News from Yanahurco

By: Armando Castellanos, Director, (FUNDEBO) and Andean Bear Foundation

After an intense rehabilitation program, the young female bear named Colleen was released on the 30th October 2005 near the Sebretana Waterfall (17 UTM 0808249 – 9924758) in Hacienda Yanahurco. Since her release she has been frequently monitored from the air using light aircraft and also on land.

In January of this year we radio-located the bear roaming the cloud forests of Yanahurco. We obtained active signals from her collar signifying that Colleen continues alive and well after her release 15 months previously. From this information we can firmly conclude that she has adapted well to her new habitat and can now be considered a wild bear after such a time period back in the wild ,according to a project previously presented to the Ministry of Environment.

This success is a pioneering episode in the biological history of the species and an immense achievement for our project, which is constantly striving to save the Andean Bear from extinction. Hopefully this success proves to be the origin of a lucrative long term reintroduction program and inspires bear biologists in other South American countries to attempt to reinforce Andean Bear populations through similar reintroduction processes.

This fantastic result has led us to believe that female bears adapt more readily to new habitats in the process of reintroduction. This is, in all probability, due to the fact that wild females establish much smaller territories than males, hence reintroduced females naturally do not explore nor roam nowhere near as much as males.

On July 30th 2006 two male bears Leo and Beto were released in the Sigsipamba region of Yanahurco (17 UTM 0805385 – 9926460) Although we had initially planned to release these bears in the same location as we released Colleen (Sebretana Waterfall) due to unanticipated difficulties, it proved impossible to do so. We transported the bears in an ‘All Terrain Vehicle (ATV)’ which we were assured that would have no problems with the terrain at Yanahurco. Trailing behind the weight of two sub-adult male bears, the ATV experienced many problems with the rough terrain. Consequently we couldn’t transport the bears to the intended location, especially considering the high risks of transporting the bears under anaesthesis . We decided not to take the risk of administrating further anaesthetic and therefore were forced into the difficult decision of leaving the bears in a moderately ideal position.

At the end of September 2006 Leo wandered and entered the houses of the Yanahurco Hacienda (see image 2) and destroyed property. We were contemplating the sad possibility of returning Leo to captivity, as it seemed apparent that he was too domesticated to prosper in the wild. However, we hoped that it was due to not leaving him far enough away from the Hacienda in the initial release attempt that he returned and just had to give him a second chance.

On October 26th 2006, after sporadic periods in the Serious Andes rehab enclosure, Leo was anaesthetised and transported in a hammock to the Sebretana Waterfall). During this expedition I also ceased the opportunity to monitor Beto, without hearing any signal of him whatsoever, promisingly indicating he had traveled far away.

Four days after the second mission to release Leo, he once again returned to the Hacienda causing damages. We would have really liked to have given him a further opportunity to be free. However, due to the lack of funds to rent a helicopter to leave him in an area too remote for him to return, we very sadly had no other option than to return him to a zoo. On November 12th Leo was transported to Ecozoologico San Martin, Baños and will stay there until we find a suitable rescue centre in which to house him and care for him.

On February 3rd 2007 Park Rangers working for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment reported the sighting of an Andean Bear wearing a radiocollar close to Lake Mica in the Antisana Ecological Reserve. Initially I doubted that it could be Beto as it seemed too far for him to have traveled. However when I went to check myself if the bear was around that area, although I couldn’t locate him with the radio, without doubt it was Beto due to the descriptions given by the Park Rangers. Incredibly, Beto had travelled 16km as the crow flies from the release site to this position, and was reported to have been searching for food in the paramo around the lake.

Only days after Beto’s liberation, we lost his radio-signal, indicating the bear to be moving very rapidly away from the release site. I believe he is exploring unimaginably remote areas and unfortunately we are losing vital information as we were unable to tag him with a GPS collar. For now Beto remains far from human contact although sometimes he destroys campsites in search of food.

On March 9th 2007, Dr. Leonardo Arias (the FUNDEBO vet) and environmental authorities took part in the rescue of a cub female Andean Bear , named Olguita. She was being kept as part of a private collection of rare animals used as a tourist attraction in Archidona city (the north-eastern of Ecuador). When rescued, Olguita was underweight and malnourished. Now she is in the Bear enclosure, her health has improved and she has gained weight.

In mid April of this year three bears will be transported to the Yanahurco rehabilitation enclosure to undergo the rehabilitation process. These bears are Celine (female sub-adult) and two cubs. Celine is programmed to be released to the wild in mid-June. After learning from the experience gained from previous liberations, Celine will be transported to her release site in helicopter. She will be the first Andean Bear to wear a GPS collar in history and will hopefully provide us with some very interesting results on how reintroduced bears adapt to new habitats and native bear populations.

The event will be filmed by an Australian TV series, Extinction Sucks, whom we give a big thanks to for financially supporting the release. Equally, we thank the Parco Natura Viva from Italy and the Ecuadorian family Cobos Abdo for their financial support that makes the release possible.

The cubs will be cared for and rehabililtated in Yanahurco for around a year. We hope they too that these bears will also be released using helicopters and wearing GPS collars. To make these ideas happen, to give these bears back their freedom, we need your help!!