17 March 2025

experienced mammalwatchers from Argentina wanted for advice 

Planning to visit Northern Argentina in July I am looking for experienced mammalwatchers who can advise me on localities and practicalities. My planned itinerary: Ceibas-El Palmar- Ibera- Campo Federal San Juan- Mocona- Urugua-i- Iguazu.

 

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Michal
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  • 17 March 2025
    Nathan Myhrvold

    Well, I am not “from” Argentina, but I was at El Palmar last year for 4 days. Capybaras are in huge numbers there. We also saw pampas fox and crabeater fox daily – during the day. We had much better photo opportunities there than later in the Brazilian Pantanal where we only saw foxes during night drives. We got a glimpse of Geoffrey’s cat as it darted across the road. We also saw nine banded armadillo. There is a campground in the park and there is a very active vizcacha colony there – they start coming up around sunset and are quite reliable. It’s a good spot for watching interaction and their antics make for good photo opportunities. Another interesting interaction was crested caracara picking bugs off of capybaras. The bird walks up to the capybara, it rolls onto its back and lets it look for bugs. When I first saw a caracara on top of a capybara with its legs in the air, I thought it was scavanging a dead capy, but then we saw the whole process. Logistically speaking, there is a small cafe in the center of the park (near the campground) and it has excellent empanadas – we had lunch there every day. There are a couple lodges near the park, and some restaurants in a small town nearby. One odd thing is that the only vehicles for a private tour (I was with one other person) was a crew cab pickup truck – the guide told us that SUV have a prohibitive tax/tariff so they weren’t available. During my trip the guides told me that I should have also planned to go to Ibara, but the next stop on this trip was the Pantanal for several weeks, and it couldn’t be changed.

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