During the Fall of 2000, together with Research Assistant Jacqueline Weicker, I led a six-week scientific expedition to Bolivia. This expedition was a cooperative effort of the AMNH and the Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. As a result of this field research two research biologists from the MHNNKM received training in specimen collection and preparation techniques, and over 300 scientific specimens were collected for both institutions, including many of the tissue samples needed for my doctoral research.Two sites were visited in the course of the expedition. The first one, in the south-eastern part of the country, was in a temperate dry woodland region known as the Chaco, and the second one, in extreme north-eastern Bolivia, was in a type of humid forest known as Bosque Chiquitano.

The Chaco is a vast low plain, virtually unbroken by hills, situated in the rain shadow of the Andes Mountains. It streches from southern Bolivia into the western half of Paraguay and extreme northern Argentina. There are few major rivers, and running water is scarse, so most of the landscape is dominated by thorny dry shrubs and trees as well as cacti. Taller and slightly more humid forests are found only along river courses, forming gallery forests.  Our Chaco site was located within the remote Izozog area, which is a semi-protected area inhabited and managed almost exclusively by guaraní indigenous peoples. It took 15 hours of road travel to reach our destination ? during the last 10 we encountered not a single vehicle or person along the road. Once we reached the Izozog communities, our camp was established 1km east of the Parapetí River, in the grounds of a large cattle ranch, so that we could sample both dry and gallery forest habitats. We arrived during the dry season, and towards the end of our stay were able to witness the onset of the rainy season, declared by two episodes of torrential rain. The vegetation greened and blossomed in front of our eyes, but temperatures remained extremely high during our stay. Unfortunately the river offered no relief; it was no more than a huge expanse of sand until the last day were were there. We spent a total of 20 days there and collected numerous scientific specimens, including tissue samples for several species relevant to my dissertation research: the woodcreeper Lepidocolaptes angustirostris, the cardinal Paroria coronata, and the tinamou Crypturellus parvirostris.  In the gallery forest, the Speckled Chachalaca, Ortalis guttata, was particularly abundant, and different roosting groups called loudly to each other every morning.

We spent 15 days at the Bosque Chiquitano site, but recorded and collected a markedly different avifauna there. Our camp was established roughly 150 meters from a narrow leg of the Mercedes River, which here was indeed a body of water and allowed us to collect several aquatic species. In addition, we were able to collect another species within the cardinal genus Paroaria, P. capitata, which is always found perched or flying above water. Different genera and species of tinamous were found here, including the surprisingly abundant, but elusive, undulated tinamous, Crypturellus undulatus. The insect, snake, and mammal fauna was also notably more abundant in this humid site, and  provided for several memorableófortunately harmlessóencounters.

ALP