Belluda Caño & El Dorado Caño
Today was a very special day, a magical warm and soft light had us dreaming of new adventures in the upper Amazon, and we had them! We explored “Belluda Caño” by skiff. Before going inside this black water creek we had some time to go around one of the small islands located in the middle of the Ucayali River — beautiful Yellow-hooded Blackbirds were everywhere. Many flocks of White-winged parakeets were seen from the skiffs as well.
Once in the creek we had a great time for we had some great wildlife sightings. A family group of Night Monkeys (Aotus vociferans) was spotted. This monkey species is one of the least known and studied. It is always gratifying to have the chance to find them. Another great sighting was a rare view of the uncommon Gray headed kite (Leptodon cayanensis). As we were travelling on the skiffs a little tree frog fell on top of a guest’s hat. It was very amusing for we asked her to remain still while we took dozens of pictures. Suddenly the little frog decided to leave jumping out and leaping swiftly into the river. On the ship, and with aid of scientific literature, our frog friend was identified as a “Neotropical marbled treefrog” (Hyla marmorata). This frog species is arboreal and usually lives very high in the canopy of trees therefore it was a wonderful rare sighting.
We returned for breakfast, which was followed by another natural history talk by me on “The Ecology and Morphology of the Primates of the Upper Amazon.”
In the afternoon we had a late visit to “El Dorado” River. In this remote location we spotted many sloths. We counted twelve of them! A guest hilariously commented that we had a sloth day, which deserves mention in this report. We stayed in the area until late after sunset with the intention of spotting wildlife at night. With the aid of a spotlight we found a juvenile Spectacle caiman (Caiman crocodillus ssp). Please see in the picture the characteristic spectacle bridge crossing the snout that gives the common name to this reptile. Back on board with the adrenaline still running through our veins we had an exquisite dinner where we had the chance to exchange our impressions of this phenomenal day.
