“We know more about the moon than we do about the Amazon rainforest canopy,” says Meg Lowman, National Geographic researcher and executive director of the TREE Foundation, in a National Geographic report. Researchers like her began studying treetops using ropes and harnesses four decades ago. His discoveries, especially on species density and diversity, revolutionized forest ecology, the report says.
Canopy scientists, also known as “arbonauts,” have created research vessels that include balloons, cherry blossom elevators, drones, cranes, towers, and walkways. The latter are already a staple of rainforest tourism, now accompanied by a new crane, This offers an exclusive look at what Lowman calls the “eighth continent.”
“All monkeys are confined to the canopy, as are bats and many birds,” says Ecuadorian scientist Jarol Fernando Vaca, noting that between 60 and 90 percent of life in the Amazon, including primates, reptiles and thousands of insects, is rare in live the heights Leave the treetops. He is also a tour guide at Sacha Lodge, which offers canopy tours.
The new Canopy crane at Sacha Lodgea 26room private ecological reserve and hotel in Ecuador, revolves around the forest to provide a dynamic vantage point and “quick access to various treetops without physical exertion,” says Lowman.
To reach the crane’s launch pad, travelers must take a halfhour 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 ride and a walk through the forest, you arrive at the gondola with crane, which seats up to four people and glides over more than 5,000 square meters of forest. The gondola rotates 360 degrees and takes travelers 42 meters above the tree line.
A Unesco Biosphere Reserve YasuníWith 1.6 million hectares in Ecuador, including Sacha Lodge’s 2,000 private and protected hectares, it is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Approximately 600 birds have been sighted in the Sacha Lodge area alone, which equates to approximately 7% of all bird species on earth. The canopy hosts small microhabitats. “Each giant tree is like an island in an ocean of trees,” says Vaca. The diversity of wildlife from tree to tree is reminiscent of another jewel of Ecuador: the Galapagos Islands. “Species can vary from island to island.”
Cranes play a key role in understanding these vulnerable ecosystems. The insights scientists are gaining from the crane, reflected in over 130 published scientific articles, identifies the role of forests in regulating climate change. While effective, they are expensive, ranging in value from $250,000 to millions of dollars, which is why there are so few of them.
The Sacha Lodge crane, which is open to tourists and researchers, represents a new funding opportunity and a promising future for canopy studies according to the report. “If the cranes were funded by buoyant ecotourism revenues, it would be a huge boon for researchers and tourists,” says Lowman.