Belluda Caño & El Dorado River
So far so good! Our expedition has been extraordinarily good for wildlife sightings. Early in the morning we departed with the hope to have a wonderful time and we had it. We went on the skiffs in the direction of Belluda Caño, a small tributary to the immense Ucayali River. On our way to entrance to Belluda we spotted many egrets and cranes that are literally painting with white the already exposed riverbanks. The levels of water in the rivers are slowly but steadily coming down, therefore many riverbank birds are arriving to the reservein big numbers. Once on Belluda Caño we had several mammal sightings. Mammals are difficult to see in any given ecosystem and in the rain forests are even more complicated. Today we felt lucky for we saw several of them.
The first sighting was a family of Night or Owl monkeys (Aotus vociferans). This rather not-well-known animal is the only nocturnal monkey species in South America. Its huge eyes are indicators of their lifestyle. Night monkeys live in small family groups of two to five individuals. They feed on fruit, insects, and flower nectar and are relatively sedentary. By day they sleep mainly in in tree hollows where they can be seen spending long hours just sitting quietly. The lighting today was ideal for photography, with patience and some quick tips I gave we handled to take have some beautiful pictures. A sighting of the bizarre-looking Monk Saki Monkey (Phitecia monachus) was great as well. We were watching some Long-nosed Bats (Rhinconycteris naso) at a close range when suddenly a guest called our attention to see a group of big animals that were moving close to the forest canopy. We observed a mature male playing and grooming a juvenile that probably was a female. Next to these great sightings was the one of a Yellow-crowned brush-tailed Rat (Isothrix bistriata) that was seen looking quietly from a tree hole. The rest of the morning was devoted to a couple of presentations. I talked about the “Morphology, Ecology and Behavioral Notes of the Primates of the Pacaya-Saimiria Reserve” and one of our expert Delfin II naturalists, Juan Luis Ihuaraqui exhibited and talked about the many exotic and delicious Amazon fruits. One by one the fruits were shown, smelled, and tried. In a nutshell, we experienced the marvelous biodiversity of the rain forest fruits at its most.
The late afternoon was spent exploring “El Dorado” River. We saw several bird species and enjoyed the late sounds of the forest at sunset. On the way back and with the aid of powerful spotlights we came back covered with the night. We spotted a couple of juvenile Cayman alligators and a couple of nocturnal bird species the Great Potoo (Nyctibius grandis) and the Common Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis). We had a great time with wonderful weather and wildlife observations. With a drink in hand and after a refreshing shower we had the chance to exchange our impressions of this phenomenal day before going to our exquisite dinner with lively music at the end—it was a golden finale of a fabulous day in the Peruvian Upper Amazon.
