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In celebration of World Ranger Day, we are pleased to feature some amazing warriors for wildlife: the Paso Pacífico rangers! Rain or shine, these community members do more than just monitor animal species. They are well-trained citizen scientists and they are farmers, fishers, mothers, and fathers. These rangers promote a local culture of conservation and sustainability on and off the job.
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Their impact on wildlife extends far and wide. For example, our team of 14 sea turtle rangers protects five critically important sea turtle nesting beaches, three of which they patrol year round. On Playa Brasilón, the country's most important green sea turtle nesting beach, our rangers patrol both day and night. Nicaragua's only female rangers are full members of our team who also manage two sea turtle nurseries and lead the Junior Ranger program. All the sea turtle rangers, moreover, participate in technical work such as in-water sampling, sea turtle tagging, and telemetry.
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Moving inland, our team has nine forest rangers who focus on endangered black-handed spider monkeys and yellow-naped Amazon parrots. Their specialties are diverse—from frog tagging to phenological surveys—and they work on private properties from Lake Nicaragua to the the Pacific coast. Forest rangers do even more, such as lead reforestation teams, band local birds, maintain wildlife cameras, and build fire breaks. In addition, we have a new team of three seasonal rangers in far northern Nicaragua. They work to save near-extinct Nicaraguan cyanoptera macaws, and their ranger skills grow each season.
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With your help, we invest in our rangers through trainings on a wide variety of topics. In recent years, rangers have had opportunities to learn about firefighting, wilderness first aid, team-building, disaster response, and more. Our rangers are united in fulfilling the mission you support. When you give, you are not only helping to provide employment, you are reaching the forest and beaches to save wildlife. We urge you to continue with this support by donating here.
We are grateful to every donor and would like to recognize the Loro Parque Fundación, the Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation, the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, the Thin Green Line Foundation, the International Ranger Federation, an anonymous foundation, and the Los Angeles Zoo for their support to keep our rangers going.
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Karen Lacayo Santana is a passionate sea turtle ranger who co-leads the Junior Ranger program. In fact, she says teaching Junior Rangers fills her with joy. She loves helping them release sea turtles and recognize bird species in the wild. Karen deftly manages classroom dynamics and is known around her village for always having something to share about the environment. A natural leader with an entrepreneurial spirit, she also enjoys trying new things.
Karen grew up in Ostional, Nicaragua, where our sea turtle programs are centered. She is married and her two children often join her at charlas, or Junior Ranger workshops. Her older child was part of our first class of Junior Rangers in 2012, and now helps guide and teach the other children. Karen’s leadership and work ethic are essential to the success of our education program. We are so glad to have Karen on our team!
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As we consider the great impact our ranger team has had, it is impossible to not remember the influence of our first ranger, Paso Pacífico's former board member Rick Smith.
Rick started his career at the Yellowstone National Park and enjoyed a distinguished 31-year-long career in the United States National Park Service (NPS). In time, his colleagues elected him to lead the Association of National Park Rangers, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and the International Ranger Federation. He finished his NPS career where he began, this time as Yellowstone's Acting Superintendent.
While on our board, Rick proposed the idea of forming a ranger team. We did, and found that community members were extremely effective at protecting sea turtles. Several years later, he urged us to include women as part of this elite group. We took this step as well and have never looked back.
Rick also shared with us his enthusiasm for the NPS Junior Ranger program. His encouragement led us to develop a locally adapted yearlong program for kids: our Guardaparques Junior Junior Ranger program!
We are deeply grateful to Rick for his generosity, his expertise, and the mentorship he provides to our individual rangers. Thank you, Rick!
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This month, we had the privilege of participating in the XI Neotropical Ornithological Conference in San José, Costa Rica. We presented on our first three years of MoSI data. At MoSI stations, our rangers sample birds during the overwintering months and collect demographic data. We manage two stations: one at the Chacocente Wildlife Refuge, monitored thanks to the Richland Center–Santa Teresa Sister City Project, and the other at Paso Pacífico's Mono Bayo Reserve.
We shared exciting results such as multi-year visits from near-threatened migratory species like the painted bunting (pictured above). The data we have collected will help us not only locate and protect key habitats in Nicaragua, but also learn more about the North American origins of focus species like the yellow-billed cuckoo. Our MoSI expertise and attendance at this conference was made possible in part by the Institute for Bird Populations, which coordinates data and spearheads training for dozens of MoSI stations in the western hemisphere.
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PARTNERS MAKE IT POSSIBLE
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As we know, borders do not stop endangered parrots. Thus, international partnerships are key to protecting them. This is why we join hands with organizations like Equipo Tora Carey (ETC) comes in. Led by biologist Maike Heidemeyer, this Costa Rican nonprofit primarily focuses on sea turtle conservation adjacent to the Paso del Istmo.
This summer, Paso Pacífico intern and biology student Zanti Rains spent several weeks working in El Jobo, Costa Rica, under the aegis of ETC. She set her sights on the yellow-naped Amazons that roost around the area and followed them on a bicycle to determine their daily migratory routes. She also talked with community members to learn more about opportunities for trans-boundary conservation in this area. Paso Pacífico ranger Yajaira Vargas, who co-leads the Junior Ranger program, assisted her during one week of field work. They learned that many local parrots nest far away from their roosting sites. This finding highlights the need to protect entire landscapes.
ETC and Zanti are now working on a scientific publication about this research, and she plans to share it this fall with the zoological staff at Busch Gardens. We look forward to building on our collaboration with ETC and are especially grateful to Zanti Rains for volunteering her summer.
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