After years of dreaming about it, Un poco del Chocó is now home to a Motus Wildlife Tracking System receiving station. This new tower fills an important gap in Ecuador's inland forests, where migratory songbirds spend the northern winter and resident birds can now also be tracked. Built through international collaboration, it marks an exciting step toward better understanding bird movements and strengthening conservation across the Americas.

While many people are fascinated by butterflies, only a few pay much attention to moths - and quite unfairly so. There are around 160,000 described species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) worldwide and the majority of them are nocturnal in their adult stage. As many moths are important pollinators of wild and domesticated plants, they also play an important role in a lot of different ecosystems. Monitoring them at sites with varying levels of disturbance can be very he

Hi guys, its been awefully quiet on here as of late but we are back with some exciting new projects! Right now, we have pur ongoing bird monitoring, a hummingbird project, a moth diversity assesment, herpetological monitoring with a focus on the spatial ecology of vipers and a bat survey investigating gut microbiome-habitat interactions. We also have some exciting news regarding our vipers!! Let us give you some insights to how life has been looking around here as of late: He

A New Year of Bird Banding at Un poco del Chocó: Advancing Avian Research With the start of a new year at Un poco del Chocó, fresh faces...

An exciting new research project has started this year at UPDC!

A new year brings fresh opportunities, new students, and exciting research projects. One area we aim to expand at the station is herpetology—the study of reptiles and amphibians. Two dedicated young researchers, Alex and Lauren, are conducting herpetological surveys within the reserve. Our trail system has been divided into six 600-meter transects, where all encountered frogs, lizards, and snakes are identified and measured. This research helps expand our knowledge of underst