Tapichalaca Reserve, Ecuador

PROJECT SUMMARY
Tapichalaca is Fundación Jocotoco's flagship reserve, established in 1998. Five park guards are resident, providing protection greater than in adjacent Podocarpus National Park. Birders and ecotourists are now coming to Tapichalaca in increasing numbers. Most stay one or two nights, long enough for a reasonable chance to see the Jocotoco Antpitta.







Fundación Jocotoco was established in Quito, Ecuador, in 1998, subsequent to the electrifying discovery in 1997 of a new species of antpitta - later named the Jocotoco Antpitta (Grallaria ridgelyi) - in the Andes of the southeastern part of the country. From the time of its initial discovery it was recognized that the antpitta was a rare and range-restricted species, and a group of scientists and conservationists - Ecuadorian and international - convened in order to try to prevent the antpitta from sliding into the abyss of extinction. Rather than attempt to persuade the Ecuadorian government to protect the habitat upon which the species depended (an attempt that seemed doomed to failure, given the range of other obligations facing it then, and now), Fundación Jocotoco opted to pursue a strategy of private land purchase and protection - in essence to create a privately managed reserve whose primary management goal would be to protect one of Ecuador's most critically endangered bird species. In September 1998, thanks to private and institutional fundraising efforts, the initial land purchases were made, and a first "guardaparque" hired; since then there have been numerous additional purchases, and what is now known as Tapichalaca Reserve has expanded to some 7,000 acres on which is found all or virtually all of the world's known population of the Jocotoco Antpitta. Five guardaparques are now on staff, and Casa Simpson, a research and ecotourism facility, has been significantly expanded and improved.