You cannot escape encountering wildlife when you live in dense Amazonian forest, and for me that was certainly one of the important reasons to live there.
I love to see wild animals in their own habitat. It’s something so beautiful and also mysterious at the same time. You would just like to pet and hug them, but of course that’s very, very seldom possible. You need to be satisfied with seeing them as closely and as long as you can.
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One of my very notable encounters was with the giant anteater, which is a large mammal, adults measuring two to two and a half meters from nose to tail. They walk on all fours (like a dog), and their height when doing so can reach up to about seventy centimeters.
Now, there was one I had seen a few times from far, roaming the terrain around our hut, and I had noticed that he was blind in one eye. One day, I was hiking in the forest nearby us, and all of sudden I saw him coming towards me on the trail. He didn’t notice me because he was looking for food with his head in a downward position (typically they eat termites or ants).
I knew I actually needed to make some noise to scare him off, because he was really coming straight towards me and when threatened they lift themselves up and stand on their hind legs with their forearms (forelegs) and powerful claws in the air and ready to defend themselves. You probably wouldn’t survive an actual attack.
However, I was so fascinated by this beautiful bear-like creature that I just waited for what would happen. In a way I was lucky, because at about two to three meters distance he perceived me, stopped, went on his hind legs and lifted his forearms in the air … but did nothing. He just looked at me for about two seconds, turned, and galloped away.
Another great experience was seeing a jaguar. My girlfriend had lived in the forest for twenty years and had never seen one, but I was there for only a year and was fortunate enough to have an encounter … while she was with me, by the way.
Nevertheless, it was not in the forest, but driving on the main road to Cayenne: a jaguar suddenly crossed the road about twenty meters in front of the car. It made three of four jumps and then disappeared in the forest. It’s just such a magnificent animal, so powerful, and so beautiful. You can imagine that my girlfriend was very happy to have finally seen one.
A funny encounter, one I had regularly, was with the caiman (a type of alligator) living in our creek nearby. When I would go swim there, he was always at the back of the creek, about fifteen meters from my swimming spot, there were the creek began. This creek was one of the sources of a big river, and there where it started was an underground water source bubbling up.
So, apparently, he always liked to rest or be there, maybe because it was cooler water. Anyway, you would always see his head sticking out and his two emotionless eyes looking at you. I got used to it, but you cannot avoid now and again looking if he was still there. You never know, although this particular type of small, common caiman (about one to one and a half meter large) wouldn’t attack people.
Just near the creek, on the trail, I would also regularly find a large anaconda snake sunbathing. He was always rolled-up, so I couldn’t see his length, but he was fat and thick, and must have been at least five meters. A bit scary to pass him, because the trail there was only about two meters wide, so, yeah, you needed to walk by at quite a close distance. But it was always impressive to see him.
I already told you about the group of about twenty saimiris (squirrel monkeys) that would pass our hut around eleven o’clock every day. Each time they would make a short stop and look at us from out the trees. I always talked to them, which would make them stay somewhat longer. These are very curious animals and super cute. They are real good climbers and jumpers, excellently “surfing” the canopy with ease.
On one of my hikes through the forest, I suddenly came across a little pond with a small group of about eight yellow-spotted Amazon river turtles. These turtles can grow up to forty-five centimeters. I found that very nice, because I had a few of these in captivity when I was a small boy living in Suriname (something I would never do now, by the way).
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What was also wonderful was the gathering of animals in and under the mango tree near the hut. When the fruits are ripe they fall on the ground and that’s a real feast for many types of animals, notably many species of birds, opossums, coatis (a kind of “raccoon”), different types of monkeys (small golden-handed tamarins, saimiris, and capuchin monkeys), and agoutis (a type of rodent, the South American “rabbit”).
Anyway, it’s endless. I could tell you so much more. The Amazon is incredibly abundant with wildlife. In addition to what I just described, I also saw water boas, piranhas, river otters, squirrels, giant armadillos, giant sea turtles, bird colonies, toucans, hummingbirds, parrots, “herds” of giant anteaters, different kinds of snakes, bush dogs, bush pigs, tarantulas, and whatnot.
If you like Nature and spotting wildlife, I think there’s no other place on our Earth that boasts so much diversity and chances on live encounters. It’s a blessing.
