• Jaguar
• Giant Anteater
• Red Howler Monkey
• Puma
• Caiman
• Harpy Eagle
• Black-and-White Hawk-Eagle
• Tapir
• Red Brocket Deer
• Capibara
• Macaws

Why can we see so much amazon wildlife while on a boat? A few reasons. Many animals, like jaguars, rest by the river, providing an excellent opportunity to photograph them. Also, virtually all mammals in the rainforest can swim and tend to cross the river on occasion, so you can even find a sloth slowly making its way across!

Giant anteater in the amazon rainforest

 What’s that log in the water?

It’s a giant anteater swimming! 

Also, many animals aren’t sure how to interpret seeing a boat- while a jaguar may hide from you when you’re on foot, they typically don’t interpret you as a threat when you’re in a boat. This works great for us because it allows plenty of time to get the perfect photo!

Jaguar has seen along the river from a boat. Image by Liz Paipay.

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

• Go on a riverboat in the rainforest with a trained guide: They have an eagle eye so you can get the best of the journey. To practice, download your Amazon Rainforest Animal identification guide and the beautifully illustrated plate of Amazon mammals.
• Sign up for a Free Trial of the Wired Amazon: even if Amazon Travel is not in your short-term plans you can connect with Amazon wildlife. Sign-up for your free trial of the Wired Amazon and help us identify the Amazon wildlife that is on the photos taken by our 20 square kilometer grid of 78 cameras snapping away in the middle of the Amazon jungle.

Vampire bats (Desmodontinae) are a marvel of evolution. They represent one of the fastest evolutionary divergences within the vertebrates. Evolved from an insectivorous ancestor some 22 million years ago, the route to ‘vampirism’  was achieved within a mere 5 million years. Fraught with more risks than one might think, the complete, all-inclusive diet afforded by blood-meal provided an irresistible evolutionary incentive. A one-stop, fly-by meal, rich in protein and nutrients. Only getting by without getting caught is harder than one might think, and the unique suite of physiological adaptations, stranger than one can imagine.

Desmodus rotundus, the common vampire bat, is found in colonies with hundreds of individuals mainly females with their offspring; typically found in caves but in the Amazon rainforest is found in hollow trees. Photo by CC BY-SA 3.0

Of course, for a creature that weighs under 100 grams, simply approaching a host entails a perilous undertaking requiring the utmost stealth. Flight can be noisy or create drafts that can wake sleeping prey. Thus, these bats have regained the ability to walk, hop or even run (up to 2 meters/sec) using the combination of powerful legs and wings, enabling them to follow, or approach sleeping prey without alerting them to their presence and to quickly maneuver out of the way of a potentially fatal blow.

Vampire bats…

Once they have reached their intended target, they locate ‘hot spots’ – capillary-dense, thin-skinned areas like the feet which are ideal for feeding.  Vampire bats are the only mammals known to be able to detect infrared radiation – heat, and they do so by lowering the activation threshold of a cluster of specialized heat-sensitive neurons – the trigeminal ganglia – present in ‘leaf pits’ surrounding the nose. Once they have selected a spot, they must pierce the skin or tough hide, sometimes first shearing the site to clear it of hair that might otherwise interfere with feeding and all without alerting the host to their presence. They are able to do this through yet another specialized adaptation – razor-sharp incisors kept perpetually sharp through the lack of tooth enamel.  Because these incisors are so sharp, less pressure needs to be exerted to break the skin, reducing the chances of waking the host.

Now that the vampire is ready to feed, it uses yet another innovation, a specially grooved tongue. Blood is held within two channels on the underside of the tongue through capillary forces and then drawn up through muscle contraction in a kind of ‘tongue-pump’, all whilst saliva, containing an anticoagulant, Draculin, (a molecule of interest for the treatment of stroke victims) trickles down the topside of the tongue to keep the blood flowing in one of the most morbidly fascinating adaptations I’ve had the pleasure of learning about!

But we’re not done yet! Like the safe-cracker who pulls out tool after tool to pull off a heist, the vampire bat isn’t finished.

A vampire bat skeleton, showing distinctive incisors and canines. Photo by Mokele

Drinking between a third and half of their body weight in a single feeding, this sudden weight gain could imperil flight or even ground them if not for their ultra-efficient kidneys and long, thin, and muscular bladder. This combination allows them to rapidly process the blood plasma (which is 90% water), absorbing the protein from the blood and excreting the excess fluid in the form of urine, all while still feeding.

Whereas ingesting a huge volume of liquids represents a physical challenge, the ingestion of large amounts of iron in the form of heme from hemoglobin (the iron-based molecule used to bind and transport oxygen) and nitrogenous proteins forms a chemical challenge, which can lead to toxicity. Laboratory studies have shown that macrophages (white blood cells with important immune functions), have been co-opted to help remove excess iron, whilst an as yet to be understood process appears to afford some form of protection from chronically high blood-nitrogen levels (azotemia) which would be otherwise debilitating and could represent yet another medically valuable avenue, this time for renal disease victims.

Fed and satisfied, the bat returns to its communal roost where it may engage in one of the few known cases of reciprocal altruism, a hotly debated behavior amongst biologists, whereby unrelated individuals share resources at a significant cost to the donor. Due to their high metabolic rates, bats must feed every 48 hours or else they will starve. To hedge against this starvation, bats will share with unsuccessful roost-mates, regurgitating blood with the expectation that their roost-mates will reciprocate in the future.

And so, while the vampire bat has earned a fearful reputation inspiring an entire horror genre, through insight and understanding of its complicated biology, this creature’s astounding natural history is less awful and more awe-inspiring and provides a story we can all really sink our teeth into.

So, if you are asking where do vampire bats live, you can find some in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru.

• Go on a hike in the rainforest with a trained guide: Bats are anywhere in the rainforest. However, to see a bat, hang out with a guide on a night walk around one of our trails.

• Sign up for a Free Trial of the Wired Amazon: even if Amazon Travel is not in your short-term plans you can connect with Amazon wildlife. Sign-up for your free trial of the Wired Amazon and help us identify the Amazon wildlife that is on the photos taken by our 20 square kilometer grid of 78 cameras snapping away in the middle of the Amazon jungle

by Paul Bertner

Scarlet Macaw flying in the Peruvian Amazon – Tambopata

However, you won’t see macaws with any old visit to the Amazon. These spectacular birds require large, unbroken areas of forest with little human disturbance, and that is why Tambopata, Peru is one of the easiest places to experience their beauty. As a bonus, several clay licks (locally known as «collpas») are found in Tambopata that attract these and other parrots. In Tambopata, these clay lick sites stand out as some of the best places to watch macaws doing their jungle thing:

• Collpa Colorado: One of the largest and best-known clay licks in the Amazon, this collpa is located next to the Tambopata Research Center (TRC). Scarlet Macaws and other birds are present most mornings, especially during the dry season when dozens of these species, Red-and-Green, and Blue-and -Yellow Macaws can appear along with smaller Chestnut-fronted Macaw, Red-bellied, and Blue-headed Macaws.
• Collpa Chuncho: Accessible from both TRC and Refugio Amazonas, this is another site that provides close looks at macaws and other parrots. Sometimes, Red Howler Monkeys and other animals can also pay a visit.
• Colpa Gato: Guests of Refugio Amazonas have access to this magnet for large, colorful parrots.
• Colpa de Loros: One of two clay licks located at Posada Amazonas, this one can be an excellent place for close looks at big Red-and-Greens along with many other parrots.

Macaw Claylick in the Tambopata National Reserve, Peru – By Carlos Gonzales

Visit Tambopata in Peru to see Macaws in Peru

Peru and you should see these and many other spectacular birds. However, the best views of macaws will be had at places associated with research into these birds and located near clay licks frequented by them. We look forward to sharing the macaw experience with you!

As usual, if you have any questions on when to see more macaws chat with us for more details

NOW READ: Birds at Tambopata Research Center

I knew from experience working in other rainforests across the planet that every place has its own magic. I have taught a course in primate behavior and ecology in the rainforests of Costa Rica for several years. Through Wired Amazon, a citizen science initiative powered by Rainforest Expeditions, I had the perfect opportunity to combine a vacation with the wonder of scientific discovery.

I participated in the AmazonCam Tambopata project and earned Travel Credits by identifying animals caught on camera traps spread across 200 square kilometers of lowland Amazonian rainforest in the Tambopata River basin. At first, this task was daunting, even for a biologist like me who has visited other rainforests – many of these were species that I had never seen before. But the website was easy to navigate and provided plenty of information to guide my work. As I completed my identifications, my excitement kept growing – these were species that I had a good chance of seeing in person very soon!

Is that a new species of tiger moth I just helped collect?

During my stay in the Peruvian Amazon, I participated in the Discover A New Species project run by the Wired Amazon scientific team at the lodges. I can vividly recall how a white sheet and halogen lamp transformed at night into a living canvas of insects and marveling at the diversity of forms, colors, and sizes. Another lasting memory from my Tambopata visit is the canopy tower at Refugio Amazonas. I climbed a seemingly endless set of stairs and arrived at a platform that afforded a view across an ocean of trees that stretched across the horizon in all directions. I had previously visited rainforests in Central America and Africa that were heavily fragmented by deforestation, so this continuous canopy was truly exceptional.

Spotting a capuchin monkey in the canopy at Tambopata Research Center

On the surface, rainforests across the planet may appear the same – lush green landscape filled with birds with colorful plumage, monkeys squealing and hooting, intricate spider webs stretching across your path, leaf cutter ants marching along their carefully groomed paths, and much more. But, I observed closer and differences emerged in my Amazon experience: the unmistakable vocals of the red howler monkeys, the unbelievably huge capybaras that I spotted along river banks, the astounding numbers and diversity of macaws and parrots I saw at the Colorado clay lick…

Macaws  at the clay lick in Tambopata

Five days in the rainforests of Tambopata left me in no doubt about one of the principles of biogeography: the larger the ecosystem, the greater the diversity. I was familiar with this fundamental concept through books and articles I had read during my training as a biologist. But as a citizen scientist via Wired Amazon, I finally got the opportunity to experience it firsthand!

Head east up and over the high Andes and you descend into the Amazon basin, one of the more exciting places on the planet.

Howler Monkeys by Paul Bertner

Here are a few reasons why every first-time visitor to Peru might want to consider including the Amazon in their itinerary:

• It’s the Amazon rainforest!– This incredibly biodiverse rainforest is famous for the amazing variety of plants and animals that occur there. Take a chance to experience one of the planet’s major living treasures.
• It’s easier than you think– No, you won’t need to trek through the jungle, wield a machete, or fight off wild beasts. More like relaxing in a hammock and enjoying a cold drink after taking a guided walk or boat ride at your own pace.
• Macaws, toucans, and jungle wildlife – These animals and much more can be seen but you do have to go to a protected area like the Tambopata Reserve
• It’s more comfortable than you think-You don’t have to camp out nor do any grueling hikes. Stay at high-quality lodges in the rainforest and you can watch wildlife from the lodge and enjoy excellent cuisine without making any serious sacrifices on comfort.

Although the Peruvian Amazon can be visited in several places, the Tambopata area is probably the easiest region to experience this amazing jungle biome. It only takes a quick flight from Lima or Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado followed by a two-hour boat ride to reach the award-winning and comfortable Posada Amazonas lodge. We hope to see you there!

Although no one should grab a machete and blaze a trail through the roadless rainforest in the Peruvian rainforest, that’s not how we experience this amazing habitat in any case. The best way to visit is by staying at a comfortable jungle lodge with excellent food, service, and experienced, well-trained guides. That way, whether you travel alone or with the entire family, you can relax and experience the Amazon at your own pace. When doing it on your own, a good guide is especially important because he or she accompanies you on the trails, helps you see animals, and can also help you plan activities suited to your needs. At least that’s the way we do it at Refugio Amazonas, Tambopata Research Center, and Posada Amazonas.

Whether you come to Tambopata alone or with a group, we can help plan the trip of a lifetime. What would you like to see in the Peruvian jungle? Contact us and let us know!

Birds at Tambopata Research Center

The native bamboo forests of south-eastern Peru host several species found nowhere else. One of the best spots to look for them is in the extensive bamboo habitats at TRC. Walk trails through this habitat to look for such much-desired species as Manu Antbird, Goeldi’s Antbird, White-lined Antbird, Pavonine Cuckoo, White-cheeked Tody-Tyrant, Rufous-capped Nunlet, Black-capped Tinamou, and others!

Pavonine Quetzal and other deep forest species

The trails at TRC access magnificent old-growth rainforest and thus provide a rare chance to walk through fantastic forests that harbor Pavonine Quetzal, Pale-winged Trumpeter, Striated Antthrush, and many other species hard to find elsewhere.

White-throated Jacamar

There are very few places where one can see this localized endemic. The river bluffs at TRC are one of the best places to see it anywhere on the planet. The image below was taken there.

Scarlet-hooded Barbet

Another little-known species that might be easier to see at TRC than anywhere else. Watch for this rare beauty on the island across the river from TRC.

Razor-billed curassow

Although this exotic turkey-like bird can also show up at our other lodges, it’s much easier to see in wilderness sites like TRC.

Paujil – Razor Billed curassow by Paul Bertner

These are just a few of the bird species that are easier to find at TRC than in other places. Visit this unique lodge and research station to see how many rare and exotic jungle birds you can find!