Ecuador Trip Report
25th February - 8th March 2023
For my next trip I chose to return to Ecuador, one of the world's most diverse wildlife destinations. After picking up the hire car, I planned to spend the first three days exploring the high Andes in search of Spectacled Bears, Andean Foxes and some of the unique paramo birds and invertebrates... but instead I found continuous low cloud, rain and mist! Not the start I was looking for... next stop mid elevation cloud forest.
Cabanas San Isidro
I'd booked one night at Cabanas San Isidro in the hope of photographing night monkeys, Black Agouti and maybe some birds... and this time I wasn't disappointed. I was met by Ben Lucking who was acting as assistant manager and was brilliant! He spent an hour or so showing me round then left me photographing invertebrates with a promise to try for night monkeys at dusk.
After a thoroughly enjoyable day surrounded by spiders, beetles and beautiful clearwing butterflies, I met up with Ben at dusk, who kept his word and quicly found a family of Grey-bellied Night Monkeys feeding in the treetops. In the pitch-black photography was a challenge, but Ben knew exacdtly where they were headed and we got some great views of these charming little animals.
Long-jawed Orb Weaver (Leucauge sp.)
Inca Jay (Cyanocorax yncas)
Grey-bellied Night Monkey (Aotus lemurinus)
Black Agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa)
Sani Lodge
From San Isidro I continued down the east slope of the Andes to Sani Lodge, deep in the Amazon rainforest. I was nervous because this was by far my most expensive stay, but I needn't have been... it was worth every penny! Most of the wildlife watching was done from canoe, which is my favourite way to take photos, but there was also a trip across the Napo River and several treks through the forest.
The wildlife everywhere was superb, with eight species of monkey including the world's smallest, the Pygmy Marmoset, many different species of bird and some great frogs and invertebrates... including the beautiful Clearwing Satyr butterflies that I'd spent so much time trying in vain to photograph on my last trip.
Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) displaying
Western Pygmy Marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea)
Common Woolly Monkey (Lagothrix lagothricha)
Tent-making Bat (Uroderma bilobatum)
My guide Javier (who is also the manager) was brilliant, with detailed knowledge of all the wildlife, from mammals and birds to invertebrates amphibians and reptiles. Having grown up in the forest before going off to University in the US he was also able to discuss the changes taking place in the Amazon and the challenges it's facing... invaluable material for the Ecuador book.
The lodge is beautiful too, with excellent facilities and superb food and it's run entirely by and for the local communities. All the staff are local residents (though many have been away for professional training in the cities and US) and all the proceeds go back into the local community and preserving the forest. I'd strongly recommend Sani for anyone considering visiting the Amazon rainforest.
Reddish Clearwing Satyr (Haetera macleannania)
Giant Gladiator Frog (Boana boans)
Wild Sumaco Lodge
After the Amazon I'd deliberately left three days spare so I could fit in whatever took my fancy, and I decided to spend one night at Wild Sumaco Lodge which is reputed to be good for mammals. I didn't actually see any mammals apart from some dwarf squirrels, but its a lovely place with excellent birds and some very good walking trails.
My guide, Marcello was again excellent (the standard is very high in Ecuador!) and I photographed several new species of bird including the highly secretive Plain-backed Antpitta. He also took me on a night walk and found a huge tarantula and some superb stick insects.
Spiny stick insect (Phasmatodea sp.)
Plain-backed Antpitta (Grallaria haplonota)
Choco Toucan Lodge
I investigated several possible locations for my last two nights in the hope of finding some of the cloud forest mammals that had evaded me so far. The most enthusiastic response came from Hans Heinz at Choco Toucan Lodge with an impressive list of potential mammals... so that's where I headed.
Sadly the mammal-viewing potential had been rather exagerated and all I saw were some Red-tailed Squirrels and a brief glimpse of an agouti. I did enjoy the stay though, with lots of nice birds, my first caecilian and excellent vegetarian food cooked by Hans' wife.
White-whiskered Hermit (Phaethornis yaruqui)
Pale-mandibled Aracari (Pteroglossus erythropygius)
Crowned Woodnymph (Thalurania colombica)
Overall, despite missing out on many of the mammals I was hoping to see, I enjoyed the trip. With hindsight I was naive expecing to see much in the high Andes in just three days. Low cloud and rain are clearly normal and with time to acclimatise to the altitude I really needed at least a week. Photography is always difficult in forest habitats. Lodges in Ecuador are all surrounded by feeding stations so birds are relatively easy to see, but even the diurnal mammmals are difficult, let alone nocturnal ones. I was very lucky to have Ben Lucking to guide me at San Isidro. The Amazon rainforest at Sani Lodge was certailny the highlight and I was again very lucky to have Javier as my guide. Ecuador is an incredible place for wildlife, but you need to be prepared to spend plenty of time and pay for the best guides and lodges if you want to see anything other than the most common species.
Mammal Species
Humboldt's Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri cassiquiarensis)
Andean White-fronted Capuchin (Cebus yuracus)
Colombian Red Howler (Alouatta seniculus)
Common Woolly Monkey (Lagothrix lagothricha)
Monk saki (Pithecia monachus)
Grey-bellied Night Monkey (Aotus lemurinus)
Western Pygmy Marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea)
Black-mantled Tamarin (Leontocebus nigricollis)
Golden-mantled tamarin (Leontocebus tripartitus)
Linne's Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus didactylus)
Kinkajou (Potos flavus)
Black Agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa)
Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata)
Amazon dwarf squirrel (Microsciurus flaviventer)
Red-tailed squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)
Andean Tapeti (Sylvilagus andinus)
Tent-making Bat (Uroderma bilobatum)
Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus) in the Amazon rainforest