Most dangerous jungle predators8/7/2023 ![]() The colorful Hoatzin eats leaves, which make it smell a bit like an Iowa farm - like lovely hay, or stinky manure, depending on your nose. Was that a wild turkey? A dinosaur? A Precolumbian god? What the heck was that, and why did it smell that way? The stinky, beautiful Hoatzin is without a doubt one of the rainforest’s most interesting creatures.Ī Hoatzin near the Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake, just upriver from the Posada Amazonas lodge. If you catch a glimpse of a Hoatzin perched near an oxbow lake in the Amazon, you might wonder what you just saw. Learn more about the Tarantula on our animal page here! 4. As soon as he’s done, the Tarantula flees so that the aggressive female doesn’t attack or try to eat him! Quite a spider romance. ![]() Later, he finds a r eceptive female and inserts it into an opening into her abdomen. ![]() Then, he absorbs the liquid into his pedipalps, short leg-like limbs, to store it. Male Tarantulas spin a flat silk web on the ground, then rub against it to release semen. Tarantulas have decidedly interesting habits, especially when it comes to mating. The Peruvian Chicken Spider, a type of Tarantula, is a common sighting in the Tambopata jungle. You knew this one was coming, didn’t you? But while Tarantulas look undoubtedly creepy due to their huge size and furry legs, their appearance isn’t the weirdest thing about them! In fact, I include the family of large spiders here for their odd behavior. Learn more about the potoo bird on our animal page! 3. This, along with their weird calls, makes the Potoo bird a truly otherworldly, strange bird. They have huge eyes - perfect for spotting flying bugs - and giant, gaping mouths to catch them. The birds are nocturnal, waking at dusk to hunt moths and other insects. If you go looking for one, however, they’re incredibly hard to find without an experienced guide - their feathers match tree bark almost perfectly! There are several species of Potoo birds in the Amazon Rainforest. These haunting sounds (listen to them here) come, of course, from the Potoo bird. On moonlight nights, you may hear the cry of “po-TOO, po-TOO” coming from deep in the jungle. ![]() Learn more about the Candiru Fish on our animal page here! 2. Scientists are still getting to the bottom of this strange jungle fish. So is there any truth to these wild stories? The Candiru isn’t actually drawn to urine, so Amazon, ahem, urinators don’t need to be worried. Then in the only documented modern case in 1997, a Brazilian man and a local doctor claimed that a Candiru fish had jumped out of the water and swum up his urethra! Later, researchers largely disproved these claims, noting that Candirus are unable to jump out of water or swim up to such a small opening, along with many other inconsistencies. Rumors had swirled around for years about the small Amazon fish attacking local people’s genitalia, drawn by the smell of urine. The frightening legend of the Candiru fish has traveled far and wide, appearing in tabloids and newspapers from time to time all over the world. Here, we’ll explore the five weirdest animals in the Amazon rainforest, and look at why their unique adaptions work perfectly for them! All five, of course, live in the rainforests around our Tambopata lodges in Peru. In order to live in such a place, animals have evolved in all kinds of strange ways. A rainforest is a tough place for animals to survive - after all, it’s home to giant predators, venomous insects and frogs, dangerous waters, and poisonous plants.
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