Animals below and above

Many of the Amazonian animals are not easily seen. Some hide beneath placid waters, while the others stay high on the canopy and rarely come down.

On lake Yacumama, we boat for a few hours, with fishing rods hooked with small pieces of meat as bait. They disappear in sudden imperceptible tugs, and it takes over an hour to net a catch. By the end of the afternoon, when the parrots return to their roost on broken palm trees, we haul in six mid-sized piranhas. At the end, as I step off the boat, our guide tells me to "Stay still and not move", and then trains her flashlight right above my head on a tree stem. You can scroll down to the bottom of the page to see what we saw.

The next day, we look for canopy critters by climbing a very high stairway that takes you above the foliage.

Some of the animals we see from above. Plus the giant hairy tarantula that nearly landed on my head.

Click to return to Peru main page.