The Weekly Recap
Hello everyone, I’m very sorry this recap is so late again. I’ve been dealing with some very bad press. Apparently a girl remarkably similar to me in appearance has been seen with my dad in the Azores on a whale watching boat. This would be alright if she hadn’t also been spotted actually looking at the cetaceans on multiple occasions, and – god forbid – smiling. I would like to clarify immediately for the sake of my reputation that I have no idea who this person was and I hope she finds herself trapped in a particularly musty bat cave for all her sins. (But she did tell me she particularly liked the Risso’s Dolphins).
Now that that’s been cleared up, on to less important things: my dad is very excited because in one 3-hour morning of whale watching they managed to see 10 species (including a pod of 5 Pygmy Sperm Whales), a record for everyone including João the skipper who’s been running these trips for 26 years! Everyone on the boat was clamouring to borrow my dad’s lucky cap, which even he is beginning to believe in despite his “job” as a statistician. As I always say, all the statistical evidence points to luck.
Anyway, here is this week’s recap:)
First up this week is this short trip report from Iceland by Ben Balmford. They saw Humpback Whales (or as I like to call them, Thumpback), a White Beaked Dolphin and an Arctic Fox.
Next up is Jane Kempler with a very productive trip to Kenya, some highlights of which are the Somali Lesser Galago, Maned Rat and African Wolf. The report is full of dozens of gorgeous photos including many of cuddly Cheetahs (and then one pretending to be tough), an absolutely stunning baby Vervet Monkey, reptiles, insects and even – wait for it – some beautiful birds.
Ellen Linton’s trip to Texas in April was pretty successful despite her being the (cooler) mammalwatching tag-along on a birding trip, with Merriam’s Kangaroo Rat, Black-tailed Prairie Dog and Mexican Free-tailed Bats among other cool species! Also, I would definitely follow her advice to look up Burrowing Owls to see how funny they are. They look uncannily like my dad after being woken up by one of his own snores.
Next up is Valentin Moser’s report from a Svalbard cruise in May and a further exploration of northern Scandinavia: the report includes Polar Bears, Belugas, Bowhead Whales and more great species!
This trip report from West Papua last November by Ben is again full of paradisiacal photos and includes a mysterious black Forest Wallaby, so check it out if you want to help identify it.
A Royle Safaris scouting trip to Ghana in February was very successful – they saw 25 species including White-bellied Pangolins, Buffon’s kob (not to be mixed up with Buffoon’s cob, which would refer to any corn consumed by my father) and Pel’s Anomalure.
Finally is this trip report from Ecuador from Hugh Lansdown: Paddingtons (Spectacled Bears), Andean Tapeti, and Tayra are some highlights.
There will be a Miru Adventures trip to Brazil next year, in search of Maned Wolves and Jaguars, so I think it will be an exciting trip if you’d like to join!
The most exciting time of the month is here: another episode of the Mammalwatching Podcast is out! This time an interview with Wild about Colombia’s Claudia Diaz, and her mammal-research journey which has taken her back to Colombia in a nice full circle. Give it a listen if you want to hear all her great stories! (Pro tip: if you ever want to get out of doing some tedious task for a mammalwatching parent, then just turn on the podcast and claim you are too engrossed to help. They will be so proud they’ll never bother you again, and you can always drown it out by secretly playing loud bird song sounds into noise cancelling headphones. Just don’t tell my dad)
Ian Thompson and Ben Balmford are looking for advice for a trip to Baffin Island next June, and also for any Lonely Hearts interested in joining.
Someone else would love some advice on what to aim for in Costa Rica, this post is asking about where to find Collared Pikas near Anchorage and this one is about which parks to give most time to in India.
This post is asking about the most efficient way to update mammal lists using code, so check it out if this is something you can help with.
If you’ve been seeing any interesting mammals in your backyard recently, then why not leave a comment on this post and read some others – it looks like so far Michigan is winning in the backyard mammals department!
If you would like to subscribe only to weekly updates like these from mammalwatching.com, you can visit this page.
Thanks for reading:)
Katy
Cover photo: Vervet Monkey peek-a-boo – Jane Kempler
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