Wildlife Adventurers Search for Creepy Crawlies in the Wilderness of Ecuador

Banded Cat-eyed Snake (Leptodeira annulata), is what wildlife adventurers expect. Image courtesy of Tropic

ADVENTURE TRAVEL: Wildlife adventurers and wildlife photographers venture into the wilderness of Ecuador in search of creepy crawlies that will make your skin crawl.

Image- Photograph of a frog known as Huaorani taken during a wildlife adventure in the Wilderness of Ecuador. Photography- safari. — Huaorani, photography safari. Ecuador is expected to thrill wildlife adventurers. Image courtesy of Tropic

QUITO, ECUADOR – Tropic, Ecuador’s award-winning ecotourism company, is presently offering adventurers true-life Herping Adventures in the Amazon jungles and cloud forests of Ecuador. In the world of science, looking for creepy crawlies is called Herping. This adventure into the wild has been going on since 1994 when Tropic led tours through Ecuador’s most engaging landscapes. The wildlife adventure gave adventurers an exciting insight into a world hidden from the rest of the world.

Wildlife Adventure: The Search for Creepy Crawlies

Tropic ecotourism program combines science with active travel. It is a brand-new way to explore the rainforest while offering indigenous and local communities opportunities to learn more about their environment. During the pioneer safari program, the indigenous Huaorani learned that some snakes aren’t poisonous as their tradition had led them to believe.

Two safari and photography tour itineraries is in partnership with professional biologists and photographers of Tropical Herping. The first involves a cooperative program between Tropic and the Huaorani, one of the world’s most isolated ethnic groups. A community of Huaorani serves as hosts and guides on their ancestral turf, a rainforest region considered the world’s most biologically diverse and where explorations take place. (Since 2008 the partnership has been working to stabilize this ecologically threatened region.)

In the Footsteps of Famous Adventurers

A second program takes amateur adventure scientists and wildlife photographers into Ecuador’s cloud forest and Upper Amazon Basin. These new adventures will follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest adventurers before them. They will explore the lands of exotic toads, tree frogs, poison frogs, vipers, and almost any imaginable species of amphibian or reptile. The “100 Species Photo Safari” is an intense 13-night lodge-to-lodge expedition of discovery. Among the activities on both tours are night walks in the forest with special equipment to find and photograph different wildlife species. Adventurers will in some cases capture and document research data.

Wildlife Adventurers get the opportunity to travel with expert herpetologists. They will discover which creatures are safe and ones that can be incredibly dangerous. Additionally, these adventures will attempt to make their mark by compiling a world record of the region’s amphibians and reptiles. Like famous adventurers in history, wildlife travelers will document their new experiences.

Recently, a book about the richest community of amphibians and reptiles in any cloud forest locality above 1000 meters was published by a team of researchers. The team found an array of 101 species that live in The Amphibians and Reptiles of Mindo.

“This kind of specialized monitoring is the most effective tool for improving people’s perceptions of reptiles and amphibians, and at the same time their interest helps to promote broader conservation actions by creating visually compelling images with their cameras and even possibly attaching scientific values to their discoveries,” said Jascivan Carvalho, Tropic’s owner, and CEO. Details of tour plans can be found at Tropic.