A Belizean "Bobcat"

In all my years of camera trapping, I have never seen anything like this: a Belizean "bobcat!" Of course we don't really have bobcats in Belize, but you can hardly blame me for doing a double take when I examined these photos. The image above is actually (a crop of) one of three frames taken of a male puma (Puma concolor) missing the majority of his tail. What happened to the poor guy???

We'll never know, but I imagine he is somewhat handicapped. Pumas are swift runners that chase down their prey -- the long tail acts as a sort of rudder to balance them on tight turns. That said, this fellow looks as though he is in pretty good shape and actually appears to have a full belly.

This image was taken on the 7 April about 3PM on the Punta de Cacao Road, about 10 km from the Gallon Jug Farm. Recalling earlier comments about it being hard to distinguish pumas from one another, this fellow certainly stands alone!

Lots of Ocelots

From a photographic perspective, it's a shame ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) are so nocturnal. Since they are active at night, it means the remote camera kicks over to infra-red so they appear in black-and-white. That doesn't do justice to its lovely buffy-golden color. In the hundreds of ocelot images taken over many years of camera trapping, I think I have had "day time" ocelots only on three occasions.

The images above were taken over two nights in March on the far Punta de Cacao road, about 15 km east of the farm on the Gallon Jug Estate property. It is a densely forested area seldom visited by people, only because it is not accessible most times of the year due to muddy conditions or treefall.

Besides a spotted pattern, ocelots also feature distinctive striping on the shoulders. In this sequence one individual is fairly distinctive due to the stripe on its left side. Watch the sequence carefully for the frame of two ocelots together.

A Troop of Spiders

Ok ok, I'm aware there are better monkey pictures out there -- a LOT better. But bear with me since this was such a great opportunity to get any sort of photograph at all. Usually monkeys are high in the treetops and often shaded by vegetation. This tends to make them dark blobs in photos unless you have an excellent flash or zoom or other feature that I clearly don't have on my tiny pocket camera.

So we were walking on the far Punta de Cacao road on the Gallon Jug Estate after checking the remote camera, as a matter of fact. Gorgeous sunny morning and these monkeys got all excited when we passed by. Or more accurately, I think it was when our small white dog (previously of interest to tayras, see 2 February 2010 post) trotted by. Said small dog is generally blase with wildlife which she mostly takes in stride. That said, monkeys get her all excited. From her vast height of 13" she gazes into the treetops 60-80' overhead and woofs at them.

The monkeys normally respond by shaking branches, jumping up and down and throwing things. Sometimes they urinate or defecate with uncanny accuracy. Our cue to keep moving.

The photo above features part of a fairly large troop of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi), about 8 individuals with at least 3 mamas with clinging babies. They gave us quite a show up away up there in the treetops with their entertaining antics, a photo op I couldn't resist.

A Rainy CBC

Six intrepid teams from Chan Chich Lodge, Gallon Jug, Belize City and Corozal battled showery weather for the 19th Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count. Of course, this is way better than snow, like many CBC-ers experience in North America. While we don't have all the count results as yet, it seems likely the intermittent hard showers depressed bird activity overall. Bruce and I enjoyed our day tallying 69 species, which was on the low end. Above, Bruce, in a rare moment sunshine, at the Punta de Cacao Maya ruins near Gallon Jug.

Stay tuned for further results!