Do I need to apply for a Visa to travel to Peru?

Citizens from the US, Canada, Latin America, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, the Caribbean and Western Europe do not need a visa to travel to Peru.  Australians and New Zealanders and citizens of Cuba do need a visa.  Please check with the Peruvian Embassy for visa information.  You do need a valid passport for entry into Peru.

Do I have to pick up my bags at the Lima airport, or can I check them to Cusco?

You must pick up your bags in Lima, clear them through customs there, and recheck them for Cusco.  You must do this (no matter what employees from the airline companies tell you) or you might have to go back to Lima to retrieve them.

What immunizations should I get before traveling to Peru?  

You should be vaccinated for Hepatitis A and B (at least getting the first shot of the series), Typhoid, and Yellow Fever, and you should be up to date with routine vaccinations (e.g., MMR, DPT, Tetanus). Check the Peru CDC website for details.

Should I use antimalarial drugs while I am in Peru? 

We leave this entirely up to assistants. Neither Gustavo nor Jill has ever used antimalarials (for what that is worth).  At high elevations (e.g., above 2000 m) there is no risk of getting malaria.  There is minimal risk below this elevation, increasing slightly toward low elevations; however, the incidence of malaria is very low in the Manu region, even in the lowlands.

Are there other diseases I should be aware of, and how can they be prevented?

There are few serious concerns for disease in Manu. Dengue fever is present in lowland Peru, but outbreaks are concentrated in the central Peruvian Amazon, not the southeast.  Leishmaniasis is somewhat common in the southeastern lowlands and foothills, though probably not above 1000 m. The best way to prevent either of these is to wear long-sleeved shirts and bug repellent (the strong stuff). The Phlebotomine flies that carry the Leishmaniasis protozoan are only active after dusk. Chagas disease (American Trypanosomiasis) is present at low frequency and is carried by Reduviidae "kissing" bugs, but for whatever reason, transmission rates are low in Peru compared to other places (perhaps because the bugs are less likely to defecate when they bite?). Check the CDC website for a complete summary of diseases found in Peru. Amoebas, Giardia, and other stomach bugs are universally common and can be prevented by purifying all water used for eating and drinking.

While working on the project, will I be working at all of the different stations?

Typically assistants will be assigned to a single station and will work there for the entirety of the project.  Groups work together at each station essentially as a team, so each station develops its own rhythm of cooking, taking trips to town, and helping each other collect data.  Furthermore, when searching for nests, assistants tend to find more nests as they get to know their study plot well, searching it day after day. For these reasons, we consider it best for assistants to remain at one station for the season.  During the vacation period, or before or after the project, assistants have the option to travel and visit the other stations.    

What is the daily or weekly schedule like for assistants?

At each station, assistants begin with a settling and training period that lasts a couple of weeks, in which they begin to practice the many skills that are central to our project (e.g., tips on looking for nests, collection of data on incubation rhythms, setting up and running mist nets, measuring adult birds, eggs, nestlings & nests, sampling captured birds for blood, ectoparasites & pollen, collecting data on body temperature and metabolic rates). After this time, assistants will work from dawn until dusk, either searching for nests or mist-netting, taking a break for lunch. A separate crew will stay up late with birds captured in the afternoon in order to do metabolic rate tests until the wee hours of the morning. Cooking duties are rotated among the assistants at each station, and on those days, the cook returns early from the field in the morning and afternoon to prepare lunch and dinner for the rest of the group. Once a week, assistants have a day off.  This time can be used for going to town to buy fresh vegetables and snacks, hiking around, relaxing, catching up with laundry or playing soccer.

Is it a problem if I don't speak Spanish?

Every year we have a diverse group of assistants of many nationalities. We always have a mixture of language abilities, from those who speak little to no Spanish to those who are fluent, native speakers (sometimes with limited English). Assistants always find ways to communicate with each other, and it is a good atmosphere for expanding horizons. Generally, it is not a problem if you don't speak Spanish, but it can make it challenging to do things in Cusco (e.g., negotiate taxis, buy things at stores, etc.), and away from the city, very few Peruvians speak English; most speak Spanish and Quechua. So, even having a little bit of Spanish can go a long way, so we encourage assistants to try to pick up what they can.  There are two-week Spanish courses offered in Cusco, which can be a nice crash course before the field season.

Is it difficult to get by as a vegetarian?

It's pretty easy to be vegetarian in the field, as meat doesn't keep well in the field. Our meats are in the form of eggs, canned tuna, smoked sausage, and chicken or beef bouillon cubes. The majority of our diet is made up of rice, beans, lentils, corn, pasta, and any vegetables that travel well.  If you are vegan or lactose intolerant, you can find soy milk powder in Cusco. It can be challenging to find vegetarian dishes in Cusco, but most places give some options, and there are other restaurants that are entirely vegetarian near the Plaza de Armas, mostly aimed at tourists. Let us know if you have special dietary requirements so we can try to prepare for this in our food purchases for the stations.

What is the history of bird research in Manu and how is the project funded?

Detailed bird research along the Manu elevational gradient began in the early 1980's through a series of surveys and collecting trips initiated by John Fitzpatrick, Doug Stotz and colleagues from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Knowledge of the distributions of species in this region was improved over the years through thousands of accounts by scientists, naturalists and bird guides leading tours along the Manu road and into the Amazon lowlands. Our detailed research on the Manu bird communities began in 2004 through the work of three PhD graduate students, including Jill Jankowski and Gustavo Londono (University of Florida) and Chris Merkord (University of Missouri - Columbia). Jill and Chris worked to better define the elevational ranges and diversity patterns of species, describe species' relationships to habitats and vegetation communities, identify important biotic interactions between species (e.g., competition between species at range boundaries and montane mixed-species flock dynamics), and detect seasonal altitudinal movements. Gustavo focused on avian nesting biology, collecting data on incubation rhythms and feeding behavior, life history characteristics (e.g., clutch size and nesting period) and nest predation events. In the summer of 2011, the principal investigators of this project (Scott Robinson, Mark Chappell, Gustavo Londono and Jill Jankowski) were awarded with a National Science Foundation grant (DEB-1120682) to understand the relative importance of different biotic and abiotic interactions in setting the elevational range limits of species and essentially maintaining the amazing patterns of species turnover that we see as we move from the lowlands to the Andean plateau above treeline. This grant funds the infrastructure to maintain each of our stations and provides support for assistants.

What are the broader impacts of your project, and how does the local region surrounding Manu benefit from this research?

In addition to our scientific goals, we invest greatly to expand the broader impacts of our research in ways that benefit the assistants that come to work on our project and that benefit the stations and surrounding community. Our previous work in Manu has led many assistants to conduct independent research projects, including undergraduate and licenciatura projects, and many others have gone on to Master's and PhD graduate programs in biology or related fields. We have produced a two field guides of birds and their nests and eggs, and we will continue to develop learning resources for bird researchers based on our field recordings of songs. We have a history of interacting with local communities surrounding the study area.  We work with the Asociacion para la Conservacion de la Cuenca Amazonica (ACCA)  to promote research in Wayqecha and have given several presentations to biology students at the Universidad de San Antonio Abad del Cusco. We have also presented on topics of biodiversity, ecosystem services and avian biology at science workshops for middle school and high school students from nearby towns of Patria and Pilcopata. We hope to extend this collaboration to the Amazonian towns of Shintuya and Itahuania in the coming years.