This one goes out to all the mothers, as there is still ten minutes left in Mother’s Day at the time of posting. Many of the monkeys we saw in Peru were carrying babies. This is an Ecuadorian squirrel monkey. The baby seems almost as big as mom. On my trip to Peru six months ago, I didn’t see any of these squirrel monkeys. This time they seemed to be all over the place. And when you see them, you see a lot of them as they can travel in troops of over a hundred individuals. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1250, f/5.6 at 1/400th of a second, Godox v860iii fill flash.

There are quite a few species of glass frog, so I’m taking a bit of a guess on this one. I believe it to be the Yuruani glass frog based on where I photographed it (Loreto, Peru in the upper Amazon basin) and the markings on its back. We were canoeing through the flooded rainforest when it hopped onto my shoulder and then onto this leaf. I like shooting small frogs like this (about an inch) with a wide angle lens to get a sense of the environment. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 25mm) ISO 1600, f/4.5 at 1/60th of a second.

This was the lone anaconda I saw on my recent Peru trip. An adolescent. Pretty small considering they typically end up around 17 feet long (or more), and weigh in excess of 180 pounds. And there have been reports of anacondas much bigger than that (20 feet and 360 pounds). This guy couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 feet long. Other names include, common anaconda, common water boa, and giant emerald anaconda. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 35mm), ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/1600th of a second.

Counterintuitively, night monkeys are most often seen during the day at Tahuayo Lodge in Peru. That’s because they sleep in tree cavities during the day and if you know the tree they’re in, they often poke their heads out to see what’s going on down below. I was lucky to see a pair out doing their thing at night, which included hunting for insects up in the canopy. There are eleven different species of night monkey. This species is Named for Harvard University Pathology Scientist Dr. Nancy Shui-Fong Ma, but they’ll also answer to Peruvian red-necked owl monkey. Check out those long, slender fingers. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/7.1 at 1/200th of a second, Godox v860iii flash.

Of all the spectacular birds in the Peruvian Amazon, paradise tanagers have to be the most brilliantly colored I’ve ever seen. Usually high in the canopy, these two ventured down to the river’s edge, likely searching for a bush with ripe berries. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second, Godox V860iii fill flash.

If Game of Thrones starred monkeys, I imagine they’d be monk sakis. These guys are my new favorite monkey species with their thick, furry coats and troubled expressions. They are shy monkeys and spend most of their time high in the trees. In fact their existence takes place entirely in trees and they never come to the ground. This monk saki, however, dipped below the canopy for a closer look at our canoe, just before a downpour. Monk sakis live only in a small territory that spans a bit of northwestern Brazil and northeastern Peru. More on these guys in future posts. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/1000th of a second.

I saw two species of toucan while in Peru last week, although the two are extremely similar looking. This is the white-throated toucan. It’s slightly larger and has a bigger beak to head ratio than the channel-billed toucan. These guys tend to stay high in the canopy, which is where I generally saw them, but I did manage a few in-flight shots as well. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.

Last time I was in Peru, everyone else at the lodge saw this particular woolly monkey. I did not. This time, however, more than made up for it, as he granted me two photo sessions striking all sorts of interesting poses. His name is Mowgli and he has an interesting back story. Both of his parents spent time in captivity at rehabilitation centers. After their release back into the wild, Mowgli was conceived and born. He has never been fed by humans and he has never lived in captivity himself. But his parents must have passed on a trust of humans and he often visits the lodge to seemingly say hello. Mowgli is a Poeppig’s woolly monkey, also known as a red woolly monkey or silvery woolly monkey, a subspecies of the common woolly monkey. They are considered endangered mainly due to loss of habitat. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm), ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/100th of a second.

As much as I tried, on my trip to Peru six months ago, I couldn’t find the brilliantly colored uakari poison frog. Last week I was successful. I saw two of them. Still hard to find despite the bright colors. Partly because they’re only about half an inch long. Shockingly tiny. This adult was a bit more colorful than the adolescent that we also found and I used my macro lens to capture the shot. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/60th of a second, Godox v860iii flash with Westcott soft box.

This sloth was being downright gluttonous as she tore into a fruiting cecropia tree. She had bits of fruit all over her face while devouring one piece after the next. Sloths love cecropia trees and more often than not, if you spot a sloth, it’ll be hanging from the branches of a cecropia. All in, we saw eight different sloths last week in Peru. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500PF lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/320th of a second.