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From the bromeliads, ferns, and orchids that cover a kapok tree 160 feet above the forest floor to the jaguars that prowl below, Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park is home to countless plant and animal species. All of them now face threats from oil development.
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Cobalt-winged parakeets flock to a pool. Scientists have identified nearly 600 species of birds in the park.
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Photograph by David Liittschwager
Insects are so diverse that there may be 100,000 species in the space of two and a half acres, including those shown here with other creatures.
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Ten monkey species live in Yasuní. Two more have been reported, but scientists have yet to confirm their presence.
Red howler monkey, Alouatta seniculus, avg. length, head and body, 19 inches -
Pygmy marmoset, Ebuella pygmaea, avg. length, 5 inches
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Golden-mantled tamarin, Saguinus tripartitus, avg. length, 9 inches
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Poeppig’s woolly monkey, Lagothrix poeppigii, avg. length, 19 inches
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Common squirrel monkey, Saimiri sciureus, avg. length, 12 inches
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Noisy night monkey, Aotus vociferans, avg. length, 14 inches
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Equatorial saki, Pithecia aequatorialis, avg. length, 16 inches
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White-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons, avg. length, 16 inches
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Red titi, Callicebus discolor, avg. length, 13 inches
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White-bellied spider monkey, Ateles belzebuth, avg. length, 20 inches
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A jaguar on the hunt trips a camera trap at a spot frequented by piglike peccaries, a favorite prey. To the Waorani, one of the native groups in this area, jaguars are ancestral spirits that visit shamans in dreams to tell them where game is plentiful in the forest.
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The pheasant-size hoatzin fans its feathers, often while strutting along a branch, but flaps its wings clumsily when it takes to the air. It lives near swamps, digests food by fermentation like a cow, and is so odd that scientists can’t decide how to classify it.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
Armed with spear, shotgun, and machete, Minihua Huani (at left) and Omayuhue Baihua search for animals near the Waorani community of Boanamo. Villagers are allowed to hunt in the park, their ancestral territory. Many still do, to provide food for their families.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
The Waorani were once seminomadic, living in houses thatched with palm leaves, like these in the community of Cononaco Chico. Today most have settled permanently and live in homes made of wood and concrete.
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Photograph by Karla Gachet
Cousins Victor Ruñari Vargas and Judith Obe Coba view photos on a laptop in the home of their extended family in Guiyero, a community in Yasuní. Vargas took the photos at a beauty pageant in Kawymeno, a village some 50 miles away. Since the total Waorani population is only about 3,000, he and Coba recognize nearly all the contestants.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
Bay Baihua returns home to Bameno with a leg of deer, his share of a hunt. Though some Waorani use guns, his equipment is traditional. The spear that killed the deer and a long blowgun rest on his shoulder. The case on his back holds poisoned blowgun darts, and the dark round container at his waist holds cotton, used to pack darts tightly into the blowgun.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
Pompeya was once an isolated village where members of the Kichwa indigenous group lived. When the Maxus oil company built a road here in the early 1990s, dozens of new homes and businesses sprang up. On market day Waorani now come from the surrounding area to buy supplies, socialize, and have a few beers at a rustic bar.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
Heading to market, members of a Kichwa family tote crates of empty beer bottles to return, along with products to sell. The items often include bush meat—illegal to sell but still a hot commodity. The road that the oil company built lets Waorani and Kichwa hunters who live in Yasuní travel deep into the park and deliver loads of bush meat to the black market—a business that is emptying the forest of wildlife.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
More than 12 miles of a road being built by the Petroamazonas oil company have been cleared inside the park. Conservationists are concerned because the road is meant to move oil workers and machinery into ecologically vulnerable Block 31. It may also eventually reach—and spoil—the still pristine block to the east.
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Photograph by Karla Gachet
Men from the community of Rumipamba, in the background, clean up the remnants of a 1976 oil spill. They’re glad for the work, which pays $450 a month, but they and their families suffer health problems like chronic skin rashes, possibly caused by exposure to the oil. Many people fear such pollution could occur in Yasuní if developers drill for oil.
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Photograph by Karla Gachet
Like many Waorani today, these two families blend old and new. Returning home to Bameno, their community on the Cononaco River, they bring the fruits of a traditional hunt: peccary, monkey, and deer. But the clothing and boats come from the outside world.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
Home alone in Bameno, children under the age of 14 fend for themselves while their parents and older siblings attend a party in Kawymeno, two days away by foot. Mostly self-sufficient, they have a grandfather nearby for emergencies.
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Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky
After a day’s work, Waorani gather in a communal house to share a meal and tell stories. Omayuhue Baihua, seated beneath the radio, has brought home a monkey from a hunt. His wife, Tepare Kemperi, is stewing it over a fire for dinner.
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A fiery glow in the sky over Yasuní, revealed in a long exposure, comes from the flares of oil wells burning off gas. With oil operations creeping ever closer, the possibility of destruction hangs heavily over the last untouched corner of this primeval forest.
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Photograph by Karla Gachet
Nine-year-old Daniela Cupe Ahua daydreams as her sister-in-law tends to babies. In keeping with Waorani custom, this extended family live together. Their house, near the Maxus Road, uses store-bought blankets as walls.
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