About a week ago, I had a blockbuster day while following a particular banded wren (more on that later). Honestly, I didn’t do much following and I did a whole lot of gawking as I witnessed such good glimpses of animals that aren’t often easy to see, all within 10 minutes. Two highlights were a male mantled howler monkey actually moving (they are usually lethargic, resting high in a tree – which is why many field guides describe them as being “depressed”), and a coatimundi moseying across the park road. But the most exciting sight was a female tamandua, an anteater related to sloths, toting a half-sized juvenile on her back. These animals look both sophisticated and silly at the same time – sophisticated because of the black vest that they wear in their coat of fur, and silly because of their long snout specialized for raiding termite nests. When they’re alarmed they will climb up a tree, but it is said that they have a short-term memory of disturbance and will soon climb down – which is exactly what happened while I was following the pair, and when I got the shot above.
