Driven by her love for nature and the outdoors, Maddy Cox spent two weeks here in the Manu Learning Centre (MLC) in Peru’s Amazon rainforest.
In a quick Q&A, she tells us how the experience gave her a deeper appreciation for wildlife:
Why did you decide to come to the Amazon?
What were your first impressions of the Amazon?
On the boat journey here you’re surrounded by majestic trees and they’re just so awe-inspiring. When you get off the boat and walk up to the MLC you’re surrounded by the noise of birds and insects – it’s a cacophony of sound that’s pretty amazing. Then when you wake up in the morning, you realise that you’re waking up with a thousand species all around you.
You don’t feel or smell pollution around you. The air is clean, the sky seems bluer, the clouds seem whiter, and the trees seem greener. Everything’s so colourful here too, especially the butterflies.
What have you learnt since being here?
I really enjoyed the identification of different species, with the combination of studying it on ID cards and then seeing the wildlife in real life. I’ve also really enjoyed being around everyone’s passion.
I think I’ve learnt a lot in just two weeks. I particularly liked the presentations on the wider picture, about what’s going on in the world with environmental issues and how the work at the MLC fits into this. That was very interesting and really opened my eyes.
It’s hard to change your lifestyle because nobody around you does and you feel like there are no solutions. Being here made me realise just how much we’re ruining the planet, but also that groups of people can do something to change this. So I feel like I really should do more.
I’ve enjoyed being here and actually feeling like I’m being useful, because it’s quite hard work what they do here – going into the forest every day and collecting data from the pitfalls and butterfly traps. By putting in the effort, I really feel like I’m helping.
What were the highlights?
Going down to the colpa [the clay lick] to monitor the macaws; you go down in semi-darkness and then as the sun rises the birds come and it’s a really special moment.
I’ve loved just being in the nature. We saw a group of brown capuchin monkeys today and there was a mother with a baby on her back. It was great because it was completely unexpected; we were just going down to the river for a swim and we looked up and there were loads of monkeys around us. Every single time you see wildlife it’s special.
What has been your best wildlife sighting?
Seeing the spectacled bears, for sure. It was a bit crazy because we’d just got into the Amazon and everything was amazing at that point, then we saw bears. We didn’t even realise how rare the sighting was until we told people here at the MLC and they were all amazed.
Seeing the red howler monkeys was also really cool because we’d only been here a couple of days and everyone told us that although you hear them they’re pretty difficult to see. So you just never know what you’re going to spot.
Do you think this experience will impact your lifestyle longer term?
Yep, I’m going to try and become vegetarian and at the very least reduce the amount of meat I eat. That’s something I can do very easily. I think it’s important to look at what you can achieve realistically. For a lot of people, meat is a big part of their lifestyle so it’s hard to give up but for me it’s not, so it’ll be a good start.
I will try harder to think more about my impact on the environment; people shouldn’t think that it’s not their issue, or be pessimistic and think that it’s never going to change.
I’ve always had an appreciation for wildlife but after this experience I have an even greater appreciation. I’ve never been that interested in birds in the UK but now I really am because I loved doing the ID training and learning how to identify different species by their calls. So it’d be cool to do some volunteering with conservation groups in the UK.