Every year, people from all over the world venture to the Southeastern corner of Peru. And it’s not hard to understand why; the Tambopata National Reserve lies in the Amazon Basin and boasts some of the most spectacular rainforest and wildlife this world has to offer. Jaguars, Macaws, Monkeys, Capybara, Giant river otters, and Harpy eagles are some of the notable megafaunas that can be observed in their natural habitat here. But not all of the impressive wildlife in the Amazon is large in size. In fact, the little creatures can be just as fascinating, if not more so.

Most of the planet’s biodiversity comes in the form of insects, worms, and other miniature living organisms, and new species are being discovered each day. Some of our top stories this past year included coverage of unknown species of insects and spiders that were found in close proximity to the Rainforest Expeditions jungle lodges in Tambopata recently!

Here are some of our top stories from 2014:

This Spider Makes Fake Spiders. But Why? 1.21.14. By Nadia Drake. 

 ‘Decoy spider’ sitting at the top of its pseudo-spider structure. Photo courtesy of Lary Reeve

What I learned Hunting Decoy-Weaving Spiders in the Amazon. 6.16.14. By Douglas Main.

Lary (right) and Aaron (left) investigating the ‘Decoy spiders’

Expedition to Candamo: Venturing into ‘The Last Rainforest Without Men’. 11.2.14. By Aaron Pomerantz.

Aldo and his team push the boat through strong rapids to make it to Candamo

Predatory ‘Glow Worm’ Discovered in Peruvian Rainforest. 11.19.14. By Lisa Winter.

Harpy eagle snatches a howler monkey for breakfast.

A beautiful Harpy eagle snatches a howler monkey for breakfast. Photo by Chris Johns

A bioluminescent insect larva protrudes its head from the earth and lures in prey to its powerful mandibles.

Closing out with a fruitful December expedition

This past December, I was joined by two incredible groups in the Amazon. Chris Johns, a friend and colleague of mine, is a graduate student at the University of Florida and assembled a team that rumbled through the jungle with me and guided Frank Pichardo for two weeks. We came across a myriad of amazing animals, including a Harpy eagle that had just snatched a howler monkey for breakfast, caiman, tailless-whip scorpions, monkey frogs, snakes (big snakes!), and much more.

A caiman smiles big for the camera. Photo by Chris Johns.

A large Yellow-bellied Puffing Snake was none too happy to see us

Chris, I think you’ve got a bug on your face…A tailless whip scorpion to be exact.

Then I was joined by Christie Wilcox, a rising science communication star who celebrated her successful Ph.D. defense by immersing herself in the Peruvian Amazon. In addition to taking in everything fascinating that the jungle has to offer, Christie was working to gather content for her book on venom (coming soon). This meant getting up close to potentially dangerous animals, including snakes, scorpions, wandering spiders, and bullet ants (ouch!). All in all, we had a safe trip and documented plenty of venomous fauna to satiate Christie’s toxic appetite.

A wandering spider displays a warning threat by raising her front pairs of legs. Don’t mess!

The stinger of a bullet ant, is supposedly one of the most painful insect stings one can experience. I’ll take your word for it…

Large bark scorpions in the Amazon can be found on night hikes. 

Christie, you most CERTAINLY have a bug on your face

So what comes next with Rainforest Expeditions? Ongoing research projects for our peculiar spider and glow worm species push us to stay on top of the scientific literature and techniques so we can gather more data and publish our results. There are still many emerging questions that have yet to be answered. Is the ‘Decoy spider’ a new species? What purpose or purposes does the decoy structure serve? If it is indeed to avoid anti-predation, what predators pushed for the selection of this unique behavior in the spider? Are the ‘glow worms’ a new species and is this a new record of their occurrence in Southeastern Peru?

We’re also working to organize more trips over the course of the next year with scientists, photographers, and filmmakers, who are eager to come down to this area which is ripe with unknown animals and discoveries. What comes next isn’t entirely known, and that’s part of the adventure.

A perfect day in Tambopata, Peru

Last but certainly not least, I’d like to thank the people who helped me get here and who have been invaluable colleagues in the field this past year. Lary Reeves is a graduate student at the University of Florida who invited me to join him in the Amazon in May of 2014. What was meant to be a routine research expedition turned into a position working with the Tambopata Research Center (Rainforest Expeditions) as a Science Communicator, and I am thankful to Lary, as well as Jeff Cremer, for giving me the opportunity to come to this place.

Top left: Lary Reeves, Douglas Main, Augusto Bazan, and Nadia Drake composed an indispensable team in May where we made some more exciting discoveries about the ‘Decoy spiders’. Top right: In October I organized a team to venture into the remote Candamo region, and it couldn’t have been done without the help of Jeff Cremer, Mike Bentley, Geoff Gallice, Roy, Misael, Rodolfo, Gallo, Pedro, and Aldo. Bottom left: This December trip, I’d like to thank my amazing group with Chris Johns, Kai Moreb, Lauren Georges, Narayan Ghiotti, Frank Pichardo, and Nicole Lizares.

Bottom right: Christie Wilcox was a pleasure to have in the field poking at dangerous animals, and I hope we get to do it again soon. One last shout-out to Phil Torres and Jeff Cremer, who have been incredible sources of knowledge, friendship, and collaboration on projects in this part of the world. Wrapping up 2014 with Rainforest Expeditions has been an amazing experience thus far; I can only imagine what the top stories of 2015 will look like…Cheers to the New Year!

by Aaron Pomerantz

How studying Red and green macaws can save the Amazon

It’s one of the most stunning sights in the Peruvian rainforest. Every morning, just after sunrise, a riot of rainbows swoops down on the world’s largest avian clay lick in the southern jungle of Peru.

The rainbows are actually birds — large macaws, parrots, and parakeets, feathers colored in ultra-bright shades of red, yellow, green, and blue.

Few visitors ever get to see this daily congregation of birdlife. The clay lick, called the Collpa Colorado, is located more than 6 hours by boat from the nearest town. The Tambopata Research Center, a remote jungle lodge operated by the ecotourism company Rainforest Expeditions, enjoys a privileged location just 500 meters away.

Bird fanatics make once-in-a-lifetime trips out here specifically to witness this spectacle of sound and color. Researchers likewise flock here to study macaw behavior and to catalog the extreme biodiversity of the surrounding Tambopata National Reserve.

But — cue the dark clouds, lightning, and thunder — this paradise for birds is in danger of destruction.

by Jeff Cremer

Grad Student Discovers Unexplained Web Structure

Resembling “The Unicorn in Captivity”

At Tambopata Research Center in Peruvian Rainforest

LIMA, Peru, Sept. 19, 2013– Peru’s visionary leader in sustainable tourism, Rainforest Expeditions, reports that deep in the Peruvian rainforest near its Tambopata Research Center an as-yet-unnamed insect or fungus has been discovered that weaves an intricate funnel-shaped cocoon surrounded by approximately 30 “posts” that are positioned vertically, connected by woven “mesh,” and evenly spaced to form a “fence” measuring some 2 centimeters around the cocoon.

Thus far entomologists are stumped as to what it is.

Troy Alexander, a graduate student visiting the center in early June was the first to discover the structure this past summer, first on the underside of a tarp and then on tree trunks.

“I do not know what organism made it. Never seen such a structure before,” said Jonathan Coddington, who studies spiders and is associate director for science at the National Museum of Natural History.

Suggestions range from the structure being a spider egg sac to an incomplete cocoon. Other suggestions are funnier. “I have seen people say that it’s been built by a spider from Mars, that it’s a navigational aid built by mosquitos for navigating the dense jungles, to alien communication arrays built by local arachnids under the influence of alien mind control.” Jeff Cremer, spokesperson for Rainforest Expeditions. “Some people even say that it looks like the insect (or fungal) variation on the theme of the Late Middle Ages tapestry, The Unicorn in Captivity,”

Troy Alexander’s favorite theory, described on Facebook, is that “there are spider eggs in the base of the pole, and the spiderlings climb the pole and sail away on silken parachutes, protected by the fence the whole time.”

This region is no stranger to new species. In early 2012 the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reported on 365 previously undocumented species found in Bahuaja Sonene National Park in the Tambopata River region of southeastern Peru. More recently in September 2012 a new spider species that created “false” decoy spiders as protection was found at the center.

If you are passionate about science and nature, become a citizen scientist with Wired Amazon.

We recently had the pleasure of hosting Tropical Herping, a team of biologists and photographers from Ecuador, at our lodges.

Tropical Herping performed an extensive survey of our forests and took some INCREDIBLE images.

Considering it is dry season, the 37 species of stunning reptiles and amphibians are quite impressive. Below is a brief view of some of their encounters at our amazon jungle lodges.

By Phil Torres

How is it possible to maintain such large lodges in the middle of the Amazon? A recent roof renovation at Posada Amazonas Lodge highlighted the incredible process (Infierno community).

It all revolved around a «faena» in which community members donate their time to work on a project that is for the good of the community. Posada Amazonas is managed by and co-owned by the native community of Infierno, and employs many individuals from the community, so this roof renovation was directed by the board of the community.

The «faena,» Community Teamwork project, to replace the roof

The turnout was remarkable – 73 people, 15kg of nails, and 1,500 crishneja leaves, the palm from which the roofing is woven.

There are as many men as there are women. Women are mainly in charge of carrying the leaves from the port to the house that is to be remodeled. Men dedicate themselves to the installation of the roof and finally, the women clean the rooms and the work areas, and they prepare the communal meal and the refreshments. the first day involved removing the old roof and replacing half of it, the second day finished the replacement and sealed the edges, and the third day was the clean-up.

On the first day, 100% of the dry leaves were removed and half of the new roof was installed. On the second day, the other half was installed. Edges and unions were sealed and finally, the third day was cleaning and preparation day, to leave everything ready.

In order to cover the new roof, they must begin from the bottom up and from left to right. A row of about 20 people is formed, each one holding a bundle of crishneja leaves. Upon a shout or a whistle signal from one of them, they must begin to place and nail the leaves in order, making sure one bundle is beneath the other. They continue to the following row and so on and so forth until the top is reached.

From us at Rainforest Expeditions, a huge thank you to the Community of Infierno for their hard work in keeping the Posada Amazonas Lodge well-maintained and beautiful! (Community Teamwork)

UPDATE NOTE 2024: Posada Amazonas now have Comfort and Suite Rooms. Come and join this venture with the Native Community of Infierno.

By Phil Torres

A recent study on the Tambopata region showed that we are truly in a Tapir paradise, with numbers that have recovered from any hunting or habitat disturbance of the past due to well-protected habitat over these last few decades.

A tapir crossing the Tambopata. Image by Jeff Cremer.

While reports on recovered numbers are always a good sign, what I didn’t know was how many there actually were here, or if it would be difficult to get some glimpses of tapirs in the wild. Tapirs are notoriously difficult to see, as one tapir researcher I know who has spent over a year in the field has only ever seen one in person!

I was curious to know how many tapirs we have in our area, so I set up a camera trap near the Colorado Claylick at the Tambopata Research Center to take photos of any passing mammals. While the clay lick is known for its spectacular displays of macaws feeding on the salty clay during the rainy season, it also has several heavily used game trails leading to it which suggest that mammals are also extensively walking into the clay lick to get in on the action. I hoped some of those mammals would be tapirs.

I expected maybe one, but what I got was far from that. Here’s an example of a fairly typical night at the clay lick.*

There is a maximum of six tapirs, and a minimum of three in these photos. Regardless of the final amount, this much tapir activity consistently in one area is very impressive and demonstrates the importance of the clay lick for our non-avian neighbors living in the rainforest around us.

*Note- while it may appear these are multiple pictures of the same individual, there are additional photos showing each one leaves the camera’s view (and not return), suggesting they are all different. I simply selected the photos which give the best view of the beasts.

How to plan your Amazon travel to see this and other Amazon wildlife

• Go on a hike in the rainforest with a trained guide: You have to be very lucky and have an eagle eye.

Don’t miss our next blog about tapirs:

A face to face encounter with a wild Tapir

By Phil Torres

The Great Black Hawk, Buteogallus urubitinga, is one of the many birds of prey in the Peruvian rainforest of Tambopata you will very likely see while boating up the river to the lodges.

These hawks are known to specialize in feeding on reptiles like lizards and snakes but have also been observed feeding on small mammals and large insects. One study observed adults even feed their chicks venomous vipers and poisonous toads!

How to plan your Amazon travel to see the Great Black Hawk and other Amazon wildlife

• The Great Black Hawk is one of the larger hawks in our region, and always a pleasure to watch as it hops along the shore of the Tambopata looking for prey.
• Go on a hike in the rainforest with a trained guide: Hawks are anywhere in the rainforest. However, to have a better view of hawks, hang out with a birder guide.

By Phil Torres