Today’s contribution, photos from Peru, are from a regular, Joe Dickinson. His captions are indented.
Here is the first of two sets of wildlife photos from a recent trip to Peru that I’ve been saving until you returned from you antarctic adventure.
Not very exotic, but I think this flight of pigeons in front of the cathedral in Lima is rather striking.
Iquitos is where we boarded a boat for an Amazon cruise.
This three toed sloth ( genus Bradypus, ) has a baby clinging to her stomach.
The baby is perhaps easier to see in this shot.
This may be a Chilean rose tarantula (Grammostola rosea). At least that name seems to fit. [JAC: this species doesn’t seem to be known from Peru, so readers can help out here.]
This is a young red tailed tree boa (Boa constrictor)
OK, not exactly wildlife, but my wife gives some scale what I believe is a Kapoc tree (Ceiba pentandra), one of the species that can be “emergent” (extending beyond the canopy).
Another tarantula looks to me to be a different species from the one above, but I haven’t been able to find any suggestion of an ID.
This is a rather soulful looking spider monkey (genus Ateles)
The wooly monkey (genus Lagothrix) is more muscular looking but also very agile. Both, of course, have the prehensile tail characteristic of New World monkeys. I had to bite my tongue to avoid correcting our guide when he said Old World monkeys have no tail. Wrong—it’s just not prehensile. He also asserted that tarantulas are not spiders because they have ten legs rather than 8. Wrong again, they just have rather large pedipalps (mouthparts). This sort of thing always makes me worry: what else did he/she get wrong that I don’t know about.
Here, out of context, is a baboon (Old World) making rather good use of her tail.
Fab photos!
Nice photos, thanks Joe. When were you in Peru? Where-all did you go in Peru? 🙂
We were there at the end of October, just for 10 days. We thought of it as a “Peru sampler” with a day in Lima, 3 days cruising on the Amazon and the balance in and around Cusco and Machu Pichu.
Fun. My brother was there just before you were.
Excellent photos. I can definitely sympathize with Joe’s concern about the misinformation the guide is sharing.
Jungle guides vary a lot, but many are just bullshit artists. Most have only a superficial knowledge of biology and accept whatever someone else tells them.
Great pictures! Hard to get pix of things against a cloudy sky without chromatic aberration.
The first tarantula looks to be this Peruvian species: https://www.tarantulaforum.com/media/avicularia-sp-peru-purple-chimu.4040/
but yours is more vibrant. That could be because of age or having recently molted.
Whiplash here from the shift across the South Atlantic for the baboon – but worth the extra effort. 😎
Love the soulful spider monkey.
Really fantastic photos! Thanks so much…
The church photo reminds me that most churches make excellent bird houses. I dream some day they will be converted to this good use.
Great photos. Love the glam rock tarantula especially!
Them monkeys made my day.
https://9gag.com/gag/a3R5WY5
Thank dog i live in Britain.
This was a terrific batch. I always love monkey pics!
Spiders (sort of) and spider monkeys, what a wonderful place!