A trumpeter's tale

摘要

Midnight in the rainforest: no moon and barely a gleam of light. I listened carefully to the whine of mosquitoes, the bleep of tree frogs and the croak of crested owls. I had been kneeling awkwardly for hours, constantly changing position, unable to see my ownw hands. And it wasn't just for fun. I was waiting for the night chorus of the pale-winged trumpeter, an eccentric bird I'd travelled thousands of miles to study with fellow biologist Nathalie Seddon here at Cocha Cashu Biological Station, ManuNational Park, Peru. This was a bird whose breeding biology was highly unusual, whose communication system was controversial, and whose foraging and territorial behaviour was abnormal. It was revered as a mascot and talisman by Amazonian tribes, and we had come to Cocha Cashu to decipher its mysteries.