Suriname, 15th day, Brownsberg

This is a video about king vultures.

Suriname, 17 February.

Today, in Brownsberg nature reserve, after our arrival yesterday.

It’s foggy in the morning.

The sound of a buff-throated woodcreeper. And of spider monkeys.

A flock of painted parakeets passes.

There is a long red “highway” of leaf-cutting ants through the green grass. Early in the morning, there are not many ants yet. And those that are moving already, are moving left, without carrying anything. Later in the day, more ants will be on the highway. Many of them now also moving to the right, to the nest, while carrying green pieces of leaf.

A bananaquit.

Tadpoles in a puddle in the path. Pondskaters in other puddles.

Green oropendola sound.

A blue-headed parrot.

White-throated toucan sound.

An agouti.

A king vulture circling in the air.

A swallow-tailed kite.

A white hawk. Two greater yellow-headed vultures.

In Brownsberg nature reserve, 1053 plant species have been found, including 140 orchids, and 80 ferns. However, as visitors’ centre information panels say, Brownsberg wildlife is threatened by bauxite-aluminium and gold mining and the pollution which they cause.

Near the visitor centre, green garden lizards, and a gecko on the wall.

This video is called slingeraap – spider monkey – Ateles paniscus.

Red howler monkeys in the tree above my head. 200 meter further: spider monkeys, also very visible, not very far.

A yellow-headed caracara.

In the afternoon: four grey-winged trumpeter birds cross the road. Later, another three. They are not shy.

A band-rumped swift.

A green aracari. Also about aracaris: see here.

Are howler monkey species ecologically equivalent? Trophic niche overlap in syntopic Alouatta guariba clamitans and Alouatta caraya: here.

With males averaging 25 pounds and females 14 pounds, the Yucatan Black Howler (Alouatta pigra) is the largest of the howler monkey species and one of the largest of the New World Monkeys. It is found in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico: here.

Black and gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) as sentinels of ecosystem health: patterns of zoonotic protozoa infection relative to degree of human-primate contact: here.

The fifth Howler Monkey census at the Smithsonian’s Barro Colorado Island research station in Panama, organized by Katie Milton, professor in the department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at the University of California, Berkeley, revealed that monkey numbers have not changed significantly since the first census 33 years ago: here.

Gold prospecting damages Brownsberg: here.

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