Ubatuba Birdwatching Centre

At Perequê Rick and Elis together with Arthur Macarrão, Natalia Peres and Cláudia Oliveira came across a pair of Neotropical Otters on a large rock at a bend in the river. They were very wary and when a large truck came along they soon disappeared into the water and out of sight.

Neotropical Otters © Elis Simpson

Looking out of the window from their apartment, Rick and Elis noticed an opossum on the wires along the street. They went down to the street and took these photographs of the animal.

Southeastern Common Opossum © Elis Simpson

Southeastern Common Opossum © Elis Simpson

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On the 28th of June 2011, Rick and Elis Simpson, together with David Bates form the USA encountered a Jaguarundi on the track from the gate to the clearing, near the top end at Fazenda Angelim. Sadly it didn’t linger long enough for a fotograph, but it was seen well by all three parties.

It was of the iron grey morph, it appeared on the track ahead of the observers and returned their gaze. Deciding that it was not able to eat all three it turned sidewayds showing the typical long, bodied, short legged stance and the long tail as ir slunk off into the forest.

We are not aware of any other record of this species in Ubatuba.

Although no photo was taken, this shot was taken in Minas Gerais by our friend Tommy Pedersen form the United Arab Emirates,

Jaguarundi © Tommy Pedersen

This image of a Crab-eating Fox Cerdocyon thous , was captured by Felipe Castro, a young man with a great future in wildlife photography, in Ressaca, a neighbourhood in Ubatuba which abuts the forest. We know of no other record of this species in Ubatuba although we are well within its range.

Felipe said:

“On an ordinary bird walk around the neighbourhood, we came across this animal standing, staring at us, I took just two photographs.

We don’t know who was more scared, us or the fox! When I took three steps forward the fox left.”

Crab-eating Fox © Felipe Castro

Congratulations to Felipe for this great record.

Phoneutria keyserlingi - Elis Simpson

Phoneutria keyserlingi - Elis Simpson

Here are two spiders that we have photographed in Ubatuba recently. In the photos either side is Phoneutria keyserlingi Brazilian banana spider, which bites. If you see a spider that looks like this one, give it a wide berth!

Below is Vitalius wacheti, this was photographed at the Ranário where one of the locals had found it whilst doing some scrub clearing in the area. Although venomous its is not dangerous to humans, its toxic hairs are more significant than its bite. Photographs © Rick and Elis Simpson.

Vitalius wacheti - Rick Simpson

Vitalius wacheti - Elis Simpson

1cm long frog thought to be Brachycephalus pitanga © Rick Simpson

Not being an expert on amphibians, I cannot be absolutely sure about the following identification, but the photograph of this frog on the left looks to me like it is Brachycephalus pitanga. This species has only recently been discovered in the Atlantic Forest by the Biota-Fapesp programme. We came across this creature in reasonable numbers along a trail high in the Serra do Mar.

This species is toxic and should not be handled if your see it on the trails. (Handling any wild creature is not recommended or encouraged by the UBWC team as it impacts on the creature more profoundly than casual observers imagine.) Any brightly coloured frog or toad found in the forest should be treated with caution, there is a very good reason why this creature does not feel the need to hide!

- Rick Simpson.