Yanallpa Caño & Rio Dorado
High on many peoples’ lists of things they want to see in the Amazon are monkeys. Today was a great day for monkeys, as we had sightings from sunrise to sunset. We also were able to have prolonged views of different species feeding and socially interacting, and we learned quite a bit about their lives. We also saw some amazing birds and even did some night exploring by skiff.
At sunrise, after enjoying some Blue-and-Yellow Macaws, we took a short walk to see the smallest true monkeys in the world, the Pygmy Marmoset. They chew holes in certain trees and return to these trees daily to drink the sap, so thus they can be predictable. Incredibly quick, we watched many different marmosets scampering around from tree to tree. A little better for photos however was one adult that had a baby on its back. It sat curled up in a fork of a fallen tree, and then groomed another adult, all quite close to the trail.
Our morning exploration took us in the narrow stream of Yanallpa Caño, where we had prolonged views of saddleback tamarins. These small monkeys are quite colorful with rufous and black, and white faces. A large group was feeding on figs, and acrobatically leaping from tree to tree. Some did pause long enough for photos for a bit of a grooming session, luckily down at eye-level.
Further along, we visited a hollow tree that was the sleeping spot of three night monkeys. Active at night, our arrival caused them to pop their heads out of the trunk to look down upon us. After this, some of us were lucky enough to see a large Monk Saki. This is a strange one. Black, with a bald face and a big bushy tail. A great sighting indeed!
For the afternoon we explored the Dorado River, and entered an oxbow lake for sunset. Here we not only enjoyed Horned Screamers, caiman, ducks, and frogs, but a massive group of squirrel monkeys as well. Curious of us, they approached pretty close, and did some massive leaps between trees as well. A pink sunset lit up the sky as we returned to Delfin II for dinner and hopes for more monkeys tomorrow!
