New tech offers ecologists high-quality health checksBy Jack Graham / Thomson Reuters Foundation, MONTREALIn the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon, manatees wallow in the murky water, making them very hard to spot. If you are lucky, you might see their nostrils poking out above the surface, British ecologist Kat Bruce said. A few years ago, she joined conservationists from the WWF who were traveling a 1,000-km stretch of river to study manatees and other species. Photo: ReutersIn Peru, they found 675 vertebrate species — from manatees and river dolphins to night monkeys living high in the trees. “You can’t actually measure ecosystem health just by monitoring what you can see,” NatureMetrics CEO Katie Critchlow said.
