Biological Surveys and Inventories in Manu

Abstract

In 1973, the Peruvian government created one of the largest and most pristine nature reserves anywhere in the world. The preserve was christened ‘‘Manu’’ after the meandering river that courses through its lower reaches. Most of the park is situated in the lowlands of the department of Madre de Dios, although its highlands lie in the adjacent department of Cuzco. The park’s origins were chronicled by Kim MacQuarrie in a beautiful book illustrated with photographs by Andre and Cornelia Bartschi (MacQuarrie, 1992, 1998). To us, it seems especially fitting that this magnificent park owes its origin to Peruvian naturalist-collector Celestino Kalinowski. Kalinowski was born and made his home in the Marcapata valley just south of Manu. He traveled widely in Peru and beyond, and he shipped specimens that he collected to major natural history museums the world over. However, his collections were especially strong from the region surrounding his home. The place names ‘‘Hacienda Cadena’’ and ‘‘Quince Mil’’ are well known to students of South America’s vertebrate faunas. So valuable were those he shipped to the bird and mammal divisions of Chicago’s Field Museum that the Museum sponsored his trip to Chicago to study his and other collections and to confer with the scientists—Colin Sanborn, Philip Hershkovitz, Melvin Traylor, and Emmet Blake—who were studying material that he sent here. Alarmed by growing commercial development in southeastern Peru in the 1960s, Kalinowski sought to secure governmental protection for the natural areas remaining in best condition. He actively lobbied governmental official Don Felipe Benavides to advocate setting aside a ‘‘reserved zone’’ consisting of the entire watershed of the Manu River. He also escorted Major Ian Grimwood, an English consultant hired to locate a national reserve in the Amazon, to Manu. Although Grimwood had earlier concluded that much of Peru’s Amazon forest had already been despoiled, Kalinowski opened his eyes to Manu’s pristine riches. A three-week trip sufficed to convince Grimwood that Manu was the place for the reserve, and he so reported his recommendation to the government. A year later, in 1968, Manu was declared a national reserve, and hunting and lumbering were prohibited. In 1973, the area became a national park, ensuring its legal status and protection. In 1977, UNESCO recognized its global status by making the national park and an adjacent reserved zone—an area of 1,881,200 hectares—Manu Biosphere Reserve. A decade later, it was named a World Heritage Site, one of only 200 areas in the world accorded this designation (MacQuarrie, 1992). Recognition of Manu’s incredible biological riches has grown hand in hand with the reference collections of its plants and animals. Seemingly, each collection made there added more species to the regional fauna; many proved to be species new to science. Despite focused biological collections in Manu for more than 50 years, this still applies today, even to the best-known vertebrate * Preferred citation: Patterson, B. D., D. F. Stotz, and S. Solari. 2006. Biological surveys and inventories in Manu, pp. 3–12. In Patterson, B. D., D. F. Stotz, and S. Solari, eds., Mammals and Birds of the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru. Fieldiana: Zoology, n.s., No. 110. { MacArthur Curator of Mammals, Department of Zoology, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60506-2496, U.S.A. { Conservation Ecologist, Environmental and Conservation Programs, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60506-2496, U.S.A. 1 Graduate Student, Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-3131, U.S.A.