Monday, July 25, 2011

BASS Walk!






As new volunteers to Jalova going out on surveys still presents us with something new almost every time, but a survey that Jon, Jussi, Liz and I completed the other day brought more than the usual sights. During an afternoon walk on the North Trail we were amazed early on when about 10 minutes in Jussi, who was looking at the canopy, spotted a three toed sloth. Although it was curled up fast asleep high in the canopy it was still amazing to see and we stood gazing up at it for quite some time. Delighted that we had seen something so rare and sure we had seen the best of our walk we continued on, but it was only a short time after that Jussi again brought our attention to the canopy, and there, in the tree-tops, feeding, was a tamandua. It was incredible to see a second large mammal in so shorter time and marvelous to watch this very beautiful anteater staring bemusedly back down at us.





Still delighted and shocked at our good luck we continued on with the survey, and were about half way through when we had yet another break of good fortune. Grouped on the path and identifying some parrots in hushed voices we heard animals break through the bush and bolt along the path. Hurrying forward as quietly as possible Jon was able to spot an agouti bounding along the trail and off a side path only about 30m from us. These small mouse-deer like animals are very fast, indeed so fast that four of us, with our cameras out, did not manage to get a single shot. Nevertheless, even glimpsing them was a great sight and watching the movements as one hurried for cover is a rare sight. Yet there were one more rarely seen creature on this survey that we found. Not long after seeing the agouti Jon made a great spot, finding a red-brocket deer a little way into the vegetation. A small member of the deer family, despite having a reddish coat blends in amazingly well into the forest background. Again, although normally they would run away, this deer just stared back at us as we gazed back. Stunned at our good fortune, we headed back to base, eager to share with the rest of the group what we had seen. Being able to see one, let alone four, of the animals we saw is a rare enough occurrence, so this is a walk that we will remember for a long time.


Tamandua (photo by Jussi)



Sam Dawson



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2 comments:

Alih said...

Hyvä Jusko !!!!!

Iskä

Alih said...

Good work Jussi and greetings from Finland !

Iskä