Another walk in the woods to begin the day. Christi and I even clamber up to a viewing platform, although the builders must have been incredibly optimistic people as the platform is in the middle of impenetrable jungle!
With little action on dry land we take to the boats in the afternoon to visit Mamiraua Lake. We stop frequently to gawk at black-collared hawks, black hawks, cormorants, anhinga, white-necked herons, ringed kingfishers, egrets, monkeys, black caiman and pink river dolphins. Sadly, the much-anticipated sunset over Mamiraua Lake is lost beneath coal-black skies. It’s an hour by boat from the lake back to the lodge and the boat is at full throttle as we try to outrun the approaching thunderstorm. The weather front moves with alarming speed, however, and within 30 minutes we are drenched from head to foot. It’s not called the rainforest for nothing!
An interesting point about the wildlife that live in the flooded rainforest is that to be permanent residents they need to know how to swim and climb trees. Sloths, monkeys, and even jaguars are adept at this, but not so deer, capybara etc. so you don’t see them here. Also because the soil in the rainforest is not that deep, trees have a shallow but extensive root system, including massive buttress roots.
After another excellent dinner we are given a lecture on jaguars. Remarkably they are plentiful at Mamiraua, although frustratingly invisible. Researchers are using collars to monitor the movement of jaguars. They believe the males flee the flooded sections of the rainforest during the rainy season as some sort of survival instinct, while females stay to nurture their young and teach them how to climb trees (and no, I don’t have a photograph of this!). One potential commercial application of this research is to use these same tracking collars to enable tourists to view wild (albeit it collared) jaguars.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching story.
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