Mammalwatching Colombia
Hey yall! I’m new to this website but I’ve been getting into mammalwatching over the past yearish. I’ll be spending 3 months in Colombia starting in late February and I’d love to see as many mammals as possible. Unfortunately, I’m travelling on a pretty strict budget so I won’t be able to stay at many nice ecolodges or hire many guides but I’m open to it in certain circumstances. So far I’ve planned the first couple weeks in the Santa Marta area, and a week in Mitu in April. I’d especially love advice on Santa Marta White-fronted Capuchin, Cotton-headed Tamarin, Grey-handed Night Monkey, maybe Rio Cesar White-fronted Capuchin, Northern Naked-tailed Armadillo, any bats, anything in the Mitu area. But I’d be very grateful for advice for any part of Colombia. I’d also love to meet up with anyone who might be in the country in the next few months. I’m also interested in Birds/Herps/Plants/Anything else alive so if you hvae any recommendations I’d love to hear them. Also possibly heading to Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia later in the year depending on how much money I end up spending.
Thank you all in advance!
Jackson Frost
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landerz19
Hi,
Following up to Curtis´ comment on Tayrona and surroundings. We were staying at Palomino (around 25km west of Tayrona) and did a day trip to Tayrona. Staying on the park is definitely the best option for wildlife but nonetheless we saw the Capuchins without much trouble. On the way back, from the main road (Troncal del Caribe), we saw a group of Howler Monkeys on one of the river crossings (I can´t remeber exactly which but it was probably either Buritaca or Rio Don Diego).
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Curtis Hart
Here’s some excepts from a trip report I started and never finished. These are the areas you asked for and some I think may be in your budget.
Parque National Tayrona – We stayed four nights at Hotel Jasayma, a 10 minute walk in from the El Zaino entrance. Lindsay was not feeling well during this time, so our distances were limited. We did hike into Arrecifes once, but mainly stuck to the paved road between Hotel Jasayma and the trailhead to Arrecifes. The park was said to be “closed” after dark, but the road had pretty constant traffic for a couple hours after dark, and traffic started 3 hours before it supposedly opened. Walking to Castilletes in the dark to see the sunrise seemed perfectly acceptable. The thing that surprised me that no previous trip report has mentioned is that every culvert that is more than a foot high has bats in it. We were able to get photos of at least 3 species. Our main targets were the 3 primates, Cotton-top Tamarins, Santa Marta White-fronted Capuchins, and Colombian Red Howlers. The Capuchins were by far the easiest, with sightings every day. We heard the Howlers daily, but only actually saw them once. The Tamarins took a couple days to find but seem to be active within 100 meters of the Castilletes turnoff pretty often. On one of our morning walks to Castilletes we found two separate Northern Tamanduas, one of which we were able to watch wander around the canopy for over 20 minutes. We had a possible Crab-eating Fox on one of the morning walks, however it kept its distance.
Jardin: The only mammals of interest we saw here were the bats in the Bat Cave. It’s called that on Google Maps and is a short tuk-tuk ride out of town. It’s a man-made tunnel that you need to have a guide for. There are at least 4 species in the cave. Common Vampire Bats are the only ones I’ve identified so far.
El Cedral – This place is definetly backpacker priced. Mountain Tapir was a major target of the trip and this is the best place to see them. Cabanas El Cedral is located at the end of the road and is an hour and a half from Pereira. The chiva leaves from the SW side of Plaza Victoria on Calle 17 between Carreras 10 and 11. When we were there the times were 9 am and 3 pm. A 7 am and 12 pm are added on weekends and holidays. You can contact Cabanas Cedral for reservations at +573235091882(Whatsapp). It sometimes took a couple days to answer.
When we arrived, a mammal watching tour led by Rob Smith of Wild About Colombia was there. It was nice to meet them, and he gave us some great advice for other sites. Our main way of looking for tapirs was to walk the first 2 k of the road at night and hope to find one. This did not work for us. There was a very acclimated male behind the kitchen when we returned the first night. We had a day encounter the first morning while we were out birding. We heard something large behind us and found a different male Mountain Tapir pushing over small trees and eating the leaves. It was pretty calm until the chiva came by, then it wandered out of sight. We had another daylight sighting the last morning of two tapirs foraging together. One of them was the male from the kitchen.
We walked the road for 2-3 hours every night and it was pretty slow. We had Lemurine Night Monkeys on two nights, Lindsay saw a Common Opossum, and we had an unIDed Kinkajou or Olinguito one night. We normally went for a morning walk a few K down the road and then caught the chiva back up the hill. We would normally see a few Andean Squirrels and saw Colombian Red Howler Monkeys once. On our last morning, a busy Sunday, we had a Jaguarundi cross the road 7 meters in front of us.
Moccoa – I remember this place being reasonably priced, not sure if it was backpacker prices. We arrived after a 17 hour bus ride and caught a taxi to Posada Turistica Dantayaco, where we were greeted by a troop of Ecuadorian Squirrel Monkeys. The next morning we went on a tour of Donde Se Oculta del Sol. This is a 76 ha forested hill that is owned by a family, two of the daughters have Posadas on it. There is some issue with a tour operator using a similar name, which we accidently booked through him. He was fine, but certainly added some extra cost. There are 8 species of primates present of which we saw five. We started out with some Titis, which due to location in a disjunct forest patch, our guide Corentin said were Lucifer Titis. I didn’t see hands well, but I have no reason not to believe his ID. Then we promptly found a pair of Miller’s Saki, followed by more Ecuadorian Squirrel Monkeys, Big-headed Capuchins, and a couple troops of Lesson’s Saddleback Tamarin. The three species we missed were Black-handed Titi, Western Pygmy Marmoset, and Spix’s Night Monkey, which were not at their normal roost. The owner’s husband led a free frog tour one night that got several species quickly including some very nice ones.
Palmarum Lodge – This one was very cheap, but access may be expensive. If you rented a motorbike somewhere, that may be cheap enough if it is something you’re comfortable with.
This place was suggested to us by Nathalie and Elvis of Rancho Camana. This small lodge is very reasonably priced and is close to a good place to see White-bellied Spider Monkeys. On the drive we saw Giant Anteater from the road between Granada and Vista Hermosa. We made it in a medium clearance vehicle, but I needed to get out and walk the stream crossings to find the correct lines. We arrived in the afternoon and met Caesar, the owner and guide. He took us on a walk to see some roosting Saccopteryx, and then continued along the stream nearby. We ended up seeing a few Ornate Titis and a large troop of Colombian Squirrel Monkeys. After dinner we went on a night walk that was mainly walking up a stream targeting Water Opossum. The walk started out great with an immediate Two-toed Sloth followed by a Brumback’s Night Monkey. We found a couple Gray Four-eyed Opossums followed by a Brown Eared Woolly Opossum and a Common Opossum. After another twenty minutes a Water Opossum came swimming down the stream but turned around when it saw us. It ended up hiding under a rock and we had very close views.
The next morning we drove to a property outside Santo Domingo where spider Monkeys are possible. Again, we had instant luck with Caesar spotting the group before entering the forest as we were walking across a pasture towards the forest. We continued on, seeing fresh tapir tracks just inside the forest. The forest was surprisingly quiet, but we eventually saw some Colombian Woolly Monkeys and did see another White-bellied Spider Monkey on the way out.
If you enjoy seeing fish, the stream is worth a snorkel. There are some VERY interesting things in there. It’s mostly laying on your belly in shallow water, but it gets a little over a meter deep in some spots.