Epiphytes for Primary Production

You know where you are?!

You´re in the jungle, baby! This first frog (Osteocephalus sp.? I don´t know) sitting in a Heliconias plant fully met up with my stereotypical preconceptions of what rainforest must be like.

I couldn´t wait to post these photos - I´ll fill in with details between dry, lifeless Atacama desert and mega-diverse lowland/foothill Amazon rainforest in coming posts. These are all from Parque Nacional Madidi in Bolivia, near Rurrenabaque. Enjoy, and have a lovely evening or day!

Vines and palms in abundance

Long-tailed Potoo, second sighting at Chalalan Eco-lodge in 15 years

Beautifully camouflaged crested toad in the fallen and decomposing forest leaves

A curled fallen palm frond provides a suitable microclimate for the wasps pupating within these cases. Regrettably, my curiosity and desire for instant knowledge spelt the premature death of the pupa furthest left.

Cup fungi fruiting on wood

¨Monkey Ladder¨

A vine which has apparently converged on the tetrapod limb. On some nodes, the tendrils appeared to grasp onto neighboring vines with all three extensions, or just hold on by pinching between two.

We had taken a hike to an oxbow lake (of the Tuichi River) and then to the riverside, via a fishing trail which was not well-trodden. I lingered at the river´s edge to watch a water tyrant as my party headed back to the main trail, and, having been blindly following the guide on the way there, did not know the exact way back to the trail. I began to head back on what looked to be the most prominent trail, only for it to dissolve into nothing distinguishable from the ambient vegetation. I tried the same trail a few times, and then strayed progressively further from the river in search of the main trail, hollered to try and get the attention of my group, and beat on the butress roots of Almendrello trees for lack of vocal volume. There were certainly plenty of trails, but all I could find were those of peccaries and ants! Once dusk began to fall, I was unable to see tracks in the mud, which by that time were increasingly those of my own, trying to find the trail. I decided not to move too far from the river in case anyone came back looking for me (bad PR, I figured, if they neglected to), but accepted the idea of sitting the night out up in a tree, outside the reach of peccaries (very intimidating inhabitants of the jungle) and at least away from the direct routes of pumas and jaguars which may have been hunting along the river. I plucked a Theobroma cacao fruit, anticipating eating it for breakfast the following morning, and enjoyed the coming and going of swifts, bats, moths, calls of insects, rising of the moon, and ever-slight turns of the planet, seen as constellations moving slightly. A wonderful evening, graced by the visit of the arboreal mammal in the photo (using a camera flash, I could only see its eyeshine). The guides, of course, came back to find me, and we went back to the lodge...interesting night - I only didn´t like that other people had to be bothered on my account.

Tree frog on the way back to the lodge.

Great big snail! There is a mosquito captured in flight, in the background (I wish I could say it was intentionally photographed).