Volume 38

January 2017
Page 1

Happy New Year!

Thank you everyone for supporting our work. We

had a great year with a lot of advances, and we are hoping that 2017, with your
help, will be equally good or even better! Please click here to download our
end of year report to learn more about our work.

NPC Colombia
We are very excited to announce the birth of
Neotropical Primate Conservation Colombia
(NPC- Colombia)! NPCs founders Noga and

Sam Shanee, together with Colombian biologists

and primatologists Alma Hernndez, Catalina
Ocampo, Catalina Orrego and Juan Milln
launched this new NGO at the end of 2016. We
are developing exciting plans for working in this
incredible, biodiverse and beautiful country!

Changes to UK charity
Liz Tyson served as a Trustee and Director for NPC from 2010 until late last
year; we wish to thank her for her years of hard work on our behalf. Izzy
Hunt, who, since 2014 has been on NPCs Board of Trustees and assisting Liz
with her duties as Company Secretary, has stepped into her shoes as NPCs
Secretary/Treasurer. Trustee and Conservation Educator Katie Chabriere has
taken a leave of absence from NPC and we hope that she will be back with us
soon. Ashley Atkins, Laura Dalgetty, Hannah Parathian, Mika Peck and Brooke
Aldrich are still on the Board, and we are currently in negotiations with a
potential new Trustee.
Photos : Liz Tyson (top) and Katie Chabriere

Volume 38
January 2017
Page 2

Rescued bear "Reke" released to his outdoor forest enclosure

Rescued from a circus almost a decade ago, Reke is an Andean bear living at the Biodiversidad Rescue
Centre near Tarapoto in Peru. A one-hectare enclosure had been constructed for him when he was first
rescued, but it fell into disrepair and he thus spent far too long behind rusty iron bars in a small
temporary cage. Thanks to a short and very successful social media appeal, we managed to collect
enough money to repair his large outdoor enclosure. With the cooperation of the San Martin wildlife
authorities and the National University of San Martn, construction work was completed and Reke was
released into his new home on the last day of December. He greeted 2017 from within his beautiful new
forest enclosure happy new year Reke! After so many years of being locked in a small and unenriching
space, Reke was at first very afraid of the outside and was only willing to leave cage for very short
periods of time. However, he really enjoyed his time outside, smelling and tasting all the leaves, and even
climbing and playing a bit. We are sure he will grow in confidence and be happy in his new home and we
wish him lots of luck.

2016 Primate Conservation Field Course

Volume 38
January 2017
Page 3

NPC's investigation leads to

the arrest of a major wildlife
trafficker in Iquitos
NPC's Noga Shanee, accompanied by an
international team of reporters from cable news
network CCTV-America and Britain's The
Guardian, visited the Peruvian city of Iquitos to
document the high levels of wildlife trafficking in
the city. The investigation led to the rescue of
three monkeys and a macaw, and the arrest of
German Serrubio Rios, a major trafficker who
provides wildlife to vendors at the notorious
Beln Market (currently the biggest wildlife
market in Peru), as well as sending animals further
afield to Lima and internationally. During the
undercover investigation, the trafficker revealed
an alarming network of corruption involving
regional and national wildlife authorities.
According to his statements, not only has he
bribed the wildlife authorities on multiple
occasions, but he has even received protection
and cooperation from them; they produced false
documentation for his animals, giving him safe
passage for his illegal activities.
This case is extremely important, but
unfortunately the authorities have again
demonstrated their inefficiency at tackling wildlife
trafficking. More than 2 months have since this
arrest, and even though Serrubio Rios was caught
with illegal wildlife and we ample evidence was
provided to the authorities of his continuous and
serious wildlife crimes, he is still free and "under
investigation".
We hope that in this case the authorities will do
their jobs and that this trafficker will receive the
sentence he deserves.
CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video

Volume 38
January 2017
Page 4

A visit to Pucallpa, Ucayali

In November, NPC, together with hundreds of students from
Pucallpa, marched through the citys centre to draw the authorities
attention to the urgent environmental issues in the Ucayali region;
especially the wildlife trade and deforestation. The demonstration
was organized by Sollertia College, an institution that leads many
environmental initiatives in the region. Together we passed in front
of the offices of the Environmental Prosecutor and the Municipality,
and finished at the Regional Government building, where increased
efforts on environmental issues were demanded.
In NPCs experience, the regions environmental authorities, who
are tasked with the control wildlife trafficking, are exceedingly
inefficient. We hope that they will hear the strong and important
message that these very young environmental leaders have brought
to them, and improve the quality of their work.
In addition to participating in the march, we also gave a series of
talks in Pucallpas schools and university on wildlife and land
Photos showing the fantastic
turn out and efforts made at the
Pucallpa march

trafficking, proposing that community conservation is one effective

way to address these problems.

Volume 38
January 2017
Page 5

New publications
Since our last newsletter, NPC has had three
important research papers published in peerreviewed journals, and we have also published a
small colouring book for school children.
A paper reporting the natural re-establishment of
a population of the endemic and Critically
Endangered
San
Martin
titi
monkeys
(Plecturocebus oenanthe) in a small private reserve
in Northern Peru was published in the journal
Primates. The reserve was previously deforested,
but enrichment planting and natural regeneration
over the last 20 years has allowed an especially
dense population of P. oenanthe to re-establish
itself there. The conservation implications of this
study are ample and we recommend the urgent
planting of forest corridors as an efficient
conservation method for the species. You can find
the full article here:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10329016-0581-8

The second paper describes land trafficking: one of

the most important social issues related to
migration into forest areas and deforestation. This
rarely studied illegal activity is the usurpation,
appropriation and/or commerce of land, which
organizes and facilitates migration to forest
frontier zones. Land trafficking is common practice
where we work and in Latin America in general.
Loopholes in Peruvian law and institutional
inefficiencies often impede the authorities who
confront it, and corrupt officials play an essential
role in facilitating the trade. We hope that findings
from this important study will inform the proposal
for a new law to close the loopholes in existing
legislations, which currently hinder any effective
action against this illegal practice. Here you can
download the full article:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/19400
82916682957

The third paper describes the fecal analysis of

the long whiskered owlet (Xenoglaux loweryi), an
endemic, Endangered and largely unknown
owlet species that inhabits the forests around
NPCs home at La Esperanza. Semi-digested
insects
from
the
orders
Coleoptera,
Hymenoptera, Ortoptera and Lepidoptera were
found,
revealing
previously
unknown
information about the owlets diet. This article
can be accessed here:
http://revistasinvestigacion.unmsm.edu.pe/index.
php/rpb/article/view/12872

NPC-Perus Education Officer, Yeissy Sarmiento,

together with volunteer Claudia Salazar, wrote
and illustrated a short story about wildlife
trafficking. It tells the story of a parrot whose
babies are stolen by a trafficker. The parrot sets
off to the city in search of them. On the way,
she meets two children who help her save many
animals from the wildlife market and take them
to a rescue centre. Not all of the animals
survive, but those who do are eventually
released back into the wild when they are ready.
You are very welcome to download the booklet,
which is in Spanish, and use it for your own
education work:
http://neoprimate.org/index.php/en/npc-news/8news-ticker/172-a-new-children-education-book

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