guinea pigs: meals, meds, prophecies

[from Wikipedia (mostly)]

The guinea pig plays an important role in the folk culture of many Indigenous South American groups, especially as a food source, but also in folk medicine and in community religious ceremonies. Since the 1960s, efforts have been made to increase consumption of the animal outside South America.

cuy being raised at home in Andean fashion

The scientific name of the common species is Cavia porcellus, with porcellus being Latin for "little pig". Cavia is New Latin; it is derived from cabiai, the animal's name in the language of the Galibi tribes once native to French Guiana. Cabiai may be an adaptation of the Portuguese çavia (now savia), which is itself derived from the Tupi word saujá, meaning rat. Guinea pigs are called quwi or jaca in Quechua and cuy or cuyo (pl. cuyes, cuyos) in the Spanish of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Ironically, breeders tend to use the more formal "cavy" to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts it is far more commonly referred to by the more colloquial "guinea pig".

Moche guinea pig

The common guinea pig was first domesticated as early as 5000 BC for food by tribes in the Andean region of South America (present-day the southern part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), some thousands of years after the domestication of the South American camelids. Statues dating from ca. 500 BC to 500 AD that depict guinea pigs have been unearthed in archaeological digs in Peru and Ecuador. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted the guinea pig in their art. From ca. 1200 AD to the Spanish conquest in 1532, selective breeding resulted in many varieties of domestic guinea pigs, which form the basis for some of the modern domestic breeds. They continue to be a food source in the region; many households in the Andean highlands raise the animal, which subsists off the family's vegetable scraps. Folklore traditions involving guinea pigs are numerous; they are exchanged as gifts, used in customary social and religious ceremonies, and frequently referenced in spoken metaphors. They also play a role in traditional healing rituals by folk doctors, or curanderos, who use the animals to diagnose diseases such as jaundice, rheumatism, arthritis, and typhus. They are rubbed against the bodies of the sick, and are seen as a supernatural medium. Black guinea pigs are considered especially useful for diagnoses. The animal also may be cut open and its entrails examined to determine whether the cure was effective. These methods are widely accepted in many parts of the Andes, where Western medicine is either unavailable or distrusted.

 cuy asado

Guinea pig meat is high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol, and is described as being similar to rabbit and the dark meat of chicken. The animal may be served fried (chactado or frito), broiled (asado), or roasted (al horno), and in urban restaurants may also be served in a casserole or a fricassee. Ecuadorians commonly consume sopa or locro de cuy, a soup dish. Pachamanca or huatia, a process similar to barbecueing, is also popular, and is usually served with corn beer (chicha) in traditional settings.

Ginny's bees

[from Ginny in Maine, 8 July 2011, photos by Fabi]

Last March, while in my house, I complained that all the A/C units in the house were working well except for the master bedroom, which just couldn't seem to cool down the room. Controls were fiddled with, it was suggested that perhaps I would need a lesson in how to properly use the remote. Then I began to get complaints from renters in June who said that no matter what they did, they could never coax enough heat out of the bedroom unit. I was told that there was nothing wrong with the heater, that perhaps the tenant should be taught how to use the remote, that we had to remember to close the bedroom door, that the problem really was that I lived too far away and tended to worry, that possibly I did not know what it was like to live in the country.

As the decibel level of my fit-throwing began to rise between Maine and Cafayate, a visit was scheduled by Fabi and the builder and later that day I got a triumphant email to say that my heater was fixed and the problem revealed itself as a large beehive effectively immobilizing the blades of the heater.

wildlife reserve for the Patagonian huemul

[from MercoPress, 3 July 2011]

Biosphere reserve in Chilean Patagonia gives hope for preservation of the huemul

The United Nations added 18 new sites to its global list of biosphere reserves, (including one in Chilean Patagonia) bringing the total to 581 in 114 different countries, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported.

Patagonian huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus)

The International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), meeting in Dresden, added sites in Lithuania, Maldives, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Togo for the first time to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR).

Biosphere reserves are places recognized by MAB where local communities are actively involved in governance and management, research, education, training and monitoring at the service of both socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation. They are thus sites for experimenting with and learning about sustainable development, UNESCO said.

Including Chile’s Corredor Biologico de Nevados de Chillan y la Lagua del Laja in the WNBR gives a boost to private and government efforts for the conservation of the huemul, a Patagonia native deer.

The huemul herd in the Corredor Bilogico is down to 40 and highly fragmented as to their distribution which makes reproduction difficult. Besides they are geographically isolated from a greater herd further south in the Aysen region.

Chile’s National Committee for the defence of fauna and flora, CODEFF, received with great enthusiasm the UNESCO news.

“This acknowledgement has been possible because of the joint work of civil society organizations with officials from municipal, regional and central government offices”, said Bernardo Zentilli, president of CODEFF.

“The WNBR is protected by international law which is a great step forward for the conservation of the huemul, an emblematic Chilean species, which is in serious danger of extinction with only 2.500 left according to the latest census”, said Zentilli.

A biologic corridor is described as a geographic space which provides connectivity for ecosystems, habitats, original or modified and which at the same time ensures the maintenance of biological diversity, plus protection to ecologic and evolution processes.

Nevados de Chillán is an Andes cordilleran protected area with the purpose of making compatible its sustainable use with conservation of hydrologic basins, flora and fauna resources, preservation of scenic beauties, avoid the destruction of soils and protect the fields where the huemul lives.

Nevados de Chillán

metal sculptures by Facundo Huidobro

ganso

conejo

Facundo Huidobro was born en el campo outside Buenos Aires in 1982. He studied art & philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. To read about & see more of his work, visit Facundo's website here.

lechuza & Facundo Huidobro

pumas or pasture animals?

[from Nathan Frandino @ Santiago Times, 22 June 2011]

Puma Attacks On Sheep, Cattle Raising Problems Across Chile

Reports of attacks multiplying in various regions of country

puma (aka mountain lion, cougar): Punta Arenas, Chile [photo by Bruce Dale]
government protections have helped their numbers rebound

Desperate and decimating.

That’s how biologist Agustín Iriarte describes the attitude of livestock farmers and their dwindling number of livestock, as predators take their toll.

Chile’s pumas are attacking and killing sheep flocks more than ever.

Between 2008 and 2009, cattle farmers reported 198 deaths attributed to pumas in Canela (Coquimbo Region). Meanwhile, in San Fernando (O’Higgins Region), sheep breeders reported 160 killings by pumas in the last three months of 2010.

In the north though, cattle farmers have taken the matter into their own hands, Iriarte said.

“We’ve found several cases of pumas basically mummified, which is a sign of poisoning,” Iriarte told El Mercurio.

Iriarte works on a project monitoring the puma population for Chile’s Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG). He said this kind of extermination is illegal.

Down south, capturers can earn up to 60,000 Chilean pesos (US$127) per head, despite the animal being protected by hunting laws. If offenders are caught, they receive heavy fines unless they have a hunting license, which is rarely permitted.

In 2009, SAG launched the puma conservation plan, which includes a study of the animal’s population growth and aims to provide information on reducing the impact of the attacks.

Alejandro Donoso, head of SAG’s natural resource protection division, said part of their research seeks to find a balance between protecting the animal and protecting the interests of cattle farmers.

“The fences that the farmers use are inadequate,” Donoso told El Mercurio.

The division has also started a nationwide training program for villagers and small farmers about how to differentiate between puma attacks and attacks by other animals.

“Many times they blame the killing of livestock on the pumas, but on many occasions, it’s been stray dogs,” Donoso said.

Farmers still remain confident that the puma is to blame.

“For starters, look at this tremendous footprint and the injuries to the animals,” Rodrigo Prado, a veterinary and livestock specialist in the Petorca area, told El Mercurio. “A fox or a dog could not have done this.”

Prado said that before the pumas mainly ate fowl, but recently they started eating calves.

“Throughout the year, they come to pens and eat the goats and sheep,” Prado said.

The puma is considered a near-threatened species, but not in danger, Donoso said, but that could change, which is why they’re studying the animal.

“In protected areas (like national parks such as Torres del Paine), there is greater protection, but in agricultural areas there is insufficient information on population density and distribution, making it difficult to design mitigation plans” that could help protect livestock, Donoso said.

capybara

[from Sandra Beasley's I Was the Jukebox, Norton, 2010, a poem about the capybara, a South American mammal]

Unit of Measure

All can be measured by the standard of the capybara.
Everyone is lesser than or greater than the capybara.
Everything is taller or shorter than the capybara.
Everything is mistaken for a Brazilian dance craze
more or less frequently than the capybara.
Everyone eats greater or fewer watermelons
than the capybara. Everyone eats more or less bark.
Everyone barks more than or less than the capybara,
who also whistles, clicks, grunts, and emits what is known
as his alarm squeal. Everyone is more or less alarmed
than a capybara, who—because his back legs
are longer than his front legs—feels like
he is going downhill at all times.
Everyone is more or less a master of grasses
than the capybara. Or going by the scientific name,
more or less Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris—
or, going by the Greek translation, more or less
water hog. Everyone is more or less
of a fish than the capybara, defined as the outermost realm
of fishdom by the 16th-century Catholic Church.
Everyone is eaten more or less often for Lent than
the capybara. Shredded, spiced, and served over plantains,
everything tastes more or less like pork
than the capybara. Before you decide that you are
greater than or lesser than a capybara, consider
that while the Brazilian capybara breeds only once a year,
the Venezuelan variety mates continuously.
Consider the last time you mated continuously.
Consider the year of your childhood when you had
exactly as many teeth as the capybara—
twenty—and all yours fell out, and all his
kept growing. Consider how his skin stretches
in only one direction. Accept that you are stretchier
than the capybara. Accept that you have foolishly
distributed your eyes, ears, and nostrils
all over your face. Accept that now you will never be able
to sleep underwater. Accept that the fish
will never gather to your capybara body offering
their soft, finned love. One of us, they say, one of us,
but they will not say it to you.

Falkland skua crash

[from MercoPress, 7 April 2011]

Falklands’ skua population has declined by almost half in 5 years

Falkland skua

The number of Falkland Islands skua has declined by almost half in just five years, a survey of the bird's largest breeding ground reveals. It is unclear why the population has crashed on New Island, on the west of the Falkland Islands.

Something appears to be limiting the birds' ability to reproduce, say scientists.

That raises questions over the health of the wider marine environment in the south-west Atlantic Ocean. Skuas are gull-like birds that nest on the ground, with species living from the Arctic to Antarctica.

The Falkland skua is a subspecies of the brown skua.

brown skua

“Although brown skuas have been the subject of many studies, virtually nothing has been done on the Falklands subspecies,” Dr Paulo Catry of the Museum of Natural History in Lisbon, Portugal, told BBC News.

So he and colleagues from Portugal and the UK conducted two surveys, five years apart, of the largest population of Falkland skuas, which nest on New Island.

The results have been published in the journal Polar Biology.

“Falkland skuas are really tame and do not hide their nests, which are placed in the open ground, which made the censuses quite easy, even if labour intensive for the amount of ground that needed to be covered.

”Birds are so tame that many individuals will remain sitting on the eggs even if you approach and touch them,“ he said.

Overall, the number of Falkland skua territories on New Island suffered a reduction of 47.5% in the five years between the two surveys, conducted in 2004 and 2009, which equates to a decline of 12.1% per year.

”Given this is the largest known colony for the species, currently with 333 pairs, this decline should obviously raise some concerns.

“In fact, long-lived seabirds like skuas usually change their numbers slowly and this situation cannot be considered as 'normal'.”

The reason for the crash is not clear, and just a few thousand pairs of Falkland skuas now remain worldwide, living on the Islands and a few along the coast of Argentina.

“We were very surprised that the decline in numbers was so fast, particularly considering that other seabirds on New Island seem to have been doing quite well over the same past five to six years,” he told the BBC.

Brown skuas generally enjoy a high breeding success, with each pair raising a chick a year on average.

But Falkland skuas are today producing just 0.28 chicks on average per pair each year.

Falkland skua nest & chick

Large skuas, and Falkland skuas in particular, rarely start nesting before they are six years old.

Usually, immature skuas gather at specific sites, known as “clubs”, on the nesting islands in the years before they start breeding. In large colonies, hundreds of birds gather in these clubs. But Dr Catry's team has never managed to locate any club site at New Island.

It remains unclear whether this decline in reproductive success has been accompanied by a rise in the number of deaths of adult skuas.

“This decline seems to be linked to an abnormally low reproductive output, the causes of which are still to be identified,” said Dr Catry. “We are currently working on these questions. They are important not only for the sake of Falkland skuas, but more generally, for the marine environment of the Falkland Islands.”

One possibility is that the Falkland skua is suffering at the hands of a competitor.

thin-billed prion (Pachyptila belcheri)

Falkland skuas prey on a smaller bird, the thin-billed prion, and its eggs; but so too does another prion predator, the striated caracara, a falcon-like bird of prey.

The caracara's population has grown 15% a year in recent years, producing 2.5 chicks per nest per year, on average.

striated caracara (Phalcoboenus australis)

However, the Falkland skua's demise may be linked to wider problems.

“Falkland skuas are top predators of marine ecosystems. They will take fish, squid, crustaceans, and they are also important predators of other seabirds,” said Dr Catry. “If something is not well with them, it may mean that something is not well with the rich Patagonian shelf ecosystem.

”Many Falkland Island seabirds have known important declines over the past decades. We need to learn more about what is driving these changes, and skuas may help us with that”.

snakes, tortoises, lizards & an armadillo

[from AFP, 9 April 2011]

Snakes on a bus: Argentina nabs wildlife trafficker

BUENOS AIRES — Passengers on a bus in Argentina got an unwelcome surprise when police found more than 600 snakes and other reptiles packed in the luggage compartment, a ranger said Saturday.

Acting on a tip-off, police intercepted the bus in a northern province bound for Buenos Aires, asked to see passengers' documents, then began poking into their bags.

"A passenger came onboard with 40 snakes, plus what he had in the boxes" in the bus luggage hold, said ranger Daniel Chersich, warden of Santa Fe province.

Police "were terrified of opening the bags," Chersich, who was investigating a wildlife trafficking network and joined in the operation, told the daily Clarin.

With good reason.

The trafficker had loaded them with 444 boas, vipers and other snakes; 186 endangered tortoises; 40 lizards, and an armadillo.

The smuggler, who was arrested, boarded the bus in Santiago del Estero, where he had spent three months trapping various species in the bush with the intent of selling them, Chersich said.

big fish in the Heath Club lake

photos by Charles Vollum . . .

Tommy spots the bees

photos courtesy of Charles Vollum . . .

beehive in a Cafayate concrete pole

splitting up, preparing to swarm

cloning a horse

[from Gonzalo Figueroa @ Brando, 19 March 2011]

Andrés Gambini clones a horse

quirquincho (armadillo)

what Juan Esteban found

on the Vollum's new lot

I wish I'd been there

photos by Charles Vollum

wildlife @ La Estancia

pied-billed grebe

caracol de boca rosada

Tommy, is this a Megalobulimus oblongus lorentzianus? 

Cafayate rental

Behind the wooden doors that line the streets of Cafayate are homes & surprisingly large gardens. I suspect Cafayateños grow most of their own fruit & vegetables.

Since Monday we have been renting a house in El Centro, 1 1/2 blocks from the plaza. The house consists of a series of rooms opening off a courtyard.

the kitchen is up the step & to the left

grape arbor, bedroom beyond, the bathroom is the far door on the right

Beyond the kitchen is the door to the huge garden -- grape vines, fruit trees, vegetables, cactuses, flowers.

grapes

fig tree

squash

corn for humitas

the green door at the back of the garden

leads into another huge garden, look at those tomato plants

unidentified undulant cactus

a cactus with opuntia-like fruits

Yes, the garden is the perfect place to drink our morning coffee.

To everyone who has so thoughtfully asked after Mike, I'm happy to say he's back to normal,. He's watching & listening to a flock of loros (parrots) flying past. He's also discovered that el gallo (rooster) we hear every morning lives in the next yard. I intend to plant at our house a jade tree like the one next to him.

first days

At dusk on our second night at La Estancia, we drive down the main road past the Heath Club. As we cross a patch of wet road, a flight of Whistling Herons rises before us. I’ve never seen this bird except in Argentina.

Syrigma sibilatrix, Chiflón, Whistling Heron

§

¿Donde está la farmacía? Where is the pharmacy?
Around the corner, the woman says, one half block plus a quarter.
To the left? I say.
Si. She nods & grips my upper arm. Where are you from?
The United States.
Have a wonderful visit.
Smiles & smiles.

§

I ask the young pharmacist for Suphedrin, & he brings me a box of 10 tablets. I tell him that my husband has had a fever for three days, that he is coughing badly. The pharmacist goes to the back & brings out Refrianex Compuesto, a cold remedy containing paracetamol for fever, ephedrine for congestion, chlorpheniramine for allergy, & bromhexine hydrochloride for coughing. Even though I don’t recognize 2 out of the 4 ingredients, I agree to try it instead of the Suphedrin. When I ask for Mentholatum, he brings me Otrivina, an Argentine equivalent. 70 pesos.

§

At la pulpería, which is what general stores, country stores, have been called for three or four centuries in Argentina, the owner breaks away from the circle of old men drinking beer & mate to ask how he can help me. Fruta seca, dried fruit, I say. We go back & forth in Spanish until I understand to say higo for fig. He walks between barrels to a countertop covered with dried fruit in plastic bags. He offers me a fig, which is delicious. I decide to buy 200 grams of dried figs & 4 dried whole peaches. Later the peaches prove to be magnificent.

As we turn back to the main counter, he says what else, & I choose a bottle of the excellent Burra Roja beer from San Carlos & a half dozen eggs. Bastante, I say. ¿No mas? he says. He adds it up, 43 pesos, & when I see the sum on his notepad, I say cuarenta tres. He congratulates me on my eyesight, explains that blue eyes mean good eyesight, & recites a longish poem in Spanish about blue eyes. I understand some, not all of it, smile with delight. Un poeta, I say. He assumes a small proud smile.

On my way out he escorts me, points to a bag of dark plant material that he says is good for cough. I explain that my husband is sick with a cold & that he has been coughing for many years. My new friend turns back behind the main counter, reaches up, & pulls down a dark brown bottle labeled Arrope de Chañar. He points to a large plastic bag full of small round orange fruits: chañar, 1 kilo for 5 pesos. I decline the kilo but accept the 12 peso bottle of fruit syrup. 1-2 teaspoons in warm water 3-4 times a day. I suspect this remedy will work better than what I bought at the pharmacy.

§

Back home, I strip last night’s roasted chicken from the carcass & drop the bones into a soup pot with an onion, salt, peppercorns, & plenty of water. I don’t have any herbs. The bones boil for 2-3 hours, fill the house with the wonderful smell of chicken stock. Later I strain the stock, let it cool, remove most of the chicken fat, add fresh onion & fresh vegetables from Juan Romero Sr.’s garden — red & green sweet peppers, round green zucchini, hubbard squash — & cook the vegetables for 10 minutes before I add the coarsely chopped leftover chicken for the final 5 minutes. My first chicken soup in Argentina. It will feed us for 3 meals.

chicken soup for a cold

§

This morning a large white sheep, oveja, probably the grownup version of the small white lamb we saw with its black sibling last October, jogs into Ginny’s yard. A long dirty white rope trails from its collar. I run outside & snag the rope, only to be jerked hither & thither while I try to lead the sheep off the newly leveled, about-to-be-landscaped yard & back into the meadow across the street. Everyone is laughing, los trabajadores (workers) & Mike, who wishes he had the camera which is bouncing on its strap around my neck. I want to tie up the sheep but don't see a good place. God forbid I should tie the sheep to a metal utility box, & the sheep should pull the box cattywampus or out of the ground entirely.

§

The black bird in the tree looks like a Red-winged Blackbird, but when it flies, I see that the bright-colored patches are yellow, a Yellow-winged Blackbird.

Agelaius thilius, Varillero ala Amarilla, Yellow-winged Blackbird

Argentine birds

Alec Earnshaw is an Argentine birder & painter we've mentioned here before. These are his photos, & perhaps they'll help you identify birds you've seen or soon will.

Don't miss the two photos of the national bird of Argentina: Hornero rufous, Furnarius rufus, aka the red ovenbird.

Albatros ojeroso, Thalassarche melanophrys, black-browed albatross or black-browed mollymawk

Atajacaminos chico, Caprimulgus parvulus, little nightjar

Carpintero campestre, Colaptes campestris, field flicker

Carpintero gigante, Campephilus magellanicus, Magellanic woodpecker

Carpintero real común, Colaptes melanochloros, green-barred woodpecker

Catita chiriri, Brotogeris versicolurus, canary-winged parakeet or white-winged parakeet

Cotorra común, Myiopsitta monachus, monk parakeet or Quaker parrot

Curutié blanco, Cranioleuca pyrrhophia, stripe-crowned spinetail

Espinero pecho manchado, Phacellodomus striaticollis, freckle-breasted thornbird

Federal, scarlet-headed blackbird

Flamenco Austral, Phoenicopterus chilensis, Chilean flamingo

Hornero común, Furnarius rufus, rufous ovenbird

Hornero común, Furnarius rufus, rufous ovenbird

Leñatero, Anumbius annumbi, firewood-gatherer

Loica común, Sturnella loyca, long-tailed meadowlark

Pajonalera pico común, Limnornis curvirostris, curve-billed reedhaunter

Pajonalera pico recto, Limnoctites rectirostris, straight-billed reedhaunter

Petrel barba blanca, Procellaria aequinoctialis, white-chinned petrel or Cape Hen

Petrel damero, Daption capense, pintado petrel or Cape Pigeon

Petrel gigante común, Macronectes giganteus, Southern giant petrel, Antarctic Giant Petrel, Giant Fulmar, Stinker, or Stinkpot

Picaflor bronceado, Hylocharis chrysura, gilded sapphire or gilded hummingbird

Pijuí plomizo, Synallaxis spixi, Spix's spinetail or Chicli spinetail

Rayadito, Aphrastura spinicauda, thorn-tailed rayadito

Tordo amarillo, Xanthopsar flavus, saffron-cowled blackbird

Tordo músico, bay-winged cowbird

Remolinera Araucana, Cinclodes patagonicus, dark-bellied cinclodes

Crestudo, Coryphistera alaudina, lark-like brushrunner