Gatun Lake & Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal, Panama
This morning we woke up surrounded by the lushness of Barro Colorado Island. This island is located in the middle of Gatun Lake, and was formed by the damming of the Chagres River. It is a Biological Reserve that has been managed by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) since 1923, and it administers a world-renowned research facility in the area. Few tropical sites in the world have produced as many scientific papers and observations as has this particular station. For us, the visit turned into a morning of excellent wildlife-spotting: blue cotingas, snail kites, rufous motmot, keel-billed toucans, caimans, crocodiles, spider, white-throated and howler monkeys, anteaters, agoutis, a coatimundi eating a snake, and many others.
Up on the treetops, a strange call: was it a monkey, was it a bird, was it an elf? Nobody could identify it. Finally we found its source: a howler monkey infant calling for his mom. After a minute or two it found both mom and dad. What an opportunity for our naturalists! Howlers forage by day and during the night they sleep on canopy branches, singly or in small clusters, with troop members often dispersed over more than one tree. They differ from all other New World monkeys – and all other New World arboreal mammals except sloths – in feeding heavily on leaves, though they complement their diet with flowers and fruit.
But howlers are better known for their intimidating loud, pulsating roars given mainly by adult males. They call at dawn and dusk, and throughout the day in response to the calls of neighboring troops and other noises such as thunder or car engines. The hyoid bone – a hollow bone next to the vocal chords – of these monkeys works as an amplifying chamber and is actually 25 times larger than that of any other similar sized monkey.
Howlers are essential in rainforest habitats as they are important seed dispersers and one group of animals – the dung beetles – are known to depend heavily on the howler’s droppings. Whatever they do or not do, getting a glimpse of these amazing animals is always a treat.
This morning we woke up surrounded by the lushness of Barro Colorado Island. This island is located in the middle of Gatun Lake, and was formed by the damming of the Chagres River. It is a Biological Reserve that has been managed by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) since 1923, and it administers a world-renowned research facility in the area. Few tropical sites in the world have produced as many scientific papers and observations as has this particular station. For us, the visit turned into a morning of excellent wildlife-spotting: blue cotingas, snail kites, rufous motmot, keel-billed toucans, caimans, crocodiles, spider, white-throated and howler monkeys, anteaters, agoutis, a coatimundi eating a snake, and many others.
Up on the treetops, a strange call: was it a monkey, was it a bird, was it an elf? Nobody could identify it. Finally we found its source: a howler monkey infant calling for his mom. After a minute or two it found both mom and dad. What an opportunity for our naturalists! Howlers forage by day and during the night they sleep on canopy branches, singly or in small clusters, with troop members often dispersed over more than one tree. They differ from all other New World monkeys – and all other New World arboreal mammals except sloths – in feeding heavily on leaves, though they complement their diet with flowers and fruit.
But howlers are better known for their intimidating loud, pulsating roars given mainly by adult males. They call at dawn and dusk, and throughout the day in response to the calls of neighboring troops and other noises such as thunder or car engines. The hyoid bone – a hollow bone next to the vocal chords – of these monkeys works as an amplifying chamber and is actually 25 times larger than that of any other similar sized monkey.
Howlers are essential in rainforest habitats as they are important seed dispersers and one group of animals – the dung beetles – are known to depend heavily on the howler’s droppings. Whatever they do or not do, getting a glimpse of these amazing animals is always a treat.
