{"id":275,"date":"2023-09-30T23:49:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T02:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/?p=275"},"modified":"2024-04-26T09:02:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T12:02:18","slug":"trabajo-de-campo-en-faldas-del-volcan-chimborazo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/trabajo-de-campo-en-faldas-del-volcan-chimborazo\/","title":{"rendered":"Lizards at the foothills of Chimborazo Volcano"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a 3-month stay in Melbourne, I returned to Quito completely recharged and ready to continue working on the 'Cold lizards project'. By the time I left Australia, I was told that the sunny season was starting in Ecuador, so I decided that Chimborazo Wildlife Production Reserve would be a good site to commence my field work season of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journey began on May 5th, when my volunteers and I travelled from Quito to the community tourist center 'Casa Condor', located 3800 metres above sea level (m asl) at Pulingui San Pablo community. Interestedly, the name 'Casa Condor' was given due to the shape of the house, which resembles the Andean Condor viewed from the heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A memorable sunset viewed from Casa Condor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our accommodation and the base camp where we perform the thermal physiology experiments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Upon arrival, we received a warm welcome from C\u00e9sar Concha, who helped me organise the logistics of the trip, and Manuel Gualanca\u00f1ay, who is the president of Casa Condor and our guide during our stay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left to right: Kerly Tr\u00e1vez, Manuel Gualanca\u00f1ay, and me on our first field exploration. Credits: Michelle Est\u00e9vez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This community tourist center lays on the slopes of the massive Chimborazo volcano which has an impressive height of 6310 m asl. Although it can't beat Mt Everest in terms of elevation above sea level, Chimborazo is certainly the highest mountain in the world when considering the distance from the centre of the earth's core. Indeed, by being located close to the equator, Chimborazo's peak is the closest point on earth to the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chimborazo comes from two words in kichwa, \"chimbo\" which means woman and \"razu\" which means snow or cold. It is also known by the indigenous people as \"Urcurazu\" which in quichua means \"snow hill\".<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first days we were full of energy and optimistic that sunny days would partner us. However, as the days went on, we realised that the weather in the mountains is very unpredictable and particularly so this year due to La Ni\u00f1a effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kerly and I placing our 3D lizards models to measure the operative temperature at Chimborazo foothills. Credits: Michelle Est\u00e9vez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This paramo is mainly characterised by the presence of \"pajonal\" which is used by the indigenous people to build the roofs of their houses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, we enjoyed field work in this paramo ecosystem which is home of wild vicu\u00f1as (a cute relative of llamas and alpacas), endemic birds as the Chimborazo hillstar (a species of hummingbird), and of course our study species, the endemic lizard Stenocercus cadlei<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The vicu\u00f1as were very curious by our presence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Chuquiragua\", a species of flowering plant that grows in the Andes, and is a delicious meal for the Chimborazo hillstar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A male of Stenocercus cadlei <\/em>on pajonal leaves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A male of Stenocercus cadlei<\/em> within Poaceae plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A female of Stenocercus cadlei <\/em>basking and mimicking with the ground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A male of Stenocercus cadlei <\/em>unnoticed among the herbs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On rainy days, we spent our time chatting with the indigenous people that live in the area. They were very curious about the 'Cool lizards project'<\/a> but at the same time, they were extremely scared when we showed them the alive specimens we had caught. They told us that they have been culturally taught to consider lizards as evil creatures, which can kill their cattle as well as to cause physically harm to people. Sadly, these misconceptions added to the increase of land for agriculture and livestock use are some of the reasons why lizard populations are threatened in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anita, the person responsible for hosting tourists at Casa Condor, holding a lizard and in so doing losing her fear of lizards. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Anita's son with Michelle colouring a lizard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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An indigenous woman spinning alpaca wool, the raw material they use for weaving clothes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The population of Pulingui San Pablo belongs to the Puruh\u00e1 indigenous community. Their dressing are still used by some youths specially the poncho and the hat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This field work came to an end when I figured out that rain was not going to stop anytime soon, and while driving back to Quito I realised that I have learnt a huge life lesson: I can't control all things - especially nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Estefany S. Guerra Correa<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a 3-month stay in Melbourne, I returned to Quito completely recharged and ready to continue working on the 'Cool Lizards Project'.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639,"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esguerracorrea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}