Chiriquí Chatter

The following post was on one of the Yahoo Groups for Panama.

Date: Sat Dec 10, 2005 7:30 am
Subject: Passing on important info…Corcovado, Costa Rica

The Old factotum is very sad after being e-mailed of a
possible ecological disaster in the making inside
Corcovado National Park.

A GalloPintoer friend of that beautiful place has
written me of personal observations over a period of
months.

After reading the Posting to GalloPinto on Monday
(Subject “Costa Rican Wildlife”) this person is reaching
out to GalloPintoers everywhere in order to hopefully
break some sort of ill-advised local “Code of Silence”.
Something very terrible appears to be going on that is
not being publicly identified or acknowledged.

At very least: No information is being released to the
public.

My informant does not wish to be publicly identified as
a source because of possible condemnation from
individuals in the tourism industry on the Osa
Peninsula, but will allow the use of this forum as a
conduit. In the following material I have changed some
phraseology, but the meaning is intact — in an effort
to protect the source.

I’ll just let my informant tell the story from here:

——————

Rainforest animals in Corcovado are dying in great
numbers. Toucans, sloths, macaws, monkeys and even
Amazon parrots are all dying. The bodies of at least
six toucans and a sloth have been cremated and buried to
prevent a possible spread of disease. It is affecting
the whole Osa Peninsula. This die-off apparently began
slowly in October and appeared to accelerate each week
in numbers of dead animals and birds found since that
time.

They have been “experts” running tests within Corcovado
Park, but there is a feeling among some residents of the
area that not enough is being done. Some believe the
die-off should be kept all “hush hush” because of the
fear of losing tourism. Well, if there are no more
animals, there will not be any tourism anyway. We have
been told to keep it quiet, to protect tourism, but the
rainforest animals are dying. Teams of experts of all
types are needed to identify the cause and develop
preventative treatment programs.

The park is now closed until December 20th. Even that
has not made the news. The most biologically intense
place on earth, the Osa Peninsula, and her crown jewel
National Park - Corcovado - is under attack by some
unknown force and no one outside the immediate area even
knows!

Some idiots are even saying it is starvation, but you
cannot convince me in a million years that a sloth
cannot find enough leaves to eat in the forest. You
cannot convince me in a million years that so many
species ran out of food all of a sudden at the same
time.

It could be chemicals, an airborne disease, mosquitoes
with West Nile, we just don’t know yet. But whatever
happening is very big and no one seems to know about it
with the exception of people who live here, a few select
people from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy
(MINAE) - and other government agencies and ministries.

We need to put some pressure on, and fast!

I just wanted you to know about this die-off because the
GalloPinto article made me cry yesterday morning. As it
talked about the animals in the park, I was looking at a
black plastic bag with a dead sloth inside, waiting for
someone to come and pick it up for laboratory testing.

————–

The Old Factotum thanks our source for having the
courage to break the local “Code of Silence” — and for
bringing this story to GalloPinto. I would very much
like to hear from knowledgeable others about this
ongoing problem. If necessary, I will protect the
identity of anyone willing to break the apparent
imbecilic code of silence and get needed assistance for
an apparently very sick National Park.

It is now in your hands GalloPintoers! What can we do
as a group — and/or — as individuals?

Chuck Leake
GalloPinto Owner - Proprietor - Factotum
Advocatus diaboli
Sabana Oeste, San Jose, Costa Rica

Yellow fever was blamed for last big die-off
By Jesse Froehling
and the A.M. Costa Rica staff

DRAKE BAY — The last time massive deaths took the lives on monkeys in the Osa Peninsula, the cause was yellow fever, said the expert in charge of the current investigation.

He is Eduardo Carrillo, a Universidad Nacional biologist with expertise in Parque Nacional Corcovado. He said the last big epidemic was in the 1950s. But yellow fever does not infect birds, which are suffering during the current epidemic, he noted. So that may not be the cause unless there are two separate epidemics.

Yellow fever can be contracted by humans, and the mortality rate among those not inoculated is 40 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for disease control. The cause is a virus that is passed in the bite of a mosquito.

Carrillo, reached at his Heredia office, said that perhaps half the monkeys at the park have died. He is the first official to confirm the massive die-off, although residents of the area suspected as much.

Carrillo said that if the deaths are not caused by yellow fever, the problem could be lack of food or a different ailment. Blood tests that are being processed will tell.

Officials closed the park Saturday to all but authorized humans, but the illness of birds and monkeys seems to be universal throughout the Osa Peninsula and not just confined to the park.

Costa Rica does not require a yellow fever shot for tourists to enter the country. The Centers for Disease Control said that the basic precaution is to avoid mosquitoes.

Meanwhile, several South American countries have closed their borders to poultry products from Colombia because several cases of non-lethals bird flu have been detected there.

This is the flu variety that does not even kill chickens, but it is related to the deadly H5N1 that has surfaced in Asia. Central American officials worry that the deadly flu could be brought to the area by migratory birds.

Although they have not mentioned it, researchers certainly will be looking for the presence of the West Nile virus, which came to the United States only in 1999. Cases already have been reported in South America and in nearly all U.S. States, El Salvador and Belize.

The West Nile virus can devastate wild populations and can affect at least 290 bird species and at least 30 types of animals, including humans, according to the National Audubon Society, Inc. It, too, is spread by mosquitoes.

Tags: Costa Rica