Giant Otters in Peru’s Manu National Park – follow the BBC on a brand-new tour from Naturetrek

Feb. 7, 2013 - PRLog -- Filmed by Charlie Hamilton James in collaboration with the Frankfurt Zoological Society, the episode follows Diablo, as his unusually-large family of six cubs (the largest ever recorded) grow up in a jungle lake in south-eastern Peru’s Manu National Park.  

Giant otters were previously hunted to near the brink of extinction, but have now slightly recovered as a result of the CITES ban on trade in their fur.  However, they’re now threatened – like so much Amazonian wildlife – by the continued destruction of their forest habitat via industries like gold-mining, as well as the pollution such industries cause.

Famed as one of the best places to see jaguars, Manu National Park is also known as a premier destination for watching giant otters.  Extending from the Andes to the Amazon, the park ranks high among Earth’s most biologically-diverse areas. Protected since 1973, it spans 1.7 million hectares, with terrain ranging from paramo scrubland through moss-festooned elfin forest to lowland tropical jungle, and also boasts Andean spectacled bears, tapir, 15 species of monkey and over 1,000 bird species.  It’s also home to approximately 80-100 giant otters, which live mainly in the large ox-bow lakes along the Manu River. The otters in the BBC film were shot on the largest of these, Cocha Salvador.

If you’d like to visit Manu and hopefully see a giant otter yourself, try wildlife specialist Naturetrek (01962 733051, http://www.naturetrek.co.uk).  The company has a brand-new ‘Wild Peru – The Best of Manu‘ tour which almost guarantees sightings of this incredible creature, along with a huge spread of the park’s of birds, countless reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and other mammals.  The tour aims to explore each unique area of the park in depth and thus provide a real insight into its amazing biodiversity. Visiting Manu constitutes one of South America’s ultimate forest journeys and wildlife experiences.

Departing 20 September 2013, the 17-day tour costs £4,795 pp, including flights from Heathrow (one overnight), all transportation, 13 nights’ full board in a mixture of birding and wildlife lodges, two nights’ room-only accommodation in Lima and the services of an expert tour guide.  Call Naturetrek on 01962 733051 (http://www.naturetrek.co.uk).  

Ends – 6 February 2013
Press:  For further information, to discuss a possible press trip, for photography, to request a copy of the current brochure (online version here) or to interview David Mills, MD of Naturetrek, contact Richard Mellor at Travel PR on 020 8891 4440 or r.mellor@travelpr.co.uk.