Zoo Review: YanaCocha Rescue Centre

In recent decades, zoos and aquariums have worked hard to create more naturalistic environments for their animals.  The benefits are obvious - better quality of life for the animals, better visitor experience for the guests - but at the same time, it can be a very difficult, expensive practice.  A zoo or aquarium ma spend millions of dollars to create a habitat that may only be an approximation of the Amazon.

Imagine, then, having a zoo in the Amazon itself?

Located in the Amazon border town of Puyo, the YanaCocha Rescue Centre is a spectacularly beautiful park, located just on the edge of the world's most famous rainforest.  That's fitting enough, because all of its residents came from the Amazon - the Centre serves as a permanent home for animals that were illegally taken from the wild and cannot be released.  Along its meandering pathways through the dense undergrowth are spacious habitats that were literally fenced off sections of jungle.  The Amazon's largest residents, such as jaguar and Baird's tapir, aren't found here, but you can still see an impressive cross-section of South American rainforest wildlife.

As a rescue facility, the animals on display at YanaCocha vary from visit to visit, depending on what animals have been confiscated and are in need on homes, so these description won't be as comprehensive as a zoo that has a set collection plan.  Streams and waterways run throughout the park, creating a series of island habitats for primates, such as titi monkeys and woolly monkeys.  Keep your eyes on the water around some of these islands, as you may be surprised by an arapaima coming to the surface to gulp for air.  Caiman - spectacled and black - lounge by the edges of their pools.  Behind mesh or glass, you may encounter an assortment of small carnivores, including bush dog, crab-eating raccoon, tayra, coati, and Neotropical river otter.  More enclosures hold small primates (tamarins and marmosets are always popular in the illegal pet trade), as well as small parrots and birds of prey.  Overhead, macaws clamber over elaborate wooden jungle gyms.

When I first saw the macaws, it was difficult for me to tell if they were a part of the zoo or actual wild birds from the Amazon that drifted in for a "hello."  My guide told me that they were, in fact, zoo animals - but there were plenty of "wild" wild animals as well.  Around zoo grounds, loose and out of enclosures, I saw pygmy marmoset, agouti, cacique birds, tortoises, and caiman (the later basking right next to a visitor path).  Throughout the second half of the zoo, I was followed around by a grey-winged trumpeter... who then followed me right out the gate.  He was, the zoo staff assured me, their volunteer security guard.

Located at the edge of the Amazon, YanaCocha also is engaged in efforts to restore animals back into the wild.  It operates the neighboring Tamanuda Ecological Reserve, where animals can be released back into the forest and researchers can carry out their studies.  It also carries out ecotourism programs into the forest. 

As with the Quito Vivarium, I was pleased to see that, except for myself and my group, all of the visitors appeared to be Ecuadorians, though I'm sure plenty of tourists do stop by as well.  It's great to expose visitors to your country to your natural heritage, but it's even more important to instill an appreciation of that heritage in the hearts of your own citizens.

YanaCocha Rescue Centre