A Jaguar surveys the river bank in Tambopata reserve:
Heavy rains during the wet season means that rivers and ponds will often flood the trails, bringing in creatures like anacondas, or this spectacled caiman which are more often confined to their riparian habitats.
Male frog calling his bachelorhood:
Stinging flanel moth caterpiller (Bayucca sp.) are notorious for their long lasting and intense pain caused by sharp, delicate spines located just under the 'innocuous' hairs:
Lantern bug (Enchophora sp.) laying an egg mass:
An ant reaps a bounty at the end the night which saw the nuptial flight of winged termites (which subsequently discard their wings as they leave the skies and begin anew their subterranean lives):
A termite specialist, this Neoponera sp. lives in colonies of only 50-200 individuals, but these are well coordinated, and mount raiding parties on termite nests. Coordinating their efforts through a mixture of pheromones and stridulation (sounds produced by the rubbing of a specialized sound producing file on its foreleg), workers will sting termite after termite, killing and stacking the termites into mounds which will then be carried in huge mouthfuls back to the nest:
A successful raiding trip done, a worker returns with a mouthful of termites:
A tiny gaudy snail feeds on algae on the bottom of an upturned log:
Mushrooms catch the light in the otherwise gloomy rainforest understory:
Thanks for looking and commenting,
Paul
Peruvian Amazon Part II
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- rjlittlefield
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Thanks everyone much appreciated.
Rik - The scale denotes stress, but also impact. In this case the impact was that after several shots the lantern bug stopped its egg laying behaviour. It remained on the same tree trunk and probably resumed later on. But I work under an assumption of presumed damage, and so without further evidence I assume that I impacted the natural behaviour in a negative way which affected the population (albeit on a small scale). Whereas the ant shots didn't noticeably, or measurably affect behaviour, so far as I could tell.
Lou - You really need to visit a) during the dry season, and b) travelling up and down the river by boat. Forest encounters are very seldom indeed.
mawyatt - About 15-20 metres away
Rik - The scale denotes stress, but also impact. In this case the impact was that after several shots the lantern bug stopped its egg laying behaviour. It remained on the same tree trunk and probably resumed later on. But I work under an assumption of presumed damage, and so without further evidence I assume that I impacted the natural behaviour in a negative way which affected the population (albeit on a small scale). Whereas the ant shots didn't noticeably, or measurably affect behaviour, so far as I could tell.
Lou - You really need to visit a) during the dry season, and b) travelling up and down the river by boat. Forest encounters are very seldom indeed.
mawyatt - About 15-20 metres away
Paul, yes, that's when I went, and that's what I did, but luck was not with me.
It was still an amazing place and I was very happy to have gone. I had great luck witnessing a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle attacking the macaws at the major salt lick:
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.co ... a-video-3/
That was more special for me than the jaguar would have been-- I had already seen a jaguar along a river in Ecuador. Still, I would dearly have liked to see that jaguar you saw.
It was still an amazing place and I was very happy to have gone. I had great luck witnessing a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle attacking the macaws at the major salt lick:
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.co ... a-video-3/
That was more special for me than the jaguar would have been-- I had already seen a jaguar along a river in Ecuador. Still, I would dearly have liked to see that jaguar you saw.
- rjlittlefield
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- Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
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