Neotropical Eco Foundation

Not everything fluffy and soft is adorable!

Two days ago I had a close up and personal encounter with one of the species native to this area of the Atlantic forest. Actually, they are everywhere here, you see them and don't give it much thought. You hear stories about other people that have met up with them, and while believing the stories, you wonder if maybe they are not a bit exaggerated. Well, now I have my doubts about the exaggeration - the stories are probably true.

The animal that I am referring to is a hairy caterpillar. I don't know which species of the beast I stumbled upon. From what I have read it was apparently not one of the more potent ones, but almost 48 hours later I am still feeling the effects of my encounter!

From my research I discovered that one particular genus of this family (Lepidopdera - the Butterflys and Moths), the Lonomia has a toxin that is about as deadly as rattlesnake venom to humans! Consider that the dosage from a caterpillar is about a thousandth that of a rattlesnake, and it makes you think. This particular toxin is being studied for possible use as an anti-coagulant.

This brings me to my point for today: WE are destroying the forested areas of the planet at an unprecedented rate today, adding insult to injury to these great stores of genetic material. With all the problems that humanity is facing today how can we continue to destroy that which may hold the cure for numerous diseases that afflict us? While I would prefer not to meet any more hairy caterpillars, we should do all we can to help preserve their habitat, which will undoubtedly provide benefits to mankind well beyond the value of the timber that is being taken today.

 

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The Mantiqueira Mountains in south-eastern Brazil are one of the highest points within Brazil. I am writing from our home in Monte Verde which is situated at an elevation of about 1750 meters - about 5700 feet! While we are located within the tropics, and are in the Atlantic rain forest, the climate here is much cooler than most would realize. Right now the outside temperature is hovering around 55°F and is headed into the high 40's tonight.

I plan to write periodically about our experiences here in Monte Verde, deep in the Mantiqueiras, and I will probably mix in other topics that concern us and the environment. Right now the hot subject is the bio-fuel revolution which is sweeping the world, and some would say provoking a wave of food price inflation. It's a topic that we talk about a lot here at the Neotropical Eco Foundation.

But for tonight I'll keep it light. One of the reasons that we ended up here was our interest in ecology and the environment and BIRDS. This portion of Brazil has a very high concentration of bird species and we are lucky to be in the middle of them. Forest birds are very hard to spot - they tend to stay up in the canopy. You can see them in silhouette against the bright blue sky, but try and identify them by their colors. Lot's of luck!

In our little patch of the forest, with a small clearing, we can observe them much better. We get almost daily visits from toucans (they sit and admire themselves in the windows) and guans, which are of the Cracidae family, Galliforme order. These birds are related to the Alagoas Curassow which has been in the news lately, since it has been driven to near extinction, at least partly by the sugarcane based ethanol industry in northeastern Brazil.

And then there are the humming birds. Many types, and they all come to feed together! I'll talk more about them in another installment.

 

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