When you hike through Tikal you will see friendly coati herds of the copper-colored Nasua narica. The females and cubs are in the herd. When you see a solitary coati that is the male. The Coati are also called Coatimundi.
When walking from the entrance to the Twin Pyramid Complexes and then to Temple I you will better experience these furry animals if you are walking. If you are in a vehicle you don’t have time to take a photo (park vehicles are available to help people with difficulty walking).
We at FLAAR (non-profit research institute in USA) and FLAAR Mesoamerica (non-profit research institute in Guatemala) are accomplishing field work at PANAT so we gathered together our photos of these cute animals and have prepared this FLAAR Report for you.
You do not have to register; just click and the PDF downloads.
The beggining of a new field trip on October 2022 coincided with Hurricane Julia,
fortunately it did not have strong repercussions in Peten other than heavy rain on Sunday
the 9th for one night and a constant drizzle the next day. But it changed our plans to visit
Tikal National Park first, since all national parks would remain closed on Monday, October
10. However, we stayed at Ecolodge El Sombrero (before the entrance to Yaxha) and took
the opportunity to explore the surroundings. In the middle of this exploration we had a
valuable encounter with the red-eyed treefrog, Agalychnis taylori
Agalychnis taylori in Ecolodge El Sombrero, Petén, Guatemala.
Photographs by Edwin Solares. October, 2022
This species was recently reclassified from Agalychnis callidryas (McCranie, Sunyer and
Fonseca, 2019), so it is possible that you are not able to find information under the name of
A. taylori, but you should be able to find information under the name A. callidryas.
This beautiful frog is distributed in southern Mexico, across Central America, and the
northern regions of South America and can be found in humid environments like
rainforests, close to ponds and other small bodies of fresh water; since it is very important
for its reproductive needs. In the dry seasons, this frog finds shelter under broad leaves
closer to the forest floor, this allows A. taylori to reduce dehydration.
As its name says this frog has distinctive bulging red eyes. It also has webbed orange feet,
symmetrical streaks of yellow and blue on the sides of the body and leaf green color for the
rest of the body. Females tend to be larger than males, the average length is between 4 and
7 centimeters.
Their diet consists principally of insects of the orders Diptera, Caelifera and mosquitoes of
the Culicidae family, which they capture during the night. This This helps to prevent
overpopulation of mosquitoes and other parasites. (ecosystemic role). On the other hand,
to repel their predators, their skin contains poisonous peptides.
Did you know?
Red-eyed tree frogs change the color of their skin (from leaf-green to red-brown) based on
their mood and time of the day.
Agalychnis taylori in Ecolodge El Sombrero, Petén, Guatemala.
Photographs by Haniel López. October, 2022
Comments and updates to “Guía Ilustrada de Anfibios y Reptiles de Nicaragua” along with taxonomic and related suggestions associated with the herpetofauna of Nicaragua
When visiting Parque Nacional Tikal, you can watch great diversity of birds, a common one is the ocellated turkey, which walks over the whole park, but you can’t find this beautiful turkey everywhere; since it is endemic to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, north Guatemala, and north-west and west-central Belize. Its stunning colors is the first thing that will catch your eye and if you have luck and keep quiet you will be able to see it closer and enjoy the spectacle, but remember not to touch them and respect the flora and fauna of the reserve.
Meleagris ocellate in Parque Nacional Tikal. Photographs by Edwin Solares. October, 2022
With a naked eye, it can seem similar to the North American wild turkey and, actually, they belong to the same genus, but when you get to see the brilliants colors you will notice the difference. The males are brighter than the female with iridescent bronze-green body feathers and bluish-gray with blue-bronze tail feathers, but its amazing colors don’t end there, the skin of its head and neck is bright blue. Males, in addition have a blue fleshy crown on their heads with yellow-orange warts and during the breeding season, the crown enlarges and the eye-ring and warts become more visible. Legs are a dark red color in both sexes, but the difference is thar adult males have spurs measuring around 3.8 cm in length.
The diet of the ocellated turkeys is varied and omnivorous. This includes insects (mainly moths and beetles), leaves, roots, tubers, seeds, nuts, fruits of different plants. They feed during the day and roost in trees at night.
Meleagris ocellate in Parque Nacional Tikal. Photographs by Edwin Solares. October, 2022
Jaguars, usually humans in jaguar costumes, are the primary participants in enema injection ritual scenes on 7th-9th century Classic Maya polychrome ceramics.
On Monday evening, Nov 21, 2022, a PowerPoint presentation will be delivered by Nicholas Hellmuth on his research on enemas that started in 1977. This research won the Ig Nobel Prize 2022 for art history for Dr Hellmuth and Dr Peter De Smet. The iconographic aspect has been updated for the November 2022 presentation.
For zoologists: in addition to the common jaguar, deer, monkeys and other animals (or people in animal costumes) are occasionally present.
For iconographers: this ritual is shown in this PowerPoint much more often than published so far. Women are present in many of the scenes, however they themselves do not receive enemas; the females prepare the men to receive the injection.
For epigraphers: updated study is needed of all the hieroglyphs and symbols associated with the enema jug and participants. The lecture shows dozens of enema jugs. Many of these jugs have hieroglyphs on the jug and other symbols nearby.
For botanists: LOTS of plants were ingredients in the enemas. Peter De Smet has studied this aspect in his PhD and subsequently. I still estimate that lots more plants were added (including possibly cacao). His documentation will be cited in the bibliography.
The lecture will be in English but questions can be asked and answered also in Spanish.
The orange-breasted falcon (Falco deiroleucus) is a beautiful species, but rare to see. Although its natural distribution is wide and occurs from the southeast of Mexico and Central America, to Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia; only a few pair of nests have been spoted at Peten thus far. It is possible to observe them in El Mirador National Park and Tikal National Park, as was did during the last expedition of our current project in the Reserva de Biósfera Maya.
Falco deiroleucus in Temple IV, Mundo Perdido. Parque Nacional Tikal, Petén, Guatemala
Photographs by Haniel López. October, 2022
On our last fieldtrip in October 2022, one of our goals was to photograph this amazing falcon and we succeeded! It was spotted in a tree next to Temple IV, in the complex known as the "Mundo Perdido." This documentation was very important because the species is in danger of extinction due to illegal hunting and the deterioration of the forest caused by human activities.
Currently, the Peregrine Fund organization has the only colony of captive orange-breasted hawks in the world to achieve their reproduction and save the species from extinction. In Tikal, the Peregrine Fund has provided its support by monitoring adult individuals and facilitating the reproduction between wild individuals. This resulted in the successful birth of two healthy chicks. Both were marked with rings to keep track of their survival.
Falco deiroleucus in Temple IV, Mundo Perdido. Parque Nacional Tikal, Petén, Guatemala
Photographs by Haniel López. October, 2022
About this species
Here you can find its taxonomic classification and some information about its characteristics.
KINGDOM
Animalia
PHYLUM
Chordata
CLASS
Birds
ORDER
Falconiformes
FAMILY
Falconidae
GENUS
Falco
SPECIES
F. DeiroleucusF.
Generally, it can be seen alone or in pairs.
Their nesting occurs on large cliffs or emergent trees, in lowland areas or montane primary forest.
It is one of the few species of the genus Falco that can be found in tropical forests.
Its average size is 28 to 34 cm.
Their diet includes bats and a great variety of birds such as pigeons, trogons, woodpeckers, among others; for which the ecological function of regulating populations of certain species is attributed to it.
On our June field trip in Parque Nacional Laguna del Tigre, part of the Reserva de Biósfera Maya, Petén; we were documenting savanna ecosystems -as we have been doing for the last couple years- and we get to hear a very peculiar sound. As we were getting closer, we get able to see it… A Laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) in front of us! By its common name you can imagine the sound that produces.
Herpetotheres cachinnans
H. cachinnas is a raptor species, inhabiting tropical and subtropical zones from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, in a variety of habitat types such as forest edges, riverine woodlands, savannas and secondary forests (Caldeira et al 2014).
Laughing falcon is not the only common name for this bird, it is also called snake hawk and the reason is that snakes comprise the majority of its diet, big and small, venomous and non-venomous, arboreal and terrestrial. The falcon pounces on snakes with great force, hitting the ground with an audible thud. When it catches a snake, it holds it just behind the head with its beak. Then it readily bites off the snake's head. However, it also will pray on lizards, small mammals, birds, fish, and large insects, such as grasshoppers (Caldeira et al, 2014; The Peregrine Fund, n.d.).
An interesting fact from H. cachinnas is that sometimes nests close to ants, because even if the ants doesn’t bother the falcons, the attack other animals that come close, helping the falcon protect its netslings from predator.
Taxonomy:
Kingdom
ANIMALI
Phylum
CHORDATA
Class
BIRDS
Order
FALCONIFORMES
Family
FALCONIDAE
Genus
HERPETOTHERES
Species
H. CACHINNANS
H. cachinnas in Parque Nacional Laguna del Tigre, June 2022
Photographies by Emanuel Chocooj
The laughint falcon in the Popol Vuh
It is very impressive when you find some of the fauna that is part of the sacred book of the Maya, because you are in the authentically atmosphere was their worldview was conceive. Nicholas Hellmuth explained how does the Laughing falcon appears in the Popol Vuh:
The Laughing falcon is very important; it is also called the snake hawk. But this bird is the bird of the Popol vuh. In the Popol Vuh is considered to be a macaw and in Copan ruins in Honduras, the sacred bird is a macaw, in every aspect, kind of a symbol logo. But in other maya sites the bird that sits on the tree that has the calabash is the Laughing falcon and in my PhD dissertation I devote time for that and I showed and I incised the shell that shows two of the aspect again in the Popol Vuh, the grandmother gives a message to a flee, or an insect. The insect is eaten by a frog or a toad who carries it further, a snake eats the toad and carries the message further and the laughing falcon eats the snake. The when it gets to Xibalba the bird regurgitates the snake and regurgitates the toad but then has a little trouble regurgitating the flee.
We know the relevance of the Popol Vuh, but it was Michael Coe from Yale Univesity, he is the one who really showed the relevance of the Popol Vuh and the hero twins. And then in my PhD in the 1980’s at the Graz University in Austria showed more of the Popol Vuh that was not widely known, because every person knows a little bit about it – I don’t know everything – but Michael Coe introduce it and I was able to follow it up and find even more basis more plates, more bowls that shows the hero twins and shows the laughing falcon and I am also the one who notice on top of the tree, it was not a Macaw, it was a bird with a snake in his mouth and that’s the snake hawk which is the laughing falcon.
Bibliography
CALDEIRA, H., ESTEVES, L., DE FREITAS, B and G. ZORZIN
2014
The reptile hunter’s menu: A review of the prey species of Laughing Falcons, Herpetotheres cachinnans (Aves: Falconiformes). North-western Journal of Zoology 10 (2): 445-453.
