in town and one along the trail; and a small hotel about an hour’s walk along the trail, with all the amenities, where one could relax for a few days enjoying the wildlife, the scenery, and birdwatching.

Señora Teo is one of the fourteen guides that take turns leading visitors from Cocachimba to the base of the falls. The trail itself was excellently if steeply built to accommodate the influx of visitors. I asked Señora Teo how people had gotten to the falls before, and she shrugged. “Nobody went,” she said. She told us that the total elevation change would less that 100 meters, a deceptive number that doesn’t take into account the mountainous terrain that separates the town of Cocachimba from the waterfall.

If we thought we’d only be seeing a tall waterfall, we were wrong. Señora Teo led us through fields of sugar cane, corn, beans, beets, pineapple, banana, potato and carrot, pointing out local agricultural practices as we went (such as the planting of a stalk of corn and a bean vine together, so that the beans can use the corn as support as they grow). We also passed several sugar cane mills where the cane is pressed in a giant wringer powered by oxen, the juice extracted, then boiled for six hours to form the dry, condensed panela.

Getting There: The hike itself took 6 hours, though that’s taking into account Rob’s photo pitstops, and the time relaxing beside the river. From Chachapoyas we took a collectivo for 10 soles which drove us up to Cocachimba, but as we didn’t arrange transportation back we ended up walking 5 kilometers down to the main road and hitchhiking back to Chachapoyas (getting a ride is easy in Amazonas region, despite the general lack of traffic). As tourism to the area picks up it will probably be easier to reach Cocachimba, but for now it’s still a wild and unpaved adventure. Just like we like ‘em.

From cultivated land we passed into old growth jungle, draped with vines and festooned with orchids. Giant ferns rose up beside the trail, eerily prehistoric. Since the construction of the trail much of the wildlife has made itself scarce, but the first tourists to arrive in the forest had been confronted by large yellow monkeys, Sra. Teo said, which surrounded them in the trees and screamed at them, throwing sticks.

From time to time we could see the falls through breaks in the foliage: In the rainy season it would be a torrent, but today it was a long, thin white ribbon twisting down out of the mountains.

After nearly two hours hiking we arrived at the base of the bottom fall, where the water did not strike the ground, but simply dissipated as a mist swirling down in waves and eddies. The waters created a wind of their own that was chilly in the sunlight.

At the base of the falls is a pool, beautiful for swimming but with a hole in the center that draws in water and spits it out two kilometers downstream. It can draw in swimmers, as well, Señora Teo cautioned, but the day was too chilly for us to be tempted. The water of the pool and the river was a deep shade of rust fading to black — a result of the iron in the stones of the cliff.

It was easy to imagine a mermaid lurking in those dark waters, waiting for us to leave so she could reclaim her grotto.

Researchers track the rare Spectacled Bear in northern Peru

The four wheel drive truck stopped at 8 in the evening in the middle of nowhere. There was no longer a trail to follow so we carefully got out of the truck. Jose Vallejos and Robyn Appleton, members of the Society for the Spectacled Bear Conservation (SBC), and I adjusted our headlights and our backpacks and headed to Cerro Venado on foot. Three hours later we met with Isa Sánchez and Javier Vallejos, also members of the SBC, in the first camp site under the light of the crescent moon and the stars. Me moved some stones to level the ground, laid out our sleeping bags and said goodnight.

From Canada to Chiclayo
Robyn Appleton has had a fascination for bears ever since she was a girl. She studied biology and got a masters on these admirable mammals. On one of her trips, she decided to visit Peru to see a friend who worked in the Chaparrí Reserve. From that moment she fell in love with the Peruvian spectacled bear.

At the end of 2006, together with his friend and right hand, Javier Vallejos, he started a long journey on foot searching for bears in the surroundings of Laquipampa and Incahuasi until he reached Batán Grande. He was convinced that he would find them. One December morning, after unloading their backpacks from a mototaxi and wandering for hours, they saw their first bear. Fifteen minutes later, they saw another one climbing down a hill. They camped on the top of a hill for a week in order to watch these animals.

When they started to run out of food (and without the will or strength to go to the nearest town to get more) they saw a mother bear with her two cubs walk right in front of them right before entering the dry woods. In three weeks times, they had the opportunity to observe over eight spectacled bears. The study had begun. The SBC had taken its first step.

Laura the bear
We awoke at 5 in the morning thanks to the cries of some emerald parakeets and an eagle flying over us. Javier and Isa discovered that Laura, one of their favorite bears, had given birth to her first cub a couple of days ago. The night before our arrival, they had left her sleeping a couple of meters away from the campsite. Well, 200 meters up a 60º slope, to be exact; that is, a two hour walk.

Laura was one of the first bears that they found when hey started the project and ever since she was a year and a half, she let them approach her without showing signs of fear. That is why her, and two other bears, were chosen to be part of the first chapter of the project. Each one of them was equipped with a GPS collar to monitor their movements. The preliminary report that was sent to the General Management of Flora and Fauna of the Ministry of Agriculture (DGFFS) says:

“The data that we have received from the GPS collars are of great importance because they help us understand the life span of wild bears in the dry woods and how they use their habitat. The most important positions were given in Ocotber 2008 when we found a bear in an area that we thought bears never reached. This place consisted of 100 to 500 meter tall rocks (…) a young male walked over 150 kilometers in less than a week. We are now understanding the needs of a young male and the living space that a bear requires. We have also confirmed that males change the use of their habitat during the different seasons. In summer they descend to 200 meters over sea level to eat sapodilla fruit and find females. During the winter, the young males climb back up to the most remote areas where they can feed off the pasallo trees, bromeliads and snails.”

Laura was lying next to her cub at the foot of a rock wall. When she saw us arrive she shyly growled as a warning sign. The cub raised its eyes to look at us and then went back to playing with a dry branch. We stayed there all day observing them. The temperature was of 32 degrees Celsius and we stood on 20 square centimeters on the slope but we did not mind. The show was amazing.

The cub was restless and did not stop playing. It climbed on its mother’s back then it climbed back down and bit her paw; then her ear. It wobbled while inspecting the area and then went back to sleep. It drank Laura’s milk in intervals of approximately one hour making constant slurping noises. Then it got up and drank its mother’s saliva as if it were kissing her. Laura always played along.

When the sun started to set, she placed her cub face up on the ground and started licking it as if she were bathing ad cleaning it before bed. We collected our things and walked up the slope looking for a place to camp and stay the night. When Laura saw us leave, she got up and approached the spot where we had been to check that everything was in order.

More about the bears

The Spectacled Bear is the only one in South America. It became known around the world thanks to Micahel Bond’s Paddington Bear which told the story of a Peruvian Spectacled Bear who loved jelly.

This bear lives in the mountain range from Venezuela to Bolivia, including Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. In our country, they can be found at altitudes between 250 and 4500 meters.

The bears are four to six and a half feet long. Males weigh approximately 308 pounds, females about 176 lbs.

They are mainly vegetarian: they eat bromeliads, berries, any kind of cacti to keep hydrated, the heart of the pasallo tree, sapote fruit, snails and insects.

Life in Cerro Venado
South of the Laquipampa Wildlife Refuge, 60km north of Chiclayo, past the Batán Grande town and across orange, onion, corn and mango crops, we arrived in front of a fenced wall. This is where the hectares belonging to the El Cebú Farmers’ Committee in the Mochumí Viejo community begin. This is also the area of study of the spectacled bear in the northern dried woods. It is an extreme rural area that holds more life than we could ever imagine.

Across this limit we find a plain forest full of sapodilla and carob trees and giant cacti. Cerro Venado is a couple of kilometers away from this first site. It has almost vertical slopes in some places, flat rock slabs on its walls, massive weed and dehydrated tree sprouts on dry seasons and exuberant vegetation during the rainy season.

Despite the complicated conditions, life always appears here. Eight small pools of water or jagueys have been found in the highlands of this area which are the main available source of water during most of the year. The project has the goal of detecting the geographical distribution and abundance of bears in this unprotected – and protected, like Laquipampa – area. To achieve this, twenty “trap” cameras have been installed in these jagueys in order to complement the information collected from observation.

To the date, 33 bears have been identified in the area and valuable information about their feeding habits and journeys have been collected as well as pictures of the abundant fauna that lives there along with them like pumas, ocelots, deer, wildcats, etc. the most interesting finding is the proof that spectacled bears reproduce in their wild state.

Colca valley agriculture platforms declared Peru's Cultural Heritage

Colca valley andenes (platforms built for developing agriculture in the Incan times) have been just been declared as National Heritage by the National Institute of Culture (INC), reported Jose Luis Talavera, from the Colca Authority.

The area included in this new regulation is spread along the villages of Tuti, Chivay, Coporaque, Yanque, Ichupampa, Achoma, Lari, Maca, Madrigal, Tapay and Cabanaconde, reports Checkperu.com.

The Resolution N° 262/INC, states that from now on any infrastructure works, as well as mining, building or agricultural project that may affect the landscape will have to be previously approved by the INC.

Talavera also informed that they are coordinating with an NGO to preserve the andenes, since they are located in private properties so the state cannot directly invest there

New waterfall promoted as tourist attraction in Ucayali

A recently discovered waterfall, located in El Bombo area in the Curimana district of the Padre Abad province in Ucayali, will be promoted as a new tourist attraction of this Peruvian region.

The waterfall, called El Bombo de Curimana, is about ten meters high and 5 meters wide and is surrounded by lush vegetation and various kinds of trees, such as shihuahuaco, estoraque, quinilla, among others.

Different fish species have also been found in the area, such as fasaco, bujurquis, carachama, bagres and others. “This is one of the most fabulous places of Curimana,” authorities said.

Because of the clear waters and warm weather, this natural attraction is a great place for activities like fishing, refreshing baths and camping.

More info
About Iquitos and North Amazon

Amazon River leads Natural Wonders contest

Lima, Feb. 10 (ANDINA).- The Amazon Rainforest/River leads the group of the top 14 candidates in the contest that will choose the world’s New Seven Wonders of Nature, according to the ranking published today by the New 7 Wonders Foundation.

This group also includes the Salto Angel, in Venezuela; The Great Canyon in the United States of America; and the Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil among other world attractions that received most of the votes.

According to the event’s organizers, the Amazon River has registered so far a high percentage in the voting.

The list published is divided in two parts, the top 14 and the bottom 14, based on the number of votes.

The Amazon River goes through South American countries like Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana and Surinam.

More information:
Amazon Map

Source: Andina News

Peru creates another natural protected area

The Peruvian government has created another protected natural area between the high basins of the rivers Zaña and Chancay-Lambayeque (in Spanish), in the districts of Catache, Calquis and La Florida, in Cajamarca, as well as Oyotún, in Lambayeque.

The new natural protected area is called Udima Reserve, with an extension of 30 503,45 hectares aiming to enhance the conservation of the highlands where the rivers Zaña y Chancay have their origins, since they play a very important role providing clean water to the whole valley.

Another of the reasons for creating this area is to fight against deforestation and controlling the erosion, conditions which contribute to produce natural disasters in the Zaña basin during the rainy season, especially during “El Niño”.

The area also is a home for the quina tree (Cinchona calisaya), ícon of the National Coat of Arms, and with important medicinal qualities.

Resource: Living in Peru, RPP News

Peru's Wild RainforestPeru's Wild Rainforest

Stay at an Amazon eco-lodge to experience a jungle teeming with life

Paddington Bear is said to have lived in "darkest Peru" with his Aunt Lucy until she moved to the Home for Retired Bears in Lima. My suspicion is that he came from some part of the Peruvian rainforest.

Before taking this trip, I only associated the Amazon jungle with Brazil, so discovering that it includes part of Peru adds to a sense of mystery. We take a short flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonaldo, leave surplus luggage in a travel company office, then board a motorized boat for a half-hour trip down the Madres del Dios River -- a wide, muddy tributary of the Amazon.

Gallery: Explore Peru
Gallery: Discover Lima
Gallery: See More of Peru

We hike three kilometres of trail, then spend a final half hour in a canoe being paddled across Sandoval Lake. As one guide book says, "getting there is half the fun".

In the late afternoon, after a brief recovery time in the lodge, we take a two-hour boat trip, being silently paddled around the banks of this huge oxbow lake, a non-intrusive way to observe in safety. The boat is two canoes joined by a viewing platform, catamaran style.

Lonely Planet guide to Peru
Lonely Planet guide to Lima

Every aspect of the environment seems teeming with life. It is almost sensory overload as even the air is alive with noises from the jungle. We are treated to the raucous passing of a large troupe of squirrel monkeys crashing from tree to tree.

It is understated to describe bird life as abundant as we see everything from herons to vultures. As dusk falls, there are waves of different species of birds taking turns to devour the insects -- once the night hawks have had their fill, hoards of bats swoop in the fading light.

Apparently it is just as active below the water's surface with piranhas, stingrays, and electric eels -- information that reduces the temptation of trailing your hand in the water.

We are told the story of a giant anaconda that tried to pull a dog off a boat and how the owner lost a piece of arm in a successful attempt to save his pet.

Modest-sized white caiman (from the crocodile family) watch us from the banks and only dive when our boat gets too close. Adult caiman are reputed to be formidable; we hear of another lodge where meat was thrown into the water so tourists could actually see the larger black caiman, until a lone photographer was attacked and killed.

Perhaps it's better not to disturb natural cycles. I'm content just to see the shore dotted with menacing sets of red gleams, the reflection of their eyes in flashlight beams.

The next trip around the lake leaves at six the following morning, a thick mist giving the scene a magical quality. We are rewarded with our first sighting of a family of giant otters jostling and diving and making a sound rather like Chewbacca from Star Wars.

Later, through binoculars we see them munching on part of the six kilos of fish that each adult consumes every day.

The lodge is really happy that this family is increasing; a sign that tourists are not causing much of an "ecological footprint." The lodge deserves the positive publicity produced by a BBC documentary filmed on this lake about the life of giant otters.

A guide leads a small group on a botanical walk through jungle trails. She describes the normal squawks of multi-coloured macaws, and attributes their absence this morning to the looming presence of sentinel hawks.

We hear stories about how the garlic tree protects animals sleeping among its roots. We marvel at walking trees with their many small trunks allowing them to move up to 50 centimetres a year in order to get more sunlight.

Products from the jungle are amazing in their scope and variety: everything from leaves that make lipstick to bark that can bring about abortion.

We discuss the ethics concerning the profits made by certain North American pharmaceutical companies who base various drugs on rainforest products yet provide no recognition to the country of origin.

There is one intriguing product which, when taken after fasting, is supposed to cause you to see episodes from your past, both good and bad.

Our guide tells us of his experience with a Curandero or shaman who made a potion including the bark of the kapok or ironwood tree. J. K. Rowling should come here if she needs additional inspiration to end the Harry Potter series.

Sandoval Lake Lodge is built out of ecologically correct driftwood mahogany and is partly owned by a non-profit conservation group. It provides a restful haven with excellent food, and a row of hammocks for reading and dozing through afternoon heat.

In the evenings mosquito nets are arranged around beds, although the mosquitoes are surprisingly minimal. The generator goes off at 10 p.m. sharp, ending all activity as the lodge is plunged into darkness.

Many guests are keen naturalists, like a couple from Scotland who came to see just one bird that inhabits this particular area of Peru. But we are content to watch the sunset over the water, and wonder why Paddington ever decided to leave. Darkest Peru has so much to entice you to stay.

On the web:

Sandoval Lake Lodge: www.inkanatura.com/sandovallakelodge.asp

Scientists get dirt on mystery plant

May 5, 2009, by Kim mcguire, www.stltoday.com

The quest to solve a 70-year-old mystery led Rainer Bussmann and Douglas Sharon to northern Peru to interview traditional healers, or curanderos, about a plant that seemingly vanished more than a thousand years ago.

Known as the Ulluchu, the plant turns up in ancient artwork, often seen floating over the soldiers marching off to be sacrificed or flying priests.

But while the curanderos have heard of the Ulluchu, it is not something they use. They cannot describe the plant, and it has no place in their language.

Almost eight years later, however, Bussmann and Sharon have identified the Ulluchu while showing how the plant might have played a key role in human sacrifice. Not only does it appear the plant triggered hallucinations for priests, but it also helped get the blood flowing for those on the sacrificial altar.

And in a surprising twist, the discovery may have turned up modern medical therapies for some age-old health problems.

"For the last 70 years people have been trying to identify this fruit but couldn't," said Bussmann, an ethnobotanist at the Missouri Botanical Garden. "And when our work started, I thought to myself, 'This is not going to be simple.'"

To understand how Bussmann cracked the case of the Ulluchu, the story goes back to 1930. That's when a Peruvian archaeologist first noted the appearance of a comma-shaped fruit frequently shown in the artwork of the Moche, a agriculture-based culture that lived in northern Peru from A.D. 100 to 800.

The archaeologist dubbed the fruit Ulluchu, and scientists have been trying to identify it ever since. Cousins of the papaya and wild avocado are just some of theories that have been scientifically dismantled.

Bussmann became intrigued by the Ulluchu mystery while working at the University of Texas. And in 2001, he and Sharon began conducting fieldwork in northern Peru, home of the Moche.

"We would go to these markets and people would say, 'We think we know what that is, but it's not being sold here,'" said Sharon, the retired director of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California-Berkley. "Well, one of the reasons it wasn't being used is because the Ulluchu seems to show up during sacrifices. And no one is being sacrificed anymore."

They did find some evidence in the Quechua language, where Ulluchu roughly translates to "penis pepper."

More on that later.

Still, Bussmann had to sort through more than a thousand botanical suspects in one of the most biodiverse spots in the world in hopes of singling out the Ulluchu.

Then a breakthrough.


Archeological excavations at the ancient Moche city of Sipan and the tombs of Dos Cabezas unearthed actual desiccated remains of the fruit. And true to the Quechua translation, the plant indeed has a phallic shape.

"Rainer is a first-rate taxonomist," Sharon said. "He studied every physical characteristic of these plants until he was absolutely certain we had it."

Bussmann began to suspect their elusive plant had hallucinogenic properties. Remember the flying priests? One of them appears to be holding an instrument that Bussmann believes is snuff tube.

With it, priests might inhale ground Ulluchu seeds, get high, and then commence with the sacrifices, he deduced.

"So imagine you're a priest and it's your job to convince God to stop the rain," Bussmann said. "You need some pretty strong stuff."

Bussmann began closing in on a genus of fairly common plants known as Guarea that are found throughout Peru's lowland forests.

He determined that the plants contain compounds that could cause hallucinations if the seeds were ingested. Another effect of eating those seeds would be elevated blood pressure.

Getting the blood to flow quickly would certainly aid in sacrifices, Bussmann thought. And it would explain why the soldiers about to be sacrificed appeared to have erections in the scenes that Moche drew.

What might explain that physical reaction to pending death?

"That was what really got the bell ringing for me," Bussmann said.

When Bussmann compared specimens of Guarea kept in the garden's herbarium to drawings of the Ulluchu that were unearthed about a decade ago, he knew he had a match.

"When I saw the Guarea, I thought, 'That's pretty conspicuous looking.'"

In late March, Bussmann and Sharon published their findings in a scientific journal, identifying Guarea as the mystery plant, Ulluchu. So far, no one seems to be challenging the identification.

Bussmann, director of the garden's William L. Brown Center for Plant Genetic Resources, plans to further study the plant's chemistry and suspects it might have applications as a blood pressure and erectile dysfunction treatment.

Meanwhile, archaeologists continue to dig at Moche burial sites. Because of Bussmann and Sharon's discovery, they know a little more about human sacrifices, many of which occurred during times of extreme weather events and were meant to pacify the gods.

"When life gets unsettled, people find ways to cope with it," Bussmann said. "It all makes perfect sense now."

Peruvian Stalagmites Hold Clues To Climate Change

ScienceDaily (May 16, 2009) — How will the Netherlands, dominated by water, be affected by future climate change? Dutch researcher Martin van Breukelen hopes to answer that question by analyzing stalagmites from the South American Amazon tributaries in Peru as a way to reconstruct climate changes in the past.

Information that can be used to test climate models is stored in various forms: in ice formations, plant remnants, oceans and caves. Limestone formations in caves, so-called speleothemes, provide insights into the land climate. The best-known speleothemes are stalagmites, standing formations and stalactites, hanging formations. Van Breukelen discovered stalagmites in South America that provide information about the climate over the past 13,000 years.

In order to study climate change, Van Breukelen analyzed the accumulation of oxygen isotopes in both the cave water and the stalagmite. A small quantity of fossil cave water is enclosed in the core of the stalagmite, so-called fluid inclusions. The entrapped water is just as old as the carbonate of the stalagmite in which it is trapped. The isotope ratio of this fossil water can be measured using an extraction technique. As this water has been entrapped for thousands of years it provides unique information about the climatic history.

Much climate research on the land and sea is based on the measurement of subtle changes in the ratio between stable oxygen isotopes in, for example, ice or stone formations. Isotopes of an element can have different numbers of neutrons but always contain the same number of protons. Light isotopes (¹⁶O) respond differently to climate change than heavier isotopes (¹⁸O). Climate changes result in an altered ratio of the ¹⁶O and ¹⁸O isotopes. The ratio of the different isotopic elements oxygen, carbon and hydrogen provides a lot of useful information about the climatic history. Van Breukelen uses this information to reconstruct the changes in temperature and precipitation.

Climate research reveals that even without human influence the Earth's climate was changeable in the past. To what extent humans have influenced climate change since the industrial revolution remains unclear. It should be remembered that studies into climatic history can provide insights into the natural behaviour of the climate in the past. Additionally current climate models can only be improved if more historical data become available so that the accuracy of these models can be tested. The research method used by Van Breukelen that examines stalagmites is vitally important for climate research. This method allows the accurate reconstruction of independent temperature changes and precipitation patterns from thousands of years ago.

Van Breukelen's research was funded by a grant from the NWO division WOTRO Science for Global Development. WOTRO focuses on funding innovative scientific research into development issues, especially sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

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Adapted from materials provided by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research).

First Evidence Of Pre-industrial Mercury Pollution In The Andes

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2009) — The study of ancient lake sediment from high altitude lakes in the Andes has revealed for the first time that mercury pollution occurred long before the start of the Industrial Revolution.

University of Alberta Earth and Atmospheric Sciences PhD student Colin Cooke's results from two seasons of field work in Peru have now provided the first unambiguous records of pre-industrial mercury pollution from anywhere in the world and will be published in the May 18th Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"The idea that mercury pollution was happening before the industrial revolution has long been hypothesised on the basis of historical records, but never proven," said Cooke whose research was funded by the National Geographic Society.

Cooke and his team recovered sediment cores from high elevation lakes located around Huancavelica, which is the New World's largest mercury deposit. By measuring the amount of mercury preserved in the cores back through time, they were able to reconstruct the history of mercury mining and pollution in the region.

"We found that mercury mining, smelting and emissions go back as far as 1400 BC," said Cooke. "More surprisingly, mining appears to have began before the rise of any complex or highly stratified society. This represents a departure from current thinking, which suggests mining only arose after these societies emerged," said Cooke.

Initially, mercury pollution was in the form of mine dust, largely resulting from the production of the red pigment vermillion. "Vermillion is buried with kings and nobles, and was a paint covering gold objects buried with Andean kings and nobles," said Cooke. However, following Inca control of the mine in 1450 AD, mercury vapour began to be emitted.

"This change is significant because it means that mercury pollution could be transported over much greater distances, and could have been converted into methylmercury, which is highly toxic," said Cooke.

"All of these results confirm long-standing questions about the existence and magnitude pre-industrial mercury pollution, and have implications for our understanding of how mining and metallurgy evolved in the Andes," said Cooke.

Cooke is an interdisciplinary scientist researching human impacts on the environment. His research combines paleolimnology (the study of ancient lake sediments) with the fields of archaeology, and geochemistry. The research team included Prentiss Balcom from the University of Connecticut (USA), Harald Biester from the University of Braunschweig (Germany), and Alexander Wolfe from the University of Alberta

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Adapted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Dwarf In The Elfin Forests: Tiniest Frog In South America’s Andes Mountains

ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2009) — It fits on a fingertip: Noblella pygmaea is a midget frog, the smallest ever found in the Andes and among the smallest amphibians in the world. Only its croaking was to be heard from the leaves on the mossier ground of the “elfin forests” in the highlands of Manu National Park, before German and Peruvian herpetologists discovered the tiny little thing in south-eastern Peru.

The popular name of the new species is fitting: Noble’s Pygmy Frog has an average length of 11.4 millimeters. It was introduced in a paper recently published in the journal Copeia by Edgar Lehr, a German herpetologist at the Senckenberg Natural History Collection Dresden, and the Swiss-Peruvian ecologist Alessandro Catenazzi from the University of California at Berkeley, USA. The pygmy that fits on a fingertip was discovered during field work in the Wayqecha Research Station. Not only its small size left it undiscovered for so long. Its predominantly brown colour camougflages Noblella perfectly. But Noble’s Pygmy Frog could be spotted with the assistance of the members of the native communities adjacent to the Manu National Park.

Manu National Park is well known as “hotspot” in the lowland rainforests, a place of exuberant diversity; however the biosphere reserve also preserves vast areas of montane cloud forests, where the sempiternal mists envelop and often conceal plants and animals. In the countless ecological niches many of them were able to evolve undisturbed and are highly adapted to the cold and permanently humidity at a daily average temperature of 11° Celsius. Genetic studies show that the diversity of amphibians in general and especially in this region is highly underestimated. That is why Edgar Lehr and Alessandro Catenazzi think that Noblella pygmaea is only one of many undiscovered amphibians in the Andes mountain area. The scientists expect to find other new species during the next few years.

Currently the midget frog is one of the smallest vertebrates ever found above 3000 metres, where most species tend to be larger than congeneric or similar species in lowland areas. Noblella pygmaea inhabits the cloud forest, the montane scrub and the high-elevation grasslands at a height from 3025 to 3190 metres above sea level. Beside its size the remarkably long forefinger is a notable distinguishing feature that was not found at other pygmy frogs in the mountains of Peru. The females lay only two eggs of approximately four millimeter in diameter. In contrast to most amphibian species these eggs are laid in moist, terrestrial microhabitats, such as in moss or leave litter, and are protected from insect predators by the mother frog. It is noteworthy also that embryos do not change into aquatic tadpoles, but immediately after the hatching lead a fully terrestrial life.

Whilst the scientists cannot give a reason for Noblella’s minute size, it is apparently advantageous. Maybe it is perfectly adopted to its special niche. The fact, that the species is not forced to leave its habitat – not even for egg deposition – might protect it from natural enemies. Despite living in the Manu Biosphere Reserve the survival of the midget frog and of other amphibians is uncertain. Several adverse influences such as anthropogenic habitat changes and the effects of global warming, which among other things facilitates the dispersal of the highly virulent pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis threaten amphibians of the Andean region. Fotunately the fungus, which has become epidemic, has not been noticed on Noblella so far. Possibly because of its terrestrial life Noblella is less exposed to the fungus than stream-dwelling frogs.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is suspected to be the cause of the extinction of many frog species in Ecuador and northern Peru and is currently decimating populations of high-elevation frogs in southern Peru. Up to now no effective means are known for stopping the expansion of fungal infections in the region. Researchers hope that the large topographic heterogeneity of the Andes cordilleras will provide refugia where the fungus is unable to cause massive population declines in amphibian species, thus ensuring the survival of the dwarf in the Andean "elfin forests."

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Adapted from materials provided by Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, via AlphaGalileo.

Evidence From Dirty Teeth: Ancient Peruvians Ate Well

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2008) — Starch grains preserved on human teeth reveal that ancient Peruvians ate a variety of cultivated crops including squash, beans, peanuts and the fruit of cultivated pacay trees. This finding by Dolores Piperno, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the National Museum of Natural History, and Tom Dillehay, professor of archaeology at Vanderbilt University, sets the date of the earliest human consumption of beans and pacay back by more than 2,000 years and indicates that New World people were committed farmers earlier than previously thought.

In northern Peru’s Ñanchoc Valley, Dillehay and colleagues recovered human teeth from hearths and floors of permanent, roundhouse structures. Human bone, plant remains and charcoal closely associated with the teeth are approximately 6,000 to 8,000 years old according to carbon- dating techniques.

Piperno examined 39 human teeth, probably from six to eight individuals. “Some teeth were dirtier than others. We found starch grains on most of the teeth. About a third of the teeth contained large numbers of starch grains,” Piperno said.

To identify the starch grains, Piperno compared the particles in tooth scrapings with her modern reference collection of starch grains from more than 500 economically important plants. “We found starch from a variety of cultivated plants: squash, Phaseolus beans—either limas or common beans, possibly, but not certainly the former, pacay and peanuts,” said Piperno. “Parts of plants that often are not evident in archeological remains, such as the flesh of squash fruits and the nuts of peanuts, do produce identifiable starch grains.”

Starch from squash found on the teeth affirms that early people were eating the plants and not simply using them for nonfood purposes, such as for making containers or net floats. Whether or not some of the earliest cultivated plants, such as squashes, were grown as dietary items has been a long-debated question among students of early agriculture.

Evidence that foods had been cooked was also visible on some of the starch grains. “We boiled beans in the lab to see what cooked starch grains looked like—and recognized these gelatinized or heat-damaged grains in the samples from the teeth,” said Piperno. Starch from raw and roasted peanuts looks similar, probably because it is protected within the hull.

Starch grains from four of the crops were found consistently through time indicating that beans, peanuts, squash and pacay were important food sources then, as they are today. “Starch analysis of teeth, which, unlike other archaeobotanical techniques, provides direct evidence of plant consumption, should greatly improve our ability to address other important questions in human dietary change relating to even earlier time periods,” said Piperno.

The results of this study appear online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the week of Dec. 1-5, 2008.

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Adapted from materials provided by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Oil And Gas Projects In Western Amazon Threaten Biodiversity And Indigenous Peoples

ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2008) — The western Amazon, home to the most biodiverse and intact rainforest left on Earth, may soon be covered with oil rigs and pipelines.

According to a new study, over 180 oil and gas "blocks" – areas zoned for exploration and development – now cover the megadiverse western Amazon, which includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western Brazil. These oil and gas blocks stretch over 688,000 km2 (170 million acres), a vast area, nearly the size of Texas.

For over three years, researchers from two U.S. non-profit organizations – Save America's Forests and Land Is Life – and scientists from Duke University tracked hydrocarbon activities across the region and generated a comprehensive map of oil and gas activities across the western Amazon. The result is an alarming assessment of the threats to the biodiversity and indigenous peoples of the region.

"We found that the oil and gas blocks overlap perfectly with the most biodiverse part of the Amazon for birds, mammals, and amphibians," said study co-author Dr. Clinton Jenkins of Duke University. "The threat to amphibians is of particular concern because they are already the most threatened group of vertebrates worldwide."

The study also found that the oil and gas blocks are concentrated in the most intact part of the Amazon. Even national parks are not immune; exploration and development blocks cover the renowned Yasuní National Park in Ecuador and Madidi National Park in Bolivia.

"The most dynamic situation is unfolding in the Peruvian Amazon," warned lead author Dr. Matt Finer of Save America's Forests.

The study reports that 64 oil and gas blocks cover approximately 72% of the vast Peruvian Amazon (~490,000 km2 or ~121 million acres), an area much larger than California. All but eight of these blocks have appeared since 2003, when Peru launched a major effort to boost exploration across the Amazon. National parks are off limits to hydrocarbon activities in Peru, but oil and gas blocks do overlap a variety of other types of protected areas.

Many of the oil and gas blocks in the western Amazon overlap titled lands of indigenous peoples and encroach on the territories of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. These isolated peoples have chosen to live in the forests without contact with the outside world. They are extremely susceptible to outside illnesses due to lack of natural resistance.

In the second part of the study, the researchers delve into the most cutting policy issues related to oil and gas activities in the Amazon.

The authors highlighted new access roads as the greatest single threat from hydrocarbon development. Roads trigger deforestation, colonization, overhunting, and illegal logging in previously remote areas.

"The elimination of new oil access roads could significantly reduce the impacts of most projects," said Finer, echoing one of the studies' main conclusions.

The analysis points out that the current environmental assessment process is inadequate due to a lack of independence in the review process and a lack of comprehensive analyses of the long-term, cumulative, and synergistic impacts of multiple oil and gas projects across the wider region. The authors stress the need for regional Strategic Environmental Assessments in order to correct this situation.

The study also addresses the complex policy issues related to indigenous peoples.

"The way that oil development is being pursued in the Western Amazon is a gross violation of the rights of the indigenous peoples of the region" said Brian Keane of Land is Life, "International agreements and Inter-American human rights law recognize that indigenous peoples have rights to their lands, and explicitly prohibit the granting of concessions to exploit natural resources in their territories without their free, prior and informed consent."

The authors also detail the growing conflict of hydrocarbon activities slated for the territories of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation.

Finally, the study highlights the role of the international community. Growing global energy demand is driving the search for more oil and gas in the Amazon and companies from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and China are carrying out most of the development.

"Filling up with a tank of gas could soon have devastating consequences to rainforests, their peoples, and their species" remarked co-author Dr. Stuart Pimm of Duke University.

Ecuador's innovative Yasuní-ITT Initiative is held up as a potentially precedent-setting example of how the global north and south can collaborate on both protecting the Amazon and combating climate change. The initiative is the Government of Ecuador's limited-time offer to keep its largest untapped oilfields unexploited in exchange for financial compensation from the international community.

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Journal reference:

1. Finer et al. Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples. PLoS One, 2008; 3 (8): e2932 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002932

Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.