Fauna

The extraordinary biodiversity of primary forest ecosystems makes it tremendously vulnerable to wildlife poaching and trafficking. Meet some of the animals that live here. Together we can help protect them.

TAPIR & WHITE-LIPPED PECCARIES (Alarachi Cloud-Forest)

The extinction of South America’s two largest herbivores—the tapir and the white-lipped peccary—would cause a significant decrease in forest diversity throughout the continent. Their disappearance would be equivalent to the eradication of elephants from African and Asian forests, or that of gnus from savannas. White lipped peccaries are also among the favourite prey of the jaguar, the apex predator in South America’s forests, so their extinction would affect all levels of the food chain.

Tapirs and peccaries are ecosystem engineers. Peccaries consume large amounts of seeds and seedlings. They live in family groups that often exceed one hundred individuals and their foraging habits involve a great deal of soil trampling, which significantly reduces understory growth of forests. They also frequently take mud baths, creating deep depressions in the soil that fill with water, enabling insects and amphibians a perfect place to breed. Tapirs, in contrast, are solitary and feed on leaves and fruits of several species, without affecting plant numbers. They defecate far away from the places where they feed, thereby moving seeds from one part of the forest to another.

The ecological roles of these species and their importance in the ecosystem services of the forests (biodiversity, nutrient cycling, carbon storage and maintenance of water sources, among others) have been in place for tens of millions of years. Their complementary ecological functions mean that forests are significantly more diverse when both species are present. We need them both. Join our Forest Family and help to protect the White-lipped Peccaries & Tapir.

Special secret: White-lipped Peccaries communicate by clicking their teeth together.
Fun Fact: Although Tapirs look like pigs with trunks, they are actually related to horses and rhinoceroses.

JAGUAR (Alarachi Cloud-Forest)

The jaguar is the third biggest cat in the world – after the tiger and the lion – and is the largest cat in the Americas. They can grow up to 170cm long, not including their impressive tails, which can be up to 80cm.

Local poachers can make around $2,000 USD for a jaguar. The parts of these jaguars are then trafficked almost exclusively to the Chinese market, where they are sold upwards of $5000. Bolivia is a place where nearly 40% of the population lives below the poverty line so $2000 is quite a bit of money. Given that farmers often shoot jaguars simply to protect their livestock, this additional income bonus is an added incentive.

Fun Fact: The word ‘jaguar’ comes from the indigenous word ‘yaguar’, which means ‘he who kills with one leap’.
Fun Fact: Jaguars can be “melanistic”, where they appear almost black. Melanistic jaguars are known as “black panthers”. 
Whilst Bolivia has strict legislation in place for the protection of its wildlife, laws are undermined by inadequate enforcement capacity and badly controlled, porous land borders through which systematic wildlife smuggling occurs. Mining and infrastructure development accelerate wildlife trafficking by opening up the forests, creating easy entry and exit points and introducing an influx of people who demand bushmeat and/or engage in poaching.
Key wildlife crime issues on the Alarachi Reserve include the commercial bushmeat trade and the trafficking of jaguar parts, particularly teeth, to China, where wearing a jaguar’s tooth as a necklace has become a status symbol. Since 2014, Bolivia has seen a surge in trafficking of jaguar parts

TARUCA Mountain Deer (Alarachi Cloud-Forest)

The Taruca (Hippocamelus antisensis) is an endangered mammal belonging to the Cervidae family, and lives between 2,500 and 5,200m of altitude, on steep mountain slopes, open Andean grasslands, terrain with rocky outcrops and on the edges of humid montane cloud-forest. It is a robust medium-sized deer with a thick neck and short limbs. The modified weight between 45 and 65 kg; males have forked antlers. It is common to see groups made up of an adult male and two to six mature females. A few decades ago, troops of up to forty animals could be seen roaming in and out of the forest landscape and into open mountain areas, in total freedom, but unregulated hunting, fires and overgrazing has put the existence of this deer in grave danger. Only small isolated groups survive, increasingly smaller, in small, divided and altered areas of the Alarachi Reserve.

Rufous-throated Dipper (Alarachi Cloud-Forest)

Amazona tucumana

© Claudia Brasileiro

This species is classified as Vulnerable as it is experiencing a rapid population decline owing to habitat loss and capture for the cagebird trade.