Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [44]
Toward the west, the cloud forests straddling the Amazon and the eastern slopes of the Andean highlands are home to the endangered spectacled bear. South America’s only bear is a black, shaggy mammal, known for its white, masklike face markings, that grows up to 1.8m in length. Avid tree climbers, they do not hibernate, though they do hole up in dens during bad weather.
* * *
Sloths spend only 10% of their time moving.
* * *
The highlands are, most famously, home to roving wool-bearing packs of camelids: llamas and alpacas are the most easily spotted since they are domesticated, and used as pack animals or for their wool; vicuñas and guanacos live exclusively in the wild. You can see llamas, alpacas and vicuñas at the Reserva Nacional Salinas y Aguada Blanca (Click here) outside Arequipa. Far inland from Nazca, the Reserva Nacional Pampas Galeras (Click here) is a vicuña sanctuary with a biannual roundup and ceremonial shearing in late May or early June. On highland talus slopes, watch out for the viscacha, which looks like the world’s most cuddly rabbit. Foxes, deer and domesticated cuy (guinea pigs) are also highland dwellers, as is the puma (cougar or mountain lion).
* * *
Llamas are domestic animals thought to have been bred from guanacos by pre-Columbian civilizations.
* * *
On the coast, huge numbers of sea lions and seals are easily seen on the Islas Ballestas (Click here). Dolphins are commonly seen offshore, but whales very rarely. In the coastal desert strip, there are few unique species of land animals. One is the near-threatened Sechuran fox, the smallest of the South American foxes (found in northern Peru), which has a black-tipped tail, pale, sand-colored fur and an omnivorous appetite for small rodents and seed pods.
REPTILES, AMPHIBIANS, INSECTS & MARINE LIFE
The greatest variety of reptiles, amphibians, insects and marine life can be found in the Amazon basin. Here, you’ll find hundreds of amphibian species, such as toads, tree frogs and thumbnail-sized, brightly colored poison dart frogs (indigenous peoples once used the frogs’ deadly poison on the points of their blow-pipe darts). Rivers teem with schools of piranhas, paiche and doncella (various types of freshwater fish), while the air buzzes with the activity of thousands of insects: thirsty mosquitoes, armies of ants, squadrons of beetles, katydids, stick insects, fuzzy caterpillars, long-legged spiders, praying mantis, transparent moths, and butterflies of all shapes and sizes. A blue morpho butterfly in flight is one of the Amazon’s most remarkable sights: with wingspans of up to 10cm, their iridescent-blue coloring can seem downright hallucinogenic when they are fluttering.
* * *
Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, by Louise Emmons and Francois Feer, is an illustrated full-color field guide to more than 300 species of rainforest animals, with distribution and range maps.
* * *
Naturally, there are all kinds of reptiles, too, including tortoises and river turtles, lizards, caimans and, of course, that jungle-movie favorite: the anaconda. An aquatic boa snake that can measure more than 10m in length, it will often ambush its prey by the water’s edge, constrict its body around it and then drown it in the river. Caimans, tapirs, deer, turtles and peccaries are all tasty meals for this killer snake; human victims are almost unheard of (unless you’re Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube in a low-rent Hollywood production). Far more worrisome to the average human is the bushmaster, a deadly, reddish brown viper that likes to hang out inside rotting logs and among the buttress roots of trees. Thankfully, it’s a retiring creature, and is rarely found on well-trodden trails.
* * *
Rainforest Publications (www.rainforestpublications.com) sells handy, laminated foldout guides for quickly identifying common birds, mammals, marine mammals, reef fish and birds in Peru.
*