In 1998, on the age of twenty-two, conservation biologist Ximena Velez-Liendo got here face-to-face with South America’s largest carnivore on her first day of subject analysis in Bolivia. Her life modified without end when she rotated to see “this stunning, superb bear popping out of the forest,” Velez-Liendo says. “It was like love at first sight.” She thought in that second: “If I can do something for you, I’ll do it.”
Also called spectacled bears, Andean bears are simply acknowledged by the ring of pale fur that usually encircles one or each eyes. Bolivia is residence to about 3,000 grownup bears, or roughly one-third of the world’s whole Andean bears, whose vary arcs by 5 international locations alongside the western fringe of South America. Listed as weak by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, the species (Tremarctos ornatus) suffers primarily from habitat loss and conflicts with people, who typically kill the bears in retaliation when bears raid crops or hunt livestock.
However whereas the bears can look intimidating (adults weigh as much as 200 kilograms), Velez-Liendo says they like to grind by crops somewhat than meat with their highly effective jaw muscle groups. Although Andean bears belong to the order Carnivora and are “completely succesful” of searching meat, they’ve, like many different bears, an omnivorous food regimen.
When Velez-Liendo first dedicated to serving to the bears, nobody knew what number of lived in her residence nation of Bolivia or the place they roamed. She answered these questions with a national evaluation that estimated the inhabitants and recognized the place the bears can entry meals, shelter and water. Her analyses additionally pinpointed Bolivia’s southern dry forests because the place the place the bears face the largest threats from people. So she determined to place her knowledge into motion: Velez-Liendo began asking locals how she might assist them defend this keystone species.
Velez-Liendo is a “famend Andean bear skilled” and an award-winning conservationist, says John Hechtel, president of the Worldwide Affiliation for Bear Analysis and Administration. She is a cochair of the Andean Bear Knowledgeable Group for the IUCN, a analysis affiliate on the College of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Analysis Unit, a conservation fellow at Chester Zoo in Cheshire, England, and director of the Andean Carnivore Conservation Program in Bolivia. Along with her robust expertise as a biologist and spatial analyst, Velez-Liendo additionally “genuinely cares concerning the well-being of the surroundings … and the native individuals” Hechtel says, which makes her “a very efficient advocate for brand spanking new, artistic approaches to bear conservation.”
Because of Velez-Liendo’s work, Andean bears went from practically extinct within the southernmost a part of their vary to wholesome and recovering. Her inhabitants and habitat assessments now inform international, regional and native efforts to preserve Bolivia’s bear.
From gorillas to bears
Velez-Liendo all the time knew she wished to work with animals. Her earliest recollections are of enjoying within the lowland forests close to her village in southeastern Bolivia as a toddler — “in naked toes, simply poking bugs or crossing the river.” When her household moved to Oruro, a metropolis within the highlands at simply over 3,700 meters elevation, she took to chasing reptiles, persevering with to foster her “appreciation of nature,” she says. She deliberate to attend veterinary faculty till a buddy launched her to biology as a profession path. Whereas incomes her undergraduate diploma from Universidad Mayor de San Simón in Cochabamba, Velez-Liendo had her coronary heart set on learning gorillas in Rwanda — till that fateful day she met her first bear in Carrasco Nationwide Park.
She determined to be taught geographic evaluation and mapping expertise and, as a part of her grasp’s analysis on the College of Leicester in England, she used these instruments to investigate what was responsible for deforestation round Carrasco Nationwide Park. She linked habitat destruction within the area to a increase in coca cultivation following the closing of mines within the highlands together with the completion of a brand new highway connecting the cities of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.
Velez-Liendo then spent nearly three years “touring your complete japanese slope of the Bolivian Andes” to supply the primary — and nonetheless solely — nationwide evaluation of Andean bears as a part of her Ph.D. in biology on the College of Antwerp in Belgium. This meant knocking on doorways in rural communities asking individuals if they’d seen any bears, then verifying anecdotal proof within the subject. At every spot the place a sighting was reported, she looked for bear indicators, notably on the lookout for flowering crops that had been munched by the charismatic mammals. She then recognized the most effective locations to spend money on defending or restoring bear habitat by counting on habitat fashions, panorama connectivity evaluation and human growth fashions. A most inhabitants of three,165 grownup bears occupy 13 key chunks of habitat protecting 21,113 sq. kilometers in Bolivia, in keeping with two research printed by Velez-Liendo in Ursus in 2013 and 2014.
She zeroed in on the dry forested valleys of Tarija, a area in southern Bolivia that borders Argentina, as the most effective habitat for bears outdoors protected parks. Solely 6 p.c of the Andes’ authentic dry forest is left, scattered in a number of patches in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. It’s residence to monkeys, foxes, birds and a half-dozen wild cat species, together with the Andean bear. However the forests have been closely utilized by individuals, says Velez-Liendo. The IUCN was contemplating itemizing the bears in Tarija as extinct.
In 2016, Velez-Liendo acquired a small grant from the Chester Zoo to arrange digital camera traps to see if any bears had been nonetheless in Tarija. At first “the forest was simply empty,” she says. Then in February 2017, a photograph of a mom and cub sparked hope. The identical day that picture was taken, Velez-Liendo came upon she was short-listed for the Whitley Awards, prestigious prizes from the Whitley Fund for Nature which are recognized amongst conservationists because the “Inexperienced Oscars.” She was certainly one of seven 2017 award winners, which gave her 35,000 British kilos (about $27,000 on the fee in Could 2017) in venture funding in addition to conservation coaching. This was her “golden ticket” to launch the Andean Carnivore Conservation Program, she says, and concentrate on serving to individuals coexist with bears and different carnivores.
Serving to with honey
Although Tarija’s forests had been promising bear habitat, they had been additionally a scorching spot for conflicts between individuals and bears. Native villagers confirmed Velez-Liendo bear skins hanging of their dwelling rooms, describing how bears had been a risk to their livestock and crops. When one other group in Tarija confirmed her a stack of brand-new bee packing containers that individuals didn’t know the way to use, she hatched an thought: Might promoting honey assist save bears?
Coaching farmers as beekeepers was catching on in different elements of Bolivia as an eco-friendly manner to offer dependable revenue for rural landowners who may in any other case flip to clearing extra forest. Velez-Liendo requested Patricia Sanchez, an economist who had expertise instructing beekeeping in Bolivia’s highlands, to hitch the Andean Carnivore Conservation Program in 2017. This system covers 70 p.c of the price of new gear and trains locals the way to take care of hives, extract honey and promote it on the market. It additionally helps different varieties of nature-friendly agricultural practices, like fencing livestock and pruning fruit bushes so that they don’t appeal to bears. In change, group members agree to guard the forest and never hurt Andean bears. Velez-Liendo additionally trains locals the way to acquire knowledge and assist monitor the ecosystem. Greater than 100 households had been enrolled in this system in 2023.
“If individuals don’t see the worth of defending an animal, defending an ecosystem … then they’re not going to do it,” Velez-Liendo says.
The sale of Valle de Osos–branded honey domestically supplies beekeeping households with revenue. Sanchez, who visits every of the taking part communities at the very least twice per 30 days, notes that the beekeeping efforts are an financial improvement alternative that may help younger individuals who wish to keep of their communities as an alternative of leaving to discover a job within the metropolis.
In the present day, greater than 60 Andean bears wander by Tarija’s forests, a exceptional improve over the 5 bears documented in 2017. By lowering the retaliatory killing of bears, “we managed to mainly save this bear inhabitants from extinction,” Velez-Liendo says. Having extra bears advantages your complete ecosystem in Tarija, because the bears unfold seeds that assist forests thrive.
Her purpose is to copy Tarija’s mannequin within the Chuquisaca and Cochabamba areas to the north. Partaking extra rural communities can present “stepping stones” of habitat to attach remoted bear populations, she says.
A “bear-ologist” who works with individuals
Velez-Liendo says all the bear biologists she is aware of in Bolivia are ladies, notable in a rustic the place it’s uncommon to see a lady driving a automotive. She jokes that pursuing Andean bears over Bolivia’s rugged terrain “isn’t for the faint of coronary heart.” Her mentor at the start of her profession and past was Susanna Paisley, the primary biologist to place a radio collar on an Andean bear within the wild. Paisley, primarily based in Canterbury, England, says that certainly one of Velez-Liendo’s most spectacular achievements is the belief she’s cultivated amongst individuals in southern Bolivia’s agricultural communities. Wholesome ecosystems are actually related to extra financial safety in that area, notably within the face of persistent droughts and local weather change.
“There’s a whole lot of obstacles to this sort of work,” Paisley says. Many distant elements of Bolivia don’t have any infrastructure and “a whole lot of machismo,” which requires dedication to get outcomes. “You’ve obtained to be a maverick.” She calls Velez-Liendo “a power of nature” with an experimental and collaborative strategy.
Velez-Liendo says certainly one of her largest private challenges was shifting from being a “bear-ologist” who wasn’t all that eager about working with individuals to realizing that persons are the answer for saving the animals she loves. “Conservation comes from … the communities that dwell with this biodiversity,” she says. “I believe that’s how conservation is altering: from the fingers of biologists to the fingers of individuals.”
The Andean Carnivore Conservation Program just lately acquired a three-year grant from the Chester Zoo. Now that she will be able to take a breather from fundraising to maintain the venture going, Velez-Liendo plans to concentrate on publishing outcomes from Tarija. She additionally desires to jot down an academic guide to assist a wider viewers perceive the bears. “There are such a lot of issues bears can train us, and the primary one is to take life simple,” she says. “Simply keep away from confrontation … and sleep properly.”
