Pishtacos – Human oil extractors – The Bogeymen of Peru.

Bay-vented Cotinga. One of the special birds in the remote Unchog in Carpish, Huanuco

The news of Peruvian human oil extractors – pishtacos- is now not only a legend of the central highlands of Peru after yesterday’s news release that travelled the world. (See World War 4 Report and BBC)

This quite seriously damages Peru’s reputation and could also have effects when birding.

In the Central highlands of Junin, Pasco and Huanuco the Pishtaco is the Bogeyman. The adults tell the kids that if the don’t eat up or behave, the Pishtaco will take them. The Pishtacos are white mercenaries killing locals, extracting their oil, to sell to Europe and to the US for use of beauty lotions, plastic surgery, grease the railroad and – believe it or not – to run the Space Shuttle.

When I first travelled in Central Peru with a group in 1996, the kids upon seeing us jumped into the ditch as we drove by silently screaming “Pishtacos”. A few years later our car was bombarded with stones as we drove up to Unchog. At the trail just beyond the Carpish Tunnel a man directly accused us of being Pishtacos.

Over the years, the people in the Carpish/Unchog area have become more accustomed to see gringos birdwatching. Also there have been direct benefits with donations to the schools in the area as well as an entrance fee established to visit Unchog for birding and I until recently thought the Pishtaco episode – taking birders for pishtacos – was over and done with.

The myth becomes reality

With the national police showing the evidence yesterday and three suspects have confessed to killing five people for their fat, and two were arrested carrying bottles of liquid fat, the legend suddenly get some substance. It is hard to believe however that there really is a commerce with human body fat going on around the world. As Dr Adam Katz, professor of plastic surgery at the University of Virginia medical school, says:

I can’t see why there would be a black market for fat, It doesn’t make any sense at all, because in most countries we can get fat so readily and in such amounts from people who are willing and ready to donate that I don’t see why there would ever be a black market for fat, of all tissues.

If it is true, and these crimes have been committed, it seems that the gang may have believed the legend so much that they got absorbed in becoming producers of the oil wanted by “beautiful white first world”. Sad when you think of it. Like digging for gold at the end of the rainbow.

In some Peruvian sources, it has been claimed, that this type of news-story – urban legends “proven” true – such as pishtacos or blood-crying madonnas, always pop-up as smoke screens when the reigning authorities are in trouble. Time will tell, but watch carefully what pops up to be officially forgotten within the following days.

Recommendation for birders

Unfortunately, the deep-rooted myth is getting fuel by such news. This may become dangerous to adventurous travellers off the beaten track – as birders often are. Here are some examples for you.

Last year we took some farmers from Central Peru (Carpish and Satipo road) to Mindo so they could experience eco-tourism in practice. We wanted to bring more people from Carpish, but rumours had it, that we were Pishtacos and that the participants would be beheaded, slaughtered and adipose extracted when exposed to foreign buyers in Ecuador. One of the members from Carpish, was suprised to see that none of this was true and that he returned living and well to Carpish.

Earlier this year, in another part of Central Peru, in Pucacocha in the Andamarca valley, Junin, our car was surrounded by villagers accusing the birders inside the vehicle for being Pishtacos. The situation was somewhat uncomfortable, but our guide and driver managed to explain what we really were doing and the group could leave with somewhat of a scare.

In light of the hysteria and psychosis that follows news like this I recommend that independant birders visiting the departments of Huanuco, Pasco and Junin to be very careful. You should speak good Spanish if you want to visit these areas now or go with a Peruvian guide. Birders travelling with tour companies should have no worries, as these companies make pre-arrangements with the local communities.

Also, I don’t expect any complications whatsoever along the normal tourist circuit Lima-Paracas-Nazca-Colca-Titicaca-Cusco-Machu Picchu-Manu – or other parts of Peru for that matter.

by Gunnar Engblom January 18, 2009 2

Speed birding in Central Peru. Day 4. Jan 8. Junin Lake and Ticlio pass

This is the last post of the 4 day trip to Central Peru with Scott Robinson, Robert Holt, Andrew Kratter and Per and Lena Lundberg. The previous posts can be found here.

Junin lake and Junin Grebe.

We finally allowed ourselves a sleep-in this morning, with a 5 AM start! It was freezing cold and most of us had a bit of headache in the morning due to dehydration induced by the altitude. We had an hours drive to Pari, immediately we had breakfast and looked at the surrounding birds. There were Andean Negrito, Black Siskin, Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant and Bar-winged Cinclodes present. At the edge a Guinea Pig was seen as well as a Blackish Rail briefly. Over the lake a Peregrine Falcon passed. We saw several Chilean Flamingos as well.
Not before long the park people arrived with a small zodiac and a small 15hp engine. Hmm! No way could we fit in 6 people in that. However, Lena was not feeling too well and was not going, and I sacrificed my space, so that the boat could take off with only 4 people.
About 10 grebes were seen all together, but identification was tricky. Fortunately, Andy carried his camera and we could concur that there were at least 2 individuals among Silvery Grebes.

: Junin Grebe (left) and Silvery Grebe (right). Photo: Andy Kratter. Jan 8, 2009. Note the ski-slope forhead of the Junin Grebe and the round head and short bill of the SIlvery Grebe.

Water level fluctuations at Junin can be up to 2.3m as shown on this meter. Photo: Gunnar Engblom

The Junin Grebe was one of Scott’s targets. This rare flightless grebe, is critically threatened. The main threat in the past has been pollution from mining. The population seems to have been stable around 200-300 individuals in the last decades. New threats are piling up, however – and my guess is that these are not taken seriously into account. The lake is also a reservoir for the Mantaro hydroelectrical plant, which provides 40% of Peru’s electric energy and 70% of the consumption in LIma. The regulation of the lake means drastic fluctuations of water levels. These changes can be very abrubt and obviously affect breeding birds. The difference in maximum and minimum water level is some 2.3 m. The effects of these fluctuations have not been studied. In light of the glacial retraction and possibly less rainfall in the Andes as result of global warming, and additionally an ever increasing demand in Lima for both water and electric energy, it is very likely that these fluctuations will be even greater in the future. It is unlikely that the Grebe will be evolutionary adapt to cope with abrubt such changes imposed in just a few decades, when it has evolved into flightlessness with very stable ecological conditions in million of years.

UPDATE: The note below from Hugo Arnal showing that it is very difficult to seperate Silvery and Junin Grebes in the field, makes any survey suspect of rather big degree of error.

To further illustrate this let’s look at some picture that Andy took on the same boat trip. The guys came back a bit dissappointed that they had not seen the Grebe for certain, but there were a few individuals that were suspicious.

The picture to the right the Grebe look round headed and looking away, could easily be mistaken for a Silvery Grebe. The right picture is the same bird one second later. The long head indentifies it as a Junin Grebe.

These birds photographed over a minute apart, both look round headed. However, they are looking away as they swim away from the camera. In field conditions it could easily be accounted for a Silvery Grebe. The bill however as the photo shows is way too long for Silvery Grebe and they are both Junin Grebes.

Many other birds seen were Puna Teal, Yellow-billed Pintail, Andean Duck, Speckled Teal, Wilson´s Phalarope, Baird´s Sandpiper and Many-colored Rush-Tyrant.

The zodiac came back quite late, so we were pushed for time to get to the airport before 6 pm.

On the way to Ticlio, we had to make a forced stop to shot pictures of some Vicuñas close to the road. The vicuña has in recent year become a invaluable resource for poor (not so poor anymore) campesinos of the altiplano, as the state buy up wool sustainably harvested in “chacos” – traditional round-ups similar to the reindeer of the Same in Scandinavia -when the wool is shaved off from temporarily captured animals.

White-bellied Cinclodes a threatened species.

A short technical stop at Ticlio gave two endangered White-bellied Cinclodes and one White-fronted Ground-Tyrant. The Cinclodes have an extremely small population and distribution centered to glaciar-fed peat bogs above 4600m in Junin, Lima and Huancavelica departments. The habitat in many places is being destroyed by peat harvesting which is not very sustainably considering the slow rate of growth of the high altitude Distichia muscoides cushion peat.
We reached the airport in time for the groups flight to Iquitos, via a fast car-wash near LIma to make the dusty Van, somewhat less dusty.

Beware of the birder – I’m coming to take you away, ha ha!

The myth becomes reality

Recommendation for birders

Junin lake and Junin Grebe.

White-bellied Cinclodes a threatened species.