Boating on the Las Piedras river

We also had access to river boats at the LPAC. There was scope for longer boat journeys but our aim was to leave out drop rigs and to pick them up 24 to 48 hours later. As a consequence we decided against spending a lot of time on the boat and instead only went up the river for about an hour at most. This still offered opportunities to spot different wildlife and to record in a few excellent places. Next time I’m in the area I will surely want to explore places further afield by boat.

Sadly boating, while the easiest way to go up and down the river, also causes a lot of noise. A good part of the recordings I made in the Amazon is polluted with distant boat or generator noise and therefore mostly useless. It’s much worse for wildlife though. Species like Macaws depend on access to clay licks where they feed on the salts, but they’re rather shy and take a long time to gather at these so-called colpas. When a colpa is right on the edge of the river there will be boats going up and down scaring the macaws off. Increased boat traffic can spell extinction if the birds aren’t able to get enough salts and minerals.

Recording subjects