Amazon Jungle - Wild in the Jungle

This is a post of all the wild stuff we saw that wasn't just hanging around the lodge grounds. You know - actually out in the jungle!

First afternoon there we had a trip by canoe back down the river to a lagoon.

Similar to the lodge, the lagoon was a good place to see wildlife because of the open area clear of trees. In the jungle itself you can only see 30-40 meters in any direction and, regardless of that, most of the wildlife is 'up' in the canopy, so pretty much out of sight.

One of the first birds we saw when we got to the lagoon was also one of the most interesting, exotic and archaic looking.  The hoatzin looked to me a lot like pictures I've seen of Archaeopteryx , leading me to name it "Archaeopt-a-chicken". Unusually for a bird it ferments the vegetation it eats - a lot like cows do.

We had a paddle around the lagoon to see the wildlife there and it did not disappoint.

Jackana

Enormous caterpillars or insects - these buggers were 20+cm long!

Night Heron

Marching Wasp nest

So named because when you disturb the nest (for example by making noise) the wasps all beat their wings in unison making it sound like they are marching. Very odd to hear! I found this video of it on YouTube

Some of the wildest animals I saw there!

Next day we had a walk through the jungle to a lookout Tower on a hill. We were ostensibly off to see birds but mostly saw pretty butterflies.

We did find other insects on our walk, and who knew that millipedes ...

... make good earrings!

... make good earrings

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the wildlife is nocturnal, so we did a night walk to see what we could see!

On our last morning there we headed back to the Tower on the hill to try to catch the early morning birds. We had more luck with the birds and got a good, if slightly distant view of some toucans.

I think this was some sort of Nun bird, but not sure.

And then, the glorious finale. While up in the tower, I saw a really small monkey of some sort dash along a branch and out of sight. I mentioned it to our guide who then got really excited.  He thought he had heard a pygmy marmoset, but had dismissed it as they had never been seen in this area before. We all had a very determined look for the beastie, and were eventually rewarded with this fantastic view of quite a rare animal. Our guide took a while when we were back at the lodge explaining to the manager that this was quite significant and that it might actually let them charge more for visitors coming here when there is the chance of seeing the pygmy marmosets!