Herping the amazon, Ecuador Yasuni National Park

Well guys, I just returned from a 10 day excursion in Ecuador to shoot photography. Many of you have probably already been stalking my gallery online, and that's appreciated as I love getting the appreciation of others who enjoy my hard labor of love!

My time was spent in Yasuni National Park, in Eastern Ecuador, at the north eastern section of the Amazon Basin. The trip started with a flight into the Capital of Ecuador late my first night, Quito, then a hopper flight in the morning to the small town of Coca. From there it was a taxi ride to the docks about 3 minutes away, then in a motorized canoe for 2 hours going down that Napo River, then up a small creed in a Paddle Canoe for about 3 hours to get to the heart of Yasuni National Park, and my final destination in the Amazon, Napo Wildlife Center check out www.napowildlifecenter.com for more information. Unfortunately, due to an incident involving a Black Caiman and an ecuadorian at the center, herping was very limited during my time there due to strict rules put into place. After talking with management regarding my past experience, and showing I had brought proper gear with me - Gloves, Tongs, Hook - he agreed to let me herp as long as my Local native guide was ok with it, and I had on no chemicals at all on myself or my gear (bug spray and frogs = no beauno).

Most of my days were started around 4 AM in the morning and wrapped up at 730 PM. Staying on the forest searching for rare and beautiful birds while seeking out vipers, colubrids, and the hard to find elapids of the amazon. I had many target species, but unfortunately only two targets were met / photographed, and another found but not photographed (Tiger-striped Leaf Frog).

I could go through the report day at a time, buts its a lengthy story with lots of birds and twists. I'm going to post a thread in the photography section highlighting some of my favorite bird images, so be on the look out for it there! Instead, I'm going to simply show some shots and give a little bit of info.

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Such a big target for me, and something I've wanted to see in the wilds of the amazon ever since I saw one at a zoo. The Caiman Lizard, Northern Caiman Lizard to be exact. We were very fortunate to find this guy basking over a section of the creek we were paddling, and I was able to set the shot up as you see it in the field.

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Black Caiman - Many of these were seen daily, I asked my guide to take me out on the oxbow lake during the night to get close to the caiman by paddle canoe, and this was the result. Being able to shoot from the canoe with the caiman about 15 ft from the boat. We saw as small as 1 meter, to as large as 4 meters.

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Keeping with lizards, the Amazon Forest Dragon was a beautifully colored lizard who was found sleeping during an early morning walk to our bird lek for the day.

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An Adult Golden Tegu was a nice surprise. The guide said their numbers were quite low due to the local tribes capturing them on the river banks basking and eating them for food. Add that to exportation from Peru for the herp industry, and you have a species in decline. Poor guys . . .

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Bothrops atrox, related to the Fer-de-lance, but smaller and very dull in coloration. This ecuadorian viper is known to the locals as the 24 hour snake - one bite means death in 24 hours. While this is not the case with today's advancement in medical care, it is still not a snake to be messed with . . . unless you want to put in on a tree for better macro shots ;-)

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Again . . . not a species to mess with.

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an amazing colubrid, the Parrot Snake, basking on the edge of the bank

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and a Neotropic Racer deep in shed was basking above the small creeks connecting us to the Napo River

No anaconda were found though hours were spent searching known hot spots, no eyelash vipers or Fer-de-lance, no coral snakes or poison dart frogs. The amazon is a very wild place and finding herps can be quite challenging, especially in a limited amount of time as I had. I hope you enjoyed, if you did give it a thumbs up, and be sure to follow me over at flickr - www.flickr.com/codyconway where I have countless snake, bird, monkey, and other images available for viewing!

Cheers, feel free to ask questions!

Very cool! Nice shootin! I would love to do that one day!

Awesome writeup/pics cody! I'm very jealous! :gj:

I'm green with envy. Going to the Amazon is on my bucket list.

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kewl pics, thanks for sharing!

Sounds like an amazing trip. I'm glad that you were able to share some of it with us through these pictures.

Amazing pics. Thanks for sharing :gj::gj:

Thanks guys, I was pretty disappointed with the total number of species that we found in our time there. More or less disappointed by the fact that only one viper was found. But finding 7 of the 10 possible primates, and around 180 species of birds very well made up for it. Will have another post up this evening under photography.


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Definitely nice shooting. I love the Parrot Snake, and I think that's the first time I've actually seen a picture of one, or heard about one tbh.

Yeah! It's a black-lined parrot snake. Rear fanged and mildly venomous. Good stuff


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Originally Posted by reptileexperts

Yeah! It's a black-lined parrot snake. Rear fanged and mildly venomous. Good stuff


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Yea I just looked at KS for one, and Dan has one. I'd never buy anything from him, but the snake looks nice. I particularly don't want a snake that can't/won't eat mice/rats. I'm not a big fan of feeding frogs/anoles.

Yeah, big reason why Eastern Hognose are just not popular in the industry is because they are extremely hard to switch to rodents, and in some cases rodents can even be detrimental to their health. Best to let some snakes just live in the wild :-)