...And More Amazon Rainforest Animals
This Amazonian dwarf iguana has mastered the art of camouflage. Without use of flash it looks like part of a tree trunk deep in the Amazon rainforest, even when seen from only a few feet away.
A silver-breasted piranha sports its sharp teeth before it is released back into the Cuyabeno. In spite of the presence of this fish with a bad reputation, locals don't fear swimming in the river. Apparently the fish has gained its reputation from situations in which it has been trapped in ponds and lagoons that gradually shrink during the dry season, making it desperate for food; thus any animal that happens to wander into such a shrinking body of water is instant piranha food.
Another important denizen of the river is the ari phima. Reaching lengths of over three meters, this animal, with a primitive scale structure, has both lungs and gills, which enable it to cross dry land to new bodies of water. Its mouth is shaped parallel to the surface of the water. Although we never actually saw one of these fish in the murky waters of the Cuyabeno, in several instances we saw the huge wave it made as it roiled close to the surface.
A saki monkey gazes somberly from a tree on the edge of Laguna Grande in the Cuyabeno Reserve in the Amazon rainforest. It has a long, stiff (not prehensile) tail. Spider monkeys are also common in this part of the Amazon. Other high-canopy animals included the two-toed sloth, which lives up to its ever-so-slow reputation, macaws, toucans, parrots, and many more. Most of these animals were too distant for our cameras.
The pink river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis
) is a common resident of the Amazon, but is difficult to photograph because of the murky water and because when it surfaces for air it only momentarily shows its blowhole.
When the river is at flood stage, as shown here, the dolphins lead a mostly solitary existence, and gather together in small family groups of five or more during the dry season.
This Amazon river dolphin photo, taken near the village of Puerto Bolivar on the Cuyabeno River, is unusual because most of the dolphin's body is out of the water.
