Infrared LIGHTS, CAMERA trap – MAMMALS

Yes you guessed it folks the camera traps are coming up with the goods and its all about the big mammals. A few weeks ago we were delighted by our first fuzzy shots of a feline in the reserve and now we are happy to report we have much clearer pictures of this elusive creature. We can now confirm it is a Little Spotted Cat (Leopardus tigrinus). It remains to be seen whether it is the same individual but we are over the moon with these clear shots. But the cat is not all, we caught a Southern Tamandua on the cameras recently too. It is possible this is the same animal we rescued and released back in December, which would be great, but there is also a chance this is a separate individual which, in a lot of respects, would be even better. However we need shots of its vest pattern to confirm this and unfortunately we didn’t get that picture (this time). It’s not just the camera traps that have been documenting mammals; Rich had a wonderful experience in the transitional forest recently when he had the privilege of watching 3 Tayras for over 5 minutes. He was able to get both photographs and some video of these wonderful mustalids; so we can definitely add them to our species list. And sometimes you don’t even need to leave the house to find mammals they literally just fly at you. A Glossophaga soricina or Pallas’s Long-tongued Bat did exactly that in the stock room and we soon understood just how it had earned its common name. Its tongue, with an amazing brush tip, was enormous! It feeds on night flowering trees and it uses its tongue to access the nectar, making it the mammal equivalent of a humming bird. Although it wasn’t a new species for our collection it was the first one I’ve seen and has just added to my fascination with these wonderful flying mammals. And finally some great news. Recent visitors and volunteers can not have helped but notice that building work has been in progress near our museum. Well it’s now complete and we are delighted to inform you that we have a new museum! It’s been over 2 years since we started a museum collection and we have been so busy that we have literally grown out of the old building leaving no space to house our collection. Having a new museum means we not only have space to store and display our specimens but we can produce education materials to raise awareness about the fauna and flora of Laguna Blanca. We are currently awaiting some tables to be made but hope to have the museum open and ready for visitors by the end of next week. I am so looking forward to getting in there and getting creative. Thanks for reading folks Hx