In the summer of 1998, supported by a contribution from the Primate Education, Training, Exploration and Research Fund to the Department of Anthropology, UC Davis, I set out to study the fruiting cycle of some neotropical tree species. Armed with two bottles of IKI solution, a brix refractometer, a penetrometer (that isn't a joke) and the drive to make a scientific breakthrough, I set out for the eastern Ecuadorian lowlands, to USFQ's Tiputini Biodiversity Station. Minutes after my arrival, however, I realized I had made a major oversight: the fruits were 120 feet up in the canopy and I couldn't fly. Lacking the skills to climb trees, I worked at trying to collect fruits for a few weeks and gave up after my single focal tree was completely fed out by some wooly monkeys.

The Tiputini Biodiversity Station.

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 Me looking at the fruits dropped by the woolies.

Not having any particular project to do, I decided to spend much of the the remainder of my time trying to get a feeling for the differences in diversity across a vertical gradient. Fortunately, Tom Kunz had gotten funding for the first canopy walkway in Ecuador, designed and built by Canopy Construction Associates, which was completed only weeks after I arrived. The pictures on this page have been divided into the strata in which they were taken, with some captions describing what they are. Some of these photos were taken in 1995 when I participated in the BU program. Enjoy! All of the pictures and video are my own, so if you want to use them, please ask. Any comments/corrections, please e-mail me (greenberg@ucdavis.edu).

Ceiba tree.

New (2/3/00) pictures in most sections!

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Acknowledgements

     Special thanks to Peter Rodman for the intellectual (and financial!) support and Chelsea Kostrub for use of her camera and for capturing that huge caterpillar. The illustration in the index is from Terborgh (1992), Diversity and the tropical rain forest.