From the Field

Archives of Gone Wild From the Field Journals

02 Aug 2002

Photo by: Lance R. Peck

This is "Chulupa". He's a Yellow-Spotted Amazon turtle. He lives in our office aquarium in Puerto Maldonado. We have had Chulupa for almost one year. He was given to us by a father of a young child who had kept the turtle in a small container. We are not certain how long the family had kept the turtle but when we placed him in the aquarium it was a couple weeks before he figured out how to get to the bottom of the tank and stay there without floating back to the surface.

Chulupa is very much at home in his aquarium now and enjoys the company of about 50 tropical ornamental fish. He enjoys sunning his toes on top of a big root that serves as his lookout during the daytime. For breakfast, lunch and dinner he would like boiled chicken breast, but will eat Lances favorite aquatic plants if he has to.

Turtle Fact 1:

Baby turtles are sold by the hundreds of thousands each year, and this has been going on for decades. They are the most popular of the herptiles bought for the home vivarium.

Turtle Fact 2:

"Chulupa" is not only a Yellow-Spotted Amazon, he is what we call a "side-necked" turtle. Most turtle species draw their heads into their shells by a vertical bending process. With side-necks, the heads are bent under the shell sideways. This difference is considered a very fundamental one, so much so that the side-necks have been put into a separate suborder. All side-necks are fresh water turtles. There are no marine or strictly terrestrial species among them.

13 Jul 2002

Happy Birthday Belinda!

01 Jun 2002

Mammals

photos by: Lance R. Peck

"The Anteater and the Fifth Limb". Mammals and reptiles of many kinds have evolved prehensile tails to help them travel the jungle canopies. A prehensile tail is capable of supporting the full weight of the body its attached to. It functions as a fifth limb, or hand you might say! Having this extra "hand" allows the animal to move with safety high up in the forest canopy while freeing its hands for finding food and feeding.

Photo Note: This anteater photo was taken just after we saw it walking across a large grassy area at our home. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon. Often on weekends, when the employees have gone away, animals stroll through the property where we live above the mighty Madre de Dios river.

Whachoo lookin at? Like the anteater, this mouse opossum has a prehensile tail. BIG EYES are perfect for its night lifestyle and insects are its favored main course for dinner tonight, baby.

Photo Note: One night at our "bungalow in the forest" on the Tambopata river this mouse opossum came inside through our screen. We chased him around for a while trying to get this photo before crawling back into bed while he watched us sleep from the rafters above our heads.

Looks like a pig, don't you think? That's because this collared peccaries nearest relatives are pigs. But they live in totally different families. Why? They just can't get along. (sound like a family you know?) Peccaries differ from "true" pigs in several ways. Such as weighing in at only 17-35 kg. and having only one or two piglets instead of the normal large pig size litter.

Photo Note: On a trip back from the La Torre we stopped for a short visit at the control station at the boca of the river. This peccary, having grown up at the station, was accustomed to handouts from tourists. He wasn't at all pleased when we left without giving him so much as a cracker!

01 May 2002

"Amazing Bugs"
Photos by: Lance R. Peck

Hide and Seek
Where's the leaf !

Camouflage and mimicries abound. One might ask why do these concealing tactics need to be so good? Common in the canopies, mantids are predatory insects that occur in a wide range of colors, shapes, and sizes.

Mystery bug? What is it? We don't know.

Orchid pollinator bee

The art of mimicry does not belong to the insect alone. The fact that an orchid flower can mimic the sexual behavior of a specific bee well enough to fool the flies is almost miraculous.

Way cool caterpillars on the move!

Caterpillars have evolved superb forms of camouflage. Some use very radical approaches for defense. Like magically transforming their body into an excellent duplicate of the head of a small viper! Others go so far as to duplicate twigs and bark on which they feed and hide. While still others resemble bird poop.