Is It a Bird, Is It a Kinkajou, No, It’s a Night Monkey!

We have had plenty of sightings and some pretty good finds over the past few months as part of the mammal project, with opossums a plenty, kinkajous, rodents of all shapes and sizes, and even a sloth. So it was with this in mind that we set out to conduct a nocturnal mammal survey on one of our most remote transects in the Yachana Reserve, hoping to see something exciting. About half an hour into the transect we spotted movement in the tree tops to our right, after a little investigation we saw eye shine. Night Monkeys (Aotus vociferans), also known as Owl Monkeys, generally live in groups of two to five and as the name suggests are nocturnal. They feed on fruit, insects and flower nectar. These timid animals can be difficult to spot living high in the trees, normally in denser areas of the forest and having a low almost owl-like call. Thankfully for us this noisy group were raising their alarm call so we were able to locate them and get a really good view.

Good views are one thing, but trying to get a snap shot of these mammals is easier said than done and no one had a good enough camera to catch this cool sighting on film. If you keen to see what they look like plug in 'night monkey' into the internet search under images and a whole array of great photos will come up.

Caroline Acton – GVI Amazon Field Staff

Is It a Bird, Is It a Kinkajou, No, It’s a Night Monkey!