Noel Kempff Mercado
When I visited the zoo, I discovered it is called the Noel Kempff Mercado Zoo. And around the corner from my apartment is the Noel Kempff Mercado Museum of Natural History. So, I began to wonder who is this man?
Let me tell you what I found out.
He was born in February of 1924 and throughout his life maintained a deep love of nature. He promoted the study and conservation of nature in Bolivia. He moved to the country and began raising bees. His curiosity about his bees, caused him to research where they looked for nectar. That curiosity began his study of his native Santa Cruz department. This in turn led him to the study of botany and eventually zoology.
As a beekeeper, he became the president of
the Apicultural Society of Bolivia.
Later in life, he was a biology professor at the Gabriel René Moreno
University. In his last years, he was
the director of the Botanical Gardens and the Municipal Zoo of Santa Cruz, and
the director of parks and gardens for the municipality. The original Botanical Garden was destroyed
in a flood of the River Piraí, but has since been replaced by a garden he would
be proud of on the road to Cotoca. His
idea for the zoo and botanical garden was to teach people the need to conserve
nature. He insisted on using only native
species in both. So, you will not find
an exotic tree from India, or giraffes from Africa. You will only find species native to eastern
Bolivia.
Jaguar at the Zoo
He wrote many books on the birds, bees, and
flowers of Bolivia. His love for green
and for flowers has created so many beautiful areas in Santa Cruz. One who does not live here, just does not know
of the beautiful parks, plazas, and boulevards, overflowing with flowers of
every color imaginable. I am blessed to
live by two of them, the Plaza Blacut and Avenida las Americas.
Mercado had an idea to protect an area in
eastern Bolivia that lies on the border of Brazil. Some parts are nearly inaccessible, and most
likely hold species of plants and animals yet unclassified. It is an incredibly diverse and remote
region. In his last days that is what he
was working on, including convincing both Bolivia and Brazil to work together
to create an area of “cross-border management of protected areas.” That was an idea that neither country was
ready for in the 80s.
In 1986, he was with flying to the Huanchaca
National Park in a small private plane, to conduct some scientific
experiments. His pilot, Juan
Cochamanidis, landed them at the wrong airstrip, one owned by drug
traffickers. Noel Kempff Mercado, his
pilot, and his guide, Franklin Parada Auclos, were shot by the
traffickers. Vicente Castelló, a Spanish
scientist, was the only survivor. He
dodged bullets and hid in the forest for hours until he was rescued.
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