Knock-knock, who's there?

Thanks to Alan once again, for sharing more of Chan Chich's birds. These are Pale-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus guatemalensis), possibly a pair although the female normally has more black on her head than is shown here. North American visitors often comment that this resembles a Pileated Woodpecker, which indeed it does, although it is somewhat smaller. This species is readily seen around Chan Chich Lodge -- it likes good quality forest -- and is well known for the distinctive knock-knock on wood, making it fairly easy to spot.

Ornate Hawk-eagle

Here's a great shot sent by recent Chan Chich Lodge guest, Frank Buck. The Ornate Hawk-Eagles (Spizaetus ornatus) are nesting! Here's one coming in for a landing ... look at the outstretched talons! The Ornate is a medium-sized bird of prey, a gorgeous bird that is really quite colorful with dark upper parts and chestnut head with crest.

They seem to thrive in the forests surrounding Chan Chich Lodge and have nested every other year in tall trees near the Lodge. A forester we knew, that worked in the Gallon Jug area in the 60s-70s, said that they were quite numerous then. Since Ornates prefer good quality forest, their continued presence here provides a "stamp of approval" for the Gallon Jug Estate.

A Female Great Curassow

We had a look at a couple of male curassows earlier, now here is the female. The Great Curassow (Crax rubra) is approximately turkey-sized. Unlike turkeys, however, the curassow is monogamous and has 2 chicks that both parents care for. The Ocellated Turkey often hatches a dozen or so chicks, not all of which survive, that the hen cares for solely.

The female Great Curassow is quite different from the male (see earlier post) being rufous, white and black with barring. There are two other color morphs, depending on location, in which the female has more black or rufous coloring respectively. Curassows are often seen along roadsides in the Gallon Jug Estate including Chan Chich Lodge. Again, this is a testament to the well enforced no-hunting practices on the property.

The Prowler is back

Just in from Ben, another jaguar photo! Those of you that have been following this blog for awhile now, probably can immediately recognize that this is not the jaguar known as Kitty Carlisle! For one thing, it is massive, a much heavier build than Kitty. This stocky body is typical of adult male jaguars, and yes, if you look carefully, you can see the "details."

So we have a male jaguar on the move near Kitty's hangout. A comparison with my database photos shows that it is "Prowler," who has appeared 22 January 2009 (see earlier post). That's almost a year ago to the day (see date/time stamp top left corner of the photo above).

The Prowler's photo file dates back to March 2005, a few kilometers northeast of Chan Chich Lodge. It seems more than likely Chan Chich figures in his regular territorial "patrols." He'll make his presence known to Kitty and any other jaguars in the area through scent marking and spraying.

Note the confidence shown by appearing mid-day near the Lodge. Clearly, the Prowler knows he has nothing to fear striding along a main trail close to the Lodge without cover of night or vegetation.

Foraging Flock

One of the great things about the camera traps is the "slice of life" they show. Just life as the animals are living it at that moment in time. For those of us interested in animals and behavior, that is plenty interesting even it if is not always dramatic. This is a mid-sized Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) flock foraging through an area by Chan Chich's Bajo Trail.

Bruce reminded me of a friend, who upon seeing the turkeys for the first time, thought they were peacocks. Yes, they really are that gorgeous and these days seldom seen outside of this protected corner of the country. To listen to the distinctive vocalization of the turkey, go to xeno-canto here. You'll note there is a recording from Chan Chich Lodge.

A long-legged ... agouti

A long-legged guinea pig? Close ... same family. It's an agouti, Dasyprocta punctata. "Agouti" actually refers to the hair color being banded or bicolored. Here is a really nice photo from Ben on Chan Chich's River Trail of this rather shy large rodent. They're fairly common in the forests around Chan Chich and have gotten somewhat accustomed to people. They are diurnal creatures (that is, active during the day time) so you have a good chance of seeing one while walking the Lodge's extensive trail system. When alarmed, the fur on their backside stands up and they flee. Interestingly, unlike most rodents, they are monogamous, mate for life, bearing their young in times of plentiful fruit, their main food resource. Not only that, agoutis are very long-lived, about 13 years or so.

Tamandua anteater

While I'm waiting for more photos to come off Ben's camera traps by the Lodge or mine, I revisited his files from 2009. I was intrigued to find this tamandua, or anteater (Tamandua mexicana). This is a really neat animal, buff and black, with a thin sticky tongue that is more than a foot long used to eat small insects. It has a prehensile tail, handy for the life in the treetops. I wouldn't consider tamanduas rare, but neither are they seen all that often on the ground. This one was photo-captured along the Sylvester Village Road, near Chan Chich Lodge.

Mark of the ocelot

Really, a great thing about these camera traps, is the "rapidfire" ability which captures some behavior. This is an ocelot, a mid-sized spotted cat, that is actually fairly common throughout much of Belize. They are almost always photographed at night -- and this sequence is from Chan Chich just a couple of weeks ago -- which means the infrared is used.

While the infra-red is terrific in many ways, unfortunately the ocelot's beautiful golden/buffy coat pattern appears in black-and-white. Still in this sequence, the male ocelot is going about his evening business including spraying. Spraying urine is an important marking mechanism that cats use to communicate and mark territory. Kind of fun to see this guy going about his normal behaviors for us.

Tay-rrific!

If you want to see predators, get a little dog. Seriously. Preferably a small white fluffy dog. Then take her into the jungle. Yesterday, Bruce and I, with our little dog, went to the Hillbank road to check the camera trap. We replaced the CF card and then took a walk. The dog loves this.

There was a suspicious rustling overhead and the dog went into high alert. Ah, monkeys we said, peering into the treetops. A guan? Nope -- couldn't see either one. Shrugged and moved on. Something lean and dark dashed across the path and up a tree. Now the dog is really excited.

A tayra! No, two tayras! Wait, there are THREE tayras! We are totally amazed -- they are dashing up and down the tree trunks and branches, chattering in a noisy bird-like way and focused on the dog. I immediately pick up the dog -- I am no fan of dog-wildlife interactions. One of the two always comes out the loser.

The tayras, large members of the weasel family, are very agitated. They are bold, dashing up and down tree trunks and branches, craning their long necks to get a look at us, or more accurately, the dog. I wonder whether they will approach us, something I am not eager to encourage.

Known as "bushdog" in Belize, the tayra (Eira barbara) is classified as an omnivore. However, it is a competent predator reputed to hunt deer from the treetops. I viewed that claim dubiously until an entire busload of Chan Chich guests witnessed a dramatic encounter between a small deer and a tayra in the middle of the road. Some years later, I got camera trap photos of a tayra eating a brocket deer (Mazama americana) it had just killed. I have nothing but respect for this very efficient hunter.

At 11 pounds with a roughly 2-foot long body, the tayra weighs as much as the dog and were they curious! All three of them, craning their necks, bobbing their light colored heads and chattering incessantly. Clearly the dog's novel white coat is something they have not come across before. They are VERY interested. After a few minutes they have seen enough and disappear into the jungle.

Only then did I put our small dog down on the path.

Another Big Cat and Little Ones Too

Jaguars are not the only big cats found in Belize. The puma (Puma concolor) makes its home here too and in fact, has an enormous range stretching from the tip of South America north into Canada. This is the same animal that those of you in North America might know as "cougar," "mountain lion," or "panther." It's a very adaptable cat that does well in many types of habitats, including here, on the Sylvester Village road near Chan Chich. There are many other locations on the property where it has been frequently seen. Pumas seem to be bolder and far less secretive than jaguars; at least that has been our experience in Gallon Jug/Chan Chich. This photo series was taken in May 2009 on Ben's camera trap. Wonder how big those cubs are today?

"Kitty Carlisle" in June 09

And finally, here is another look at "Kitty Carlisle" near Norman's Temple in June 09. All of her photos but one, were recorded during daylight hours. Many people ask me whether they should go out to look for jaguars after dark "since they are nocturnal." With the excellent protection from hunting here in Gallon Jug Estate/Chan Chich Lodge, jaguars and other wildlife with nothing to fear, are not forced to be strictly nocturnal here. So by all means, hit the trails during the day!

Another Jaguar Walks

How lucky can we get? More jaguar footage from Ben! This series appears in black-and-white due to low light levels triggering the infra-red mode. It's a really nice feature as it doesn't eat up batteries anywhere near as rapidly as conventional flash photography does. Since a canopied tropical forest typically has fairly low light, the infra-red mode is frequently necessary, even during daylight hours. I used to spend hundreds of dollars each field season to replace batteries almost weekly due to heavy flash usage in the "old style" camera traps.

Anyway. So here we have another nice sequence of an adult jaguar going about her business on a trail near Chan Chich Lodge. Yes, it is a female ... and it turns out we've already "met" her in 2004 and 2009.

More on this jaguar soon!

Cheers for Chan Chich

News Flash! Chan Chich Lodge was voted WINNER for this year´s Condé Nast Johansens Awards of Excellence, in the category of:


MOST EXCELLENT LODGE For Mexico & Central America

Chan Chich Lodge was also a finalist in the category of "Most Excellent Eco Resort" in all of Central America and Mexico.

Congratulations to the staff and management of Chan Chich Lodge for a job well done ... and making it look easy!

Curious "Jorge" on the Bajo Trail

We saw Ben, Chan Chich Lodge manager, Sunday night. He passed on these very exciting jaguar photos from one of the camera traps not far from the Lodge. I couldn't wait to share them! First though, I compared the spot pattern of this animal with those of male jaguars I had in my database from my previous jaguar projects in Gallon Jug Estate (yes, it's a male -- if you look carefully, on one of the frames you will notice the ... "details").

There were no matches in the database which wasn't actually too surprising. While this photo shows a healthy animal -- a couple ticks on his face notwithstanding -- he is by no means as heavy bodied as fully mature adult male jaguars. See the photos of Prowler -- who is massive -- for comparison ("On the Prowl," 11 Dec. 09). So I would conclude this is a fairly young animal.

Here then, is a slide show of a gorgeous young male jaguar, Curious "Jorge," examining the Bajo Trail sign and showing all the curiosity cats are famous for!

A Lovely Bird

While I've been going on about the new snake Bruce and I came across, the Corozal birding team recorded several very nice birds on their route during the 19th annual Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count. Not "just" recorded, but in some cases, also photographed. The Corozal EAGLEs is a student environmental group led by retired Corozal Community College teacher, Graham Sampson. For at least the past decade, he has brought students from Corozal Town to the GJ CBC, after they've driven hours on bad roads and camped in nearby Sylvester Village in order to take part in the Count. We appreciate their contributions!

Particularly, in this case, a very lovely Lovely Cotinga (Cotinga amabilis). Who could not appreciate the vivid iridescent blue and purple colors of this male? ( The female is far less flashy being a sort of nondescript beigy-gray). Despite the gorgeous colors, the cotinga often goes undetected. It is most often found at canopy level while foraging for fruit and can be hard to see. Lovely Cotingas are highly sought after by birders and seen a few times a year in fruiting trees near Chan Chich Lodge. We're glad that Graham and company were able to record this one for the CBC.

Hot off the press, another tapir

Hot off the press from Ben at Chan Chich ... another male tapir. Two photos of the same individual at 3:50AM, taken 2 seconds apart. Ben says these came from the River Trail, so very likely, this is the same guy from a couple weeks ago also on the River Trail. Hard to say for sure since this pair of photos shows the left profile while the earlier photos showed more of the right profile ... and a whole lot of the backside!