My Central America Wildlife Experience

Had wildlife tour in Panama and Costa Rica. The snorkeling in Roatan Island of Honduras was exceptional, if only I can have an underwater camera to catch the images!

Sloth

The first thing said to our tour guide on the Panama Canal wildlife tour was, We want to see sloth! The easiest way to find a sloth is to find the tree grows sloth's favorite leaf (as showing in the second picture), then looking for dark round shape thing. That proved to be quite effective.  But one has to be extremely lucky to see a sloth that moves, because they sleep long hour each day.  Also depends on which kind of sloth. Two-toe sloth actives only in the night (after sunset), while three-toe sloth could be active day and night. Sloths have low metabolism, so they move slowly, and it takes one week for their body to produce waste. They would move down from the tree to poop and urine, cover it, and move back to the tree top slowly.

Obviously this one is a three-toe sloth.

Monkeys
White Face Monkey(Capuchin) and Howler Monkey can be seen all over Central America. While Howler Monkey makes loud noise to warn intruders, the White Face Monkey is actually more aggressive. During the boat tour in Costa Rica's Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge, we even saw an albino Howler with golden hair.  I found it funny that both species have the nostrils facing sideway, not exactly like those of human being.

Howler Monkey

The albino Howler Monkey

Iguana

Iguana likes to get to the sun on the tree top in order to warm up its cold blood.  That's how I got them so close.

Leafcutter ants

Believe it or not, these ants do not eat the leaves, they actually farm them by composting the leaves to grow fungi, which is their food. As far as farming concerns, these guys are next only to human.

Northern Raccoon

Got this blurry one when I walked in the Metropolitan Park outside of Panama City.

Jesus Christ lizard 

This is the little guy that walk on the water for a short distance, hence the name?

Birds

At the Panama Canal

Black Vulture at Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge in Costa Rica

Cormorant and turtle

Never have I seen so many Frigatebirds, trying to catch the unwanted fish from fisherman, or to rob other bird's catch. In San Juan del Sur of Nicaragua.

Royal Terns resting from fishing early in the morning. In San Juan del Sur.

The fashionable hair style came from diving for fish

Cayman