New Andean Bear, ‘Alvaro’ Collared in Alto Choco reserve

By: David Jackson, Field Coordinator Andean Bear Research Project (FUNDEBO)

It was 12.30 pm on Tuesday 28th March 2006, and I was taking a lunch break from training a new volunteer when I received the message that we had captured a new bear. The news was received from Alberto Tabango, our research assistant. He had been walking through the Alto Choco valley that morning and had heard an active signal from our cage up in the forest. On hearing the signal he raced up to the cage itself to verify that it was actually a bear in the cage. Sure it was, and at lightening pace Alberto sprinted down to the town of Santa Rosa to search for a ride up to the bear house in Pucara for assistance, medicaments, radio-collar, blow dart and blow pipe.

On receiving Alberto’s news there was a mad rush for the volunteers and I to get things ready. After checking the presence of all the necessary items for the afternoon’s events, we all got in the truck of Don Ernesto Mesa (a local farmer) and flew down to Santa Rosa to begin our high speed dash up to the cage. In these circumstances, speed is of the essence, to minimise any stress experienced by the animal. Arriving at the cage, we were met by a member of the Alto Choco staff. He had been walking through the forest that day and Alberto had left them to keep an eye on the bear. Now began the crucial steps from caged distressed bear to sleeping tranquilised bear to radio-collared free bear.

In the past, I have only worked as an assistant on bear collaring operations. Today, under Alberto’s supervision, I was to carry out the tranquilisation and collaring process solo for the first time. This was a very important day for me and I must admit I was a little nervous. The first step of the process was to prepare the blow dart for tranquilization. So we estimated the size of the bear in the cage and subsequently prepared a dosage that was appropriate for the size. The tranquilizer was syringed into the blow dart which was subsequently pressurised to allow the discharge of tranquiliser once dart penetrates skin.

So the dart was prepared and now we had to despatch it through a window in the pitch black cage into the bears backside (a task more arduous than first seemed). Wild Andean bear hide and muscle is really tough and it takes a hard blow and precision aiming at a moving target to get the dart in the correct area. So this proved to be a real test for my lung power and aiming skills. Luckily, my days of pea shooting as a child paid off and I got him first shot.

We had to wait around 10 minutes for the bear to go into full deep sleep, and then we lifted the cage door slowly, made sure the bear was unconscious, and carefully hauled him from the cage. The pressure was on to do things quickly, but calmness is a virtue in these situations. Myself and Alberto shared the tasks of collar application and morphological measurement taking, with the help of our dedicated volunteers who aided with measurements, noted down morphometric data, filmed the process and had things ready when needed.

Now the collar was on, it was time to take blood samples. So sterile syringes were prepared, and I extracted 20ml from the femoral vein for genetic and haematological analysis. Hair samples were also taken from the tail region for genetic analysis. As a precautionary measure, we gave the bear antibiotics and vitamins to speed his recovery from the tranquilisers and to prevent the possibility of infection around the area of dart entry. The bear gradually woke up as the tranquiliser wore off. From a distance, all involved proudly watched our new bear disappear off into the green distance, with his new collar around his neck.

The new bear has been named Alvaro, in dedication to Alvaro Posada-Salazar, the man Armando (project director) is so grateful to for introducing him to the Andean bear “world”, and ultimately has led to the successes the Andean Bear Project has had under Armando’s directorship. We hope Alvaro (the bear) will keep his collar on for a long period to allow us to obtain more Andean bear ecology data and provide us with vital information and the grounds for which we can propose the implementation of protected areas and ultimately protect the majestic Andean Bear.