I mentioned this woolly monkey before. His mother and father both spent time in captivity. That said, he was born in the wild, was never in captivity and never fed by humans. But he has a natural trust of people and would often come around the lodge and perform for us. Here, I caught him taking a break from all the play. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second, Godox fill flash.

Time to start mixing the rest of the world back in among all the Africa photos. I photographed this sloth earlier in the year down in Peru. She had just finished eating fruits of the cecropia tree (their favorite) and was looking mighty satisfied. It’s a tight composition, but you can see that her head is almost completely turned around as she took a not-so-quick look at the camera before turning her attention back to the business at hand. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/200th of a second.

We saw quite a few of these proboscis bats while canoeing in Peru. More often than not, we didn’t see them until they flew to safety and landed on another tree. For this shot, however, I saw them coming, as we slowly and quietly drifted past. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second, Godox V860iii fill flash.

When I first got back from Peru, I shared an image of this southern tamandua — a rare find to see one with dark fur. In this image, you can see him going in for his favorite meal, a line of termites extending down the trunk of the tree. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/6.3 at 1/400th of a second, Godox v860iii fill flash.

We spotted this little bird deep in the jungle while we were canoeing through thick foliage. As the name might suggest, antshrikes feed on ants, sometimes following columns of army ants. They supplement their diet with lizards and berries. There are more than 230 species in the antbird family. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/30th of a second.

This was another new species for me on my recent trip to Peru — the bicolored-spined porcupine. Not much online about these guys. I suppose they have spines and they’re bicolored, which appears to check out. They are strictly nocturnal and arboreal, living almost entirely in trees. Nikon D500 with 500mm PF lens, ISO 500, f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second, Godox v860iii flash.

I was pretty far from this sloth and it took awhile before noticing the baby clinging to the mother’s torso. After it rains, sloths like to climb high to dry off, but usually they’ll do so alone because it makes them vulnerable to predators like harpy eagles. The trees are cecropias, a favorite of three-toed sloths. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/4000th of a second.

Potoos are really odd looking birds. But cool looking too in their own comical sort of way. They have big, bulbous yellow eyes that resemble colored ping pong balls. This guy was perched high in a tree, where they spend most of their time. They are nocturnal, but occasionally can be spotted sleeping on an open branch during the day. In this image, you can see the potoo’s right eye in profile as he looks toward the right side of the frame. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 500, f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second, Godox v860iii flash.

Here’s another look at the woolly monkey I photographed in Peru. There are two species and 5 subspecies of woolly monkey. I got many frame-filling shots of this guy, but I always seem to prefer the images when I go a bit wider and include the environment. You can see the use of that prehensile tail acting like a third arm as he swings through the forest. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1250, f/4 at 1/800th of a second.

What’s a trip to the Amazon without a few jungle rat sightings? This time, I saw two different species, the bamboo rat and this guy, the yellow-crowned brush-tailed rat. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 3200, f/5.6 at 1/60th of a second.