Reports are made from mid-month to mid-month; we will add the first part of May's work as we can. This report has been edited during translation and for the Web.

Map of Eastern Ecuador
May 14, 1997
Wrote report for previous month.

May 15, 1997
To Riobamba to give conference to 300 students at the high school "Miguel Angel Leon."

May 16, 1997
Compose a schedule for the next month and attend to business in Baños.

May 19, 1997
Go to Riobamba; give two conferences at high school "La Salle" to about 400 students. [Travel to Quito to discuss a proposition that could bring in funding for the work.]

May 20, 1997
Travel Quito to Riobamba at 4:00 a.m. Gave 2 conferences at the high school "Isabel de Godin" - 4th year students, +/- 300 students in attendance; gave second conference to 15 professors of the high school in natural sciences, biology. These latter were very happy and congratulated the Andean Tapir Fund. They requested another conference on ecology from Craig C. Downer, and I told them Craig would be returning in October at which time he would give a conference on "Ecology and Environment." Furthermore, they invited me/us to participate in a meeting of all of the professors of Riobamba to give a further conference.

May 21, 1997
Travel to Riobamba. Conference to 200 children at the "Jardin de Infantes General La Valle No. 2." The young age of these students made the conference difficult. In the afternoon I worked with Wendy Osterlin, Peace Corps Volunteer, in Baños.

May 22, 1997
Travel to Riobamba at 5:30 a.m. to deliver conference in the police station of the city. Two hundred and fifty police attended. They paid close attention. Afterwards they said that they want to apply the law protecting the mountain tapir and were unaware of the law. They wish to have a copy of it and they said they will jail those who bring animals live or dead from the "Oriente Ecuatoriano" - the Amazon. They asked where they should hand over animals confiscated. I told them to take them to the INEFAN office of whatever province they are in.

[This presentation was very important, especially as Riobamba, only a few kilometers from Sangay National Park, is a center for illegal trade in tapirs that have been poached in the park and surrounding countryside.]

They asked for a copy of the video so they can show it in each rural area.

[This is the film, "Esperanza the Mountain Tapir," by Living Planet Productions, Clifton, Bristol, England. It was to be translated into Spanish, but had not been at the time of this report.]

I explained to them that as soon as the Spanish version was complete, they could purchase it for their use. Then they could use it in their conferences. Later in the afternoon I went to the zoo in Baños to see the baby tapir since the "Isabel de Godin" high school asked me to explain more about the mountain tapir. This went very well; the students were very enthusiastic.

[The tapirs at this zoo are probably Baird's-Brazilian hybrids. Since no mountain tapirs are in captivity in Ecuador, these served to show the students what a tapir is, how it looks and behaves.]

May 23, 1997
Went to Riobamba to meet Indira Medina. She had invited me to give a talk to her students at the "Maldenado" high school the day before. There were 300 students with a giant projection screen. After the conference, Indira was very enthused with the project to preserve the Andean tapir. Furthermore the high school rector was present and thanked Indira for making this conference possible.

[Indira was working on an article with illustrations, based on a letter interview she had just completed with Craig C. Downer; it was to be published in an ecology magazine in Riobamba.]

May 24, 1997
Activated the unused radio collars. [This must be done periodically to keep the batteries in good condition for use.]

May 26, 1997
Traveled at 6:00 a.m. to Ambato to open house at Immaculada high school [where Craig had given a conference earlier and where the girls have formed a club to save the mountain tapir]. Here I saw all the students in their uniforms and with shirts they had designed with the slogan ["Yo protego al Tapir Andino" ("I protect the Andean Tapir")]. They have made a very ingenious model of the Andean ecosystem with the mountain tapir and illustrations of the ecosystem's functioning as a living sponge. This lets out water as it has in the high part of the volcano a sponge that slowly releases water. These students themselves show their model and tell about the mountain tapir to visitors to the city as well as to students from other educational institutions. After 11:30 a.m., I went to the Infantry Battalion #38 Esmeraldas, Ambato, to give a conference and leave a solicitude asking for personnel to dig holes to plant trees. Afterward, I traveled to Quito to deliver a conference in the "Mexicano" high school to +/-150 students. They were very enthused.

May 27, 1997
Deactivated the four collars. Quito - In the morning I went to the Teralia mineral water company, Guitig (biggest in Ecuador).

[They had indicated interest in supporting the mountain tapir project after a TV showing in which their commercial was presented. They gave him the run-around, making him wait for hours and finally canceling his interview and slide presentation. Ruben left in disgust after having wasted a lot if time.]

Later left for north Quito and gave a talk/show at the "Chalinger" high school where there was excellent participation and the school invited me back for another conference. Later I went to the Coca-Cola factory to present the project for mineral water "Fontana," changing certain phrases of the project I had prepared for Guitig. Later I went to a Catholic high school run by sisters in "El Floron" to give a conference, but a terrible hail fell and I was trapped in a trolley car. Later got very wet so the sisters told me that the conference could be given on another occasion. Finally, I returned to Baños, arriving at 12:00 midnight, and deactivated the collars.

May 28, 1997
I taught miniature gardening to a group of youth as an alternative for raising and hunting birds, butterflies, insects.

[These species are caught and sold as an income source, mainly for teenagers and older children.]

This garden was 30 cm wide by 90 cm long and was made in front of a tomb in the cemetery in the afternoon. I traveled to Ambato to visit the Pastaza Foundation to confirm whether they would give trees for the "5 de Junio" [a local celebration] and how many. Later went back to military battalion who said they couldn't dig the holes after all.

May 29, 1997
Went with Wendy Osterlin to the preschool kindergarten in San Vicente and she taught manual work to the children and an ecological game. Later we went to see some tree holes they had made at the edge of the highway - twelve of them. In the afternoon, I visited various institutions such as small businesses, central market, Red Cross, hospital, firefighters, etc., offering them 4 types of trees, as many as they needed. Wendy went with me.

May 30, 1997
Inspect 500 tree holes. Met with Carlos Rundo to see how the forestation went and await second shipment of trees from INEFAN/Fundacion Pastaza. To go to Runtun at 3:00 p.m. At 1:30 p.m., a truck from the municipality arrived with 4,000 trees which are stored in the elementary school Jorge Isaac Rovalo [where a presentation was given in November]. INEFAN directors arrived, also Fundacion Pastaza and together with Carlos Rundo we went to Runtun where the whole community was gathered and we told them that we wanted them to become a buffer zone for Sangay National Park. They agreed to form a type of reserve or buffer zone for the park. I spoke of the burning of the steep slopes and the killing of animals, especially the Andean tapir, which they should care for. I also explained how conservation of their resources including the tapir could help them promote nature-oriented tourism, and that it would be good to restore the lakes of Runtun.