A beautiful, calm, and relatively cool early morning opened our expedition today. A soft, misty rain accompanied us intermittently during the first hour of our ride.
We went by skiff boats for approximately two and the half hours following first the river edges of the Ucayali River and then the course of one of the small rivers, Belluda Caño, looking for wildlife. Wildlife is very active at the early hours of the day. We were very lucky, for we saw several red-bellied macaws perching on top of high, dead palm trees. Macaws use the hollow palm trees as roosting and nesting homes.
Later we spotted several birds of prey as well. One of the main attractions of the morning was the sighting of a noisy owl monkey family (aotus spp). This nocturnal monkey species is known as night monkey as well. This peculiar mammal is the only nocturnal one of the New World Primates. Its nocturnal behavior was probably developed to avoid competition during daylight hours with other monkeys and diurnal animals.
Another wonderful sighting was a troop of Monk Saki Monkeys (Phitecia monachus). These monkeys look out of place in the Neotropics, because they have a dense fur. It is believed that they use this thick fur to protect themselves from insects bites.
After breakfast we had a talk about the primates of the area – one of my favorite subjects, and an amusing demonstration on how to fold towels using Origami techniques.
After lunch we had an Amazon fruits exhibition. Many guests have remarked how water levels of rivers and streams have been decreasing little by little every day in the last couple of weeks. In just a few more weeks it is going to reach its lowest point, changing the whole area’s ecosystem. Most of the vegetation is already exposed, left high and dry, therefore the plants need special adaptations to be able to survive after being submerged in water for long periods of time. This scenario will last for a few months until the water level starts increasing once again. Animal and plant species have evolved with these fascinating yearly cycles for millions of years, adapting and using different strategies to survive in the drastically dissimilar conditions they must face. It is a great time of the year to be here in the upper Amazon rainforest, for we can witness such dramatic changes in a short period of time.
In the afternoon we explored the Dorado River and its surroundings. During this expedition we had a lot of amazing sightings, but the main ones were some three-toed sloths (bradypus variegatus) hanging on trees. One of them had a baby! Several spectacled caimans (cayman cocodrilus) were seen as well from the back of the ship as the night was falling in the rainforest.
