Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Eco Worldly
Levi Novey

Several days ago, I read a story about how Peru’s butterfly exports had increased 43% from January-April of this year. These are the butterflies that are pinned into glass frames for sale as gifts and souvenirs. I wondered if all of these butterflies included those that are exported illegally and those that are endangered. Questions of this kind were on my mind as just several days earlier my family had passed by a street vendor who sold animals illegally.

One of the animals was a baby monkey, caged and frightened. We live in the highlands region of Peru, so the monkey was far from its former home in the rainforest. My wife, who in the past worked as a biologist throughout Peru, told me that she thought this was an endangered monkey. As we walked home, I wished I had brought my camera. This I thought, is a story that needs to be pursued.

Yesterday, I went with my family once again to see the animals sold by the street vendor. This time I took my camera, hoping to take a photo of the monkey. Unfortunately, the monkey had been sold. My wife had told me that it was probably a Brown capuchin monkey (Cebus apella). Despite not finding the monkey, the photos I did get were probably even better.

Just as we arrived, a man in a car pulled up and inquired about one of the larger birds that was being sold. He ended up buying the bird, probably a Scarlet-fronted parakeet (Aratinga wagleri), for 33 nuevo soles (approximately $11 American). Watching the vendor get the bird out of the cage was painful. The stressed bird pecked at the man’s hand as much as he could. Once the vendor succeeded in grabbing the bird, he put it in a brown paper bag with a piece of corn. I told my wife, “At least he gave it something to eat.” She then told me, “Those type of birds don’t eat corn though, they eat fruit.”

What I Discovered in My Research about Peru’s Illegal Wildlife Trade

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