Ecaudorian Viscachas in Quilanga, Loja Province, Ecuador
Hi everyone,
I am a new member to this site, and Rob Jansen encouraged me to write a note about my recent experience with Ecuadorian Viscacha (Lagidium ahuacaense) in Quilanga, Loja Province, southern Ecuador.
Rob had mentioned in his Ecuador trip report that he had arranged a search for the Ecaudorian Viscacha with Jimmy Japón, a biologist who knows more about the locations of Ecuadorian Viscacha than just about anyone. Rob had visited a site close to Quilanga (near Jimmy’s house), but mentioned in his report that Jimmy knew of another site that was further away but more reliable. I reached out to Jimmy and he was happy to accommodate my wife, Laura and I on a search for this very rare species at the further site.
At the moment there are only a couple of family groups known and so the situation is quite dire, with threats to the species including fires and poaching. Based on Jimmy’s wishes I will keep the exact location secret. However, Jimmy is open to the idea of other mammal watchers contacting him, and he will guide you to the site. He can be reached on WhatsApp at +593 960532240 (Spanish only). Jimmy didn’t charge us any money to show us the viscachas but we tipped him well, and I would suggest that others do the same.
We overnighted in the town of Quilanga and booked a room at Hostal El Jardín, which is a simple but comfortable hotel. We contacted them through WhatsApp (+593 986304407) and we were the only ones staying there. The hotel is above a cafe that has delicious locally-grown coffee.
We met Jimmy at our hotel early in the morning and drove east of town into the mountains for around an hour to reach the site. We did not have 4×4 but could drive most of the way to the site. It was the rainy season and the road was not in great condition with some muddy areas and even a few small landslides that we had to move out of the way. We parked at a particularly sketchy stretch of road and walked for around 5 kilometres further down the road. After that, we hiked down a steep slope (losing around 500 m in elevation gain), and then worked our way along the side of a very steep rocky slope that was quite treacherous. The tough hike was worth it though, as Jimmy brought us to the rock crevices used by the viscachas and we had incredible views of three individuals for the whole morning, from a distance of around 10 meters. Jimmy did mention that it is possible to view this rocky area from an easier-to-access viewpoint, but at this site you are looking 200-300 meters across a valley and a scope would be ideal. We did not visit this viewpoint, instead opting for the difficult hike to have close views of the viscachas.
Please reach out if anyone has further questions about searching for Ecuadorian Viscachas in Quilanga.
Cheers,
Josh Vandermeulen (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
joshvandermeulen@live.ca
Post author
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.