A pick of the best from July and August 2012

Despite of the late arrival of the dry season, it is certain that it is already here. It seldom rains, and hence trails are not muddy anymore. But besides, due to the lack of water, there is less available food on the forest, so animals have to move more if they want to feed properly. Therefore, during the beginning of the rainy season, there have been many different sightings, but especially many mammal sighting. Read below if you want to know the most special ones!

· The Southern Tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla)

At only 600m away from the Inn, just a day after arriving, RN Tristan was fortunate enough to see the enigmatic tamandua. It was tearing away the fronds from a palm with its huge fore-claws to get at the honey within a bees nest. Once full, it clambered down the trunk completely unaware of my presence, until a curious look in my direction sent it ambling back up the tree.

The tamandua is a close relative of the giant anteater, it’s a medium sized mammal that is at home on the ground and in the trees. Its diet consists of termites, ants and bees which it draws into its mouth with an absurdly long tongue through an elongated snout, it has no teeth so does not chew its food but swallows it straight away. To help it get up into the tree-tops the tamandua has a specially adapted prehensile trail which acts like a 5^th limb. This adaptation of the tail is also characteristic of many of the monkey species found in the reserve.

· The Tayra (Eira barbara)

Shortly after sunrise on main trail, a colossal turkey vulture was spotted in the high branches of a Brazilian nut tree, its wings were spread wide to warm itself in the morning sun. Just beneath the vulture, on the very same tree were three energetic Tayras playing after a light breakfast of honey. They stayed for almost half an hour as we watched with awe at the ease with which they leaped through the tree-tops and rolled along the branches trying to scratch and relieve the bee stings that covered their bodies. This sighting was particularly special as Tayra’s are usually only seen in passing, crossing the trails or bounding through the treetops in a dark flash. Here we were fortunate enough to observe the animals up close and get a little insight into a typical morning in their lives.

The Tayra is a medium sized mammal belonging to the weasel family or Mustelidae, they feed on small vertebrates (mainly rodents), insects fruit and honey. They have been measured to have massive home ranges of up to 24km2 and are important dispersers of seeds for several tree species.

· Emerald tree boa (Corallus caninus)

This species is one of the most special snakes you can see. It is a constrictor species of the family boadiae, meaning it uses its incredible strength to squeeze its prey to death as opposed to using the toxic venom like the vipers. It can grow to 2.5m in length and is a beautiful emerald green colour.

And the sighting becomes even more special if there is also another species of boa, the Amazon tree boa (Corallus hortulanus) only a few meters away! It occurred during a night walk, on July 2^nd, when RN Laura suddenly saw small shiny eyes right beyond the trail. With a closer look she realized what it was. But when RN Albert just lighted on a tree by chance, Laura saw a long green emerald snake hanging on a tree. Two boas in the blink of an eye is not bad!