Canopy Cranes: A New Way to Visit the Amazon | Biodiversity

Meg Lowman, National Geographic Explorer and Executive Director of the TREE Foundation, says in a report issued by National Geographic. Researchers like her began studying the treetops four decades ago, using ropes and harnesses. The report says its discoveries, primarily about species density and diversity, have revolutionized forest ecology.

Dubbed “walker pioneers,” parachute scientists have created research vessels that include balloons, cherry blossom elevators, drones, cranes, towers, and walkways. The latter is already a staple of rainforest tourism, now accompanied by a new liftAnd which offers an exclusive look at what Le Mans considers to be the “eighth continent”.

“All monkeys are confined to the canopy, as are bats and many birds,” says Ecuadorean scientist Jarol Fernando Vaca, noting that 60 to 90 percent of Amazonian life, including primates, reptiles and thousands of insects, reside in the highlands and rarely leave. Treetops. He is also a guide at Sacha Lodge, which offers a canopy tour.

the new Umbrella crane at Sasha Lodgea private environmental reserve and 26-room hotel in Ecuador, revolves around the jungle to provide a dynamic viewpoint and “quick access to the various canopies without any physical effort,” Lohmann says.

To reach the crane launch pad, travelers take a half-hour flight from Quito to the city of Coca. There, visitors take a two-and-a-half-hour canoe ride down the Napo River, through the forest to reach the lodge. After a canoe and walk through the forest, you reach the gondola with a four-person lift and glide through more than 5,000 square meters of forest. The gondola rotates 360 degrees taking travelers 42 meters above the tree line.

a Yasuni UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, with 1.6 million hectares in Ecuador, which includes 2,000 hectares of private and protected sacha lodges, is one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet. About 600 birds have been seen in the Sacha Lodge area alone, which is about 7% of all bird species on Earth, for example. The canopy contains small habitats. “Every giant tree is like an island in an ocean of trees,” says Vaca. The variety of wildlife from tree to tree reminds us of another Ecuadorian gem: the Galapagos Islands. “Species from island to island can be different.”

Cranes play a key role in understanding these endangered ecosystems. The knowledge that scientists gain from the crane, shared in more than 130 published scientific articles, Outlines the forest’s role in regulating climate change. Although effective, they are very expensive, ranging from $250,000 to several million dollars, which is why there are so few of them.

Open to tourists and researchers, the Sacha Lodge crane offers a new funding possibility — and a promising future for treetop studies, according to the report. “If the cranes are funded by the proceeds of vibrant ecotourism, it would be a huge boon for researchers and tourists,” Lohmann says.