Day Thirty-six - Panama City

 

After a day at sea, we docked in Panama City. Tomorrow our ship will transit the Panama Canal.  During the day we boarded a small boat and cruised the southern part of the canal in search of Central American wildlife. 

Our small boat mingled with other canal traffic.  This was one of the larger container ships capable of navigating the locks.  Lack of rain has reduced the water available to operate the canal limiting ship traffic to 24 vessels per day.

Basking in the sun along the shoreline, we spotted a 6' American crocodile. The most noticeable differences between the crocodile and alligator are their color and the shape of their head.  Crocodiles are brown and allegators are black; and the snout of a crocodile is pointed whereas an Alligator's is rounded.   

Some distance away we spotted two turkey vultures, one mature and the other a juvenile.  These birds ride thermals in the sky and use their keen sense of smell to find fresh carcasses. They are a consummate scavenger, cleaning up the countryside one bite of their sharply hooked bill at a time, and never mussing a feather on their bald heads.

High in an overhead tree were howler monkeys. The monkeys are native to South and Central American forests. They are famous for their loud howls, 

which can be heard up to three miles away through dense rain forest.

Hanging on a tree trunk was a roost of trachops bats. These fruit eating mammals are about the size of the first knuckle of your thumb.

Iguanas are spotted frequently.  They are herbivores found in the warmer climates of Mexico, Central and South America.  Though they can reach 6' in length, this juvenile was less than 2' long. 

Our find of the day was a three-toed sloth. They are tree dwellers with a body adapted to hang by their limbs. Large, curved claws and muscles specifically adapted for strength and stamina help sloths to keep a strong grip on tree branches. They live high in the canopy but descend once a week to defecate on the forest floor.