Some say it´s a myth, born from rubber barons in the early 1990´s, claiming it was spread by ¨savage natives¨ who would shoot any intruder with a poison dart, rendering them insane for the duration of their stay in the jungle. However modern day explorers know this is not the case. Jungle madness, as the [...]

…The transect began at 18:30, which seems to be a good time for mammals. About that time everyone starts moving around, foraging, hunting, hiding in the darkness. The trail itself ran loosely towards the river, dipping from terra firme into floodplain, crossing clear streams with sandy beds on fallen giant trees before abruptly turning east [...]

 Relaxed in your hammock for hours and hours Finding a frog confused in the showers Clearing a tree in one steely swipe An unguarded snack, your favorite type Butterflies swooping and landing on you Feathers that gleam with a pearlescent blue Money is worthless, everything’s free Endless supplies of sweet cinnamon tea

  The Fauna Forever intern program receives many applications for students interested in completing a research project with us in the rainforest. One of our applicants this year was Kate. Kate came to Fauna Forever for 2 months and completed a research project on dung beetles in the Tambopata. In this interview she explains what [...]

“Nothing goes as planed”, “You cant plan your week”, “Tell me this morning” are all phrases that I heard frequently this field phase. It is because when you are in the jungle, nothing, no matter how structured, goes as planed. This was probably the most important lesson learned this phase. Not only is it true [...]

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS VIDEO HAS NO SOUND. With little or no ability to hear, Cindy King from Oregon, a volunteer on the Fauna Forever-Tambopata National Reserve Program, discovers the rainforest in silence, using her heightened sense of sight to locate animals during wildlife monitoring. In this interview with Research Coordinator, Lucy Dablin, Cindy shares [...]

(This is a relation of an event that didn’t really happen to me, but definitely deserves to be on this blog.  All names have been changed to characters from Lost.) There are moments in life when one has to react without thinking, and when the stakes are high enough even basic communication becomes crystal clear [...]

Hi there, Will from UEA again. When I decided to make the journey to Peru and volunteer with FFT a big influence came from hearing about the support they offer to students conducting final year research projects. Being offered the opportunity to collect data for my dissertation in such a remarkable and unique study location, [...]

The Amazon region of Madre de Dios is home to a little over a hundred different species of amphibians, so for me, coming here and being a part of this program has been a life-long dream finally birthed into fruition. If there was a way of putting into words the ecstaticm I feel every day, [...]

The Amazon rainforest, a place shrouded in mystery and darkness. My experience here is tale of many emotions, many strange encounters and many bitter struggles brought about by the conditions of living in such an unrelenting and unforgiving environment. Since a young age I had learned about the Amazon, it had always seemed a fairytale-like [...]