The Rainforest
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Morpho Butterflies
Butterflies of the genus Morpho are some of the most spectacular in the neotropics. Forest dwellers, they are often seen around streams and other sunlit areas where they go to warm themselves, and you will be a bit taken aback when you spy these fast though erratic fliers flitting in and out of vision.
Many Morpho butterflies are colored in metallic, shimmering shades of blue and green, not a result of pigmentation but an example of iridescence: the extremely fine scales covering their wings reflect light repeatedly at successive layers, so that the colors produced vary with viewing angle. The scales reflect up to 70% of light falling on them, including any UV; since the males can see UV light and in most species only the males are colorful, and most males are territorial, the theory that the coloration is used for communication between males seems likely.
You are in the planets largest remaining tropical rainforest which extends over most of the 6 million square kilometers of the Amazon basin. This, the world's greatest network of rivers and lakes, contains about 20% of the worlds freshwater and more than one tenth of all the creatures on Earth today!
About 2% of this Amazon Rainforest lies within Ecuador's borders in the foothills of the Andes, and you are currently in this 2% (which although it is a small proportion, it contains about a third of its diversity!) at approximately 300m altitude in the community of Quehueri'ono - Huaorani territory - on the banks of the `Rio Shiripuno`.
Our hosts have inhabited these Amazon headwaters for millennia living as hunters and gathers. But the first official Huaorani protectorate was created in 1983 and the current much larger Huaorani Ethnic Reserve was established in 1990.
You are in the planets largest remaining tropical rainforest which extends over most of the 6 million square kilometers of the Amazon basin. This, the world's greatest network of rivers and lakes, contains about 20% of the worlds freshwater and more than one tenth of all the creatures on Earth today!
Among the indigenous nationalities the Huaorani have the least densely populated territory, currently numbering about 3000 people. Their territory traditionally extended all the way from the Napo River in the North (which you will see from the town of Coca when you depart) to the Curary River in the South. Nowadays, however the territory -some 680 000 hectares- covers only approximately one third of this traditional land and the Huaorani have no rights to the oil and mineral deposits in their area.
