Panama
Cacomistle, Bassariscus sumichrasti, Los Quetzales Lodge
I have been to Panama four times, for long weekends in November 2013 and April 2016. And for a “mammal lite” week in May 2022 and an event liter week in 2023 (no trip report).
Barro Colorado Island
During a night in 2013 I saw Central-American Agoutis,Mantled Howlers, Greater White-lined Bat, Greater Fishing Bat, Mesoamerican Moustached Bat, Common Big-eared Bat, Northern Stripe-headed Round-eared Bat, Seba’s Short-tailed Bat, Common Tent-making Bat, Heller’s Broad-nosed Bat and Jamaican Fruit-eating Bat.
False Killer Whale, Pseudorca crassidens, up close, Coiba Island
El Valle including the Canopy Lodge
I sayed for a night in 2013 and saw Dark Four-eyed Opposum,Central-American Woolly Opposum, Orange Nectar Bats, Kinkajou, Hoffman’s Two-toed Slot, Tomes’ Spiny Rat, Central American Agoutis and Red-tailed Squirrels.
Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni, Canopy Tower
A night at an El Valle hotel in May 2022 produced a Two-toed Sloth, Black Rats and a Variegated Squirrel.
Gamboa including the Canopy Tower
I spent 2 nights here 2013 and found White-nosed Coatis, Merriam’s Long-tongued Bats, Common Big-eared Bats, White-faced Capuchins, Mantled Howlers, Geoffroy’s Tamarins, Spectral Bat, Pallas’s Bat, Olingo, Two-toed Sloth, Central American Agouti, Central American Woolly Opossum, Common Opossum, Nine-banded Armadillo, Agouti, Collared Pecccaries, Seba’s Short-tailed Bats, Rufous Tree Rat, Lesser Capybaras.
Lesser Capybaras, Hydrochoerus isthmius, Gamboa
I returned to Gamboa in May 2022 and added Quichua Porcupine, Gabb’s Cottontails, Spix’s Disc-winged Bat and probable Tomes’s Spiny Rat and Kinkajou to the list.
Pacific Tent-making Bat (Uroderma convexum)
In 2023 I spent a couple of nights at the Toucan Apartments Airbnb in Gamboa itself – a convenient and comfortable place to say with Pacific Tent Making Bats in the porch and agoutis in the garden. A couple of night walks along the pipeline road produced a Northern Tamandua, many Gabb’s Cottontails, Mantled Howlers, Central American Agoutis and a brief but close and clear encounter with an Ocelot, about 1 km after the gate. Luckily I saw it well enough to realize that – try as I might – I couldn’t make the tail long enough to fit a Margay.
Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana)
Coiba Island
A one night stay in 2016 produced Coiba Island Agouti, Coiba Island Howler, False Killer Whale, Pantropical Spotted Dolphin, Common Bottlenose Dolphin, Proboscis Bats.
Panamanian Night Monkey, Aotus zonalis, Colon
Colon
I spent a night here in 2016 and saw my target Panamanian Night Monkey in the hotel grounds.
Miraflores Locks
A brief visit here in May 2022 produced a Central American Red Brocket.
Los Quetzales Lodge
I spent two nights at this great lodge with my kids in 2016 and saw Cacomistle, Red-tailed Squirrel, Boquete Rice Rat, Talamancan Deer Mouse, Chiriquian Harvest Mouse, Chiriqui Singing Mouse.
Harris’s Rice Water Rat, Tanyuromys aphrastus
In May 2022 I added Handley’s Tailless Bat, Talamanca Harvest Mouse and the very rare Harris’s Water Rice Rat to the list.
Isla Escudo De Veraguas
Pygmy Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus
I visited this beautiful island in May 2022 and saw Pygmy Sloths.
Panamanian White-throated Capuchin, Coiba Island
Community Reports
The Canopy Tower & Canopy Lodge, 2023: John Wright, 13 days & 31 species including Water Opossum, Northern Tamandua and Lesser Capybara.
The Canopy Tower & Canpy Lodge, 2023: Royle Safaris, 10 days & 40 species including Water Opossum and Fringe-lipped Bat.
Panama, 2022: Alex Schouten and Jeannette den Hartog’s report of various primates seen during a month in Panama, with 13 mammal species including Colombian White-throated Capuchin and Brown-headed Spider Monkey.
Panama, 2022: Andrew Balmford, 3 weeks & 45 species including Bang’s Mountain Squirrel, Central American Red Brocket and Brown-headed Spider Monkey.
Pygmy Sloths and rainforest rodents, 2022: Jon Hall, 1 week & 26 species including Central American Red Brocket, Harris’s Rice Water Rat and Pygmy Sloths.
Gamboa, Valle de Anton and Boquete, 2022: Paul Carter’s notes of 2 weeks & 36 species including Alston’s Woolly Mouse Opossum, Cacomistle and an Ocelot and probable Margay.
Panama, 2021: Alex Meyer, 3 nights & 28 species including Armored Rat, Andean Porcupine, Western Lowland Olingo and Panamanian Night Monkey.
Panama, 2021: The Travelling Zoologists, 2 weeks & 34 species including Water Opossum, Robinson’s Mouse Opossum and a Silky Anteater. (Note that the “Panamanian Spiny Pocket Mouse” in the report is misidentified … it is possibly a Mexican Deer Mouse).
Panama, 2019: Steph Elliot, 10 days & 26 species including Rothschild’s Porcupine, Rufous Tree Rat and Spectral Bat.
Panama, 2019: Justin Brown, 2 weeks and some nice species including Cacomistle, Brown-headed Spider Monkey and Pygmy Sloth.
Costa Rica and Panama, 2019: Romain Bocquier, 45 days & 61 species including a Margay, 2 Olingos and Spectraland Northern Ghost Bats.
The Canopy Tower, 2019: Naturetrek, 10 days with mammals including a Rufous Tree Rat.
Panama, 2018: Steve Anyon-Smith, 1 month & 21 species including Cacomistle, Tayra and Brown Four-eyed Opossum.
Panama, 2017: Brian Keelan, 2 weeks & 24 species including Rothschild’s Porcupine and Spectral Bat.
Panama, 2017: Venkat Sankar, 4 nights & 28 species including Rothschild’s (Andean) Porcupine, Western Lowland Olingo, Spectral Bat, Northern Tamandua and – best of all – Brown-headed Spider Monkey.
Panama, 2017: Steve Morgan, 2 weeks & 36 species including Jaguarundi, Cacomistle, Spectral Bat, Western Pygmy Squirrel and Rothschild’s Porcupine.
Panama, 2017: Charles Foley, 2 weeks with species including Cacomistle, Olingo, Chiriqui Singing Mice and Montane Squirrels.
Panama, 2016: Jon Hall, 5 days & 14 species including Cacomistle, Coiba Agouti & Howler and Chiriqui Singing Mice.
Panama, 2016: Cheryl Antonucci, 9 days & 27 species including Cacomistle, Alfaro’s Pygmy Squirrel and Coiba Island Howler.
Panama, 2015: Tobi Lundqvist, 1 week & 19 species including Geoffroy’s Tamarin, Lesser Capybara and Western Night Monkey.
The Canopy Tower, 2014: Scott Flamand, 4 days & 14 species including Allen’s Olingo and Spectral Bats. See also Charles Hood’s brief report (as a comment) to this post.
Costa Rica & Panama, 2014: Dominique Brugiere, 1 month & some nice species including, in Panama, Rothschild’s Porcupines, Western Night Monkeys and Lesser Capybaras.
Panama, 2013: Jon Hall 4 nights & 32 species including Spectral Bat, Western Lowland Olingo and Orange Nectar Bat.
Panama, 2013: Matthew & Maureen Hart, 1 week & 12 species including a strange Sloth and Northern Naked-tailed Armadillo.
Panama, 2010: Canopy Tower Family mammal tour, 10 days & 29 species including a Rothschild’s Porcupine.
Panama, 2008: Curtis Hart, 2 weeks & 20 species including both Sloths, Paca and Rothschild’s Porcupine.
Panama, 2007: Richard Webb, 8 days & 16 species including a Tayra, Geoffroy’s Tamarin and Woolly Opposum.
Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala): Curtis Hart, a few notes on different national parks.
Also See
Cacomistles in La Fortuna, November 2024
RFI: visiting but not staying at the Canopy Tower?, October 2024
Costa Rica/ Nicaragua/ Panama – suggestions for very low budget mammalwatcing, September 2024
Barro Colorado Island RFI, January 2024
Bangs’s Mountain Squirrel vs Red-tailed Squirrel Identification, July 2023
Melanistic Oncilla sighting in Volcán Barú, February 2020
Panama- November, RFI – with lots of useful information, September 2013
Pygmy Sloth Fiasco, September 2013
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