Ask anyone what lives in trees, and the answer is usually “birds”; this Black-collared Hawk is proof:
But of course there are other answers you might try in the Peruvian Amazon. Perhaps “snakes”, like this small tree boa:
But if you probed a bit, and asked specifically about furry creatures, “Monkeys” would be a popular response, I think. A powerful Woolly Monkey hung out above our skiff,
glancing at us between bites:
and moving confidently through the canopy:
with the help of its prehensile tail:
I doubt that many people would answer the question with “I know, brush-tailed rats!” Yet the nocturnal and very cute Yellow-crowned Toró, Isothrix bistriata, nests high up in trees near river banks, and peers out if disturbed in the daytime:
And almost no-one would shriek “Tarantulas!”, and yet they not only live in trees, but are supremely furry. This is a Yellow-banded Pinktoe Tarantula, tempted out of its silken hide by our guide:
Its venom is not very potent, but its hairs (setae) can be irritating. Don’t you just love those pink toes?
Finally of course there are sloths, feeding at night:
This is a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus variegatus. You can see the three toes on the front foot:
This is a female. Males have a distinctive orange patch and black stripe on their back.
It clearly didn’t appreciate our flashlight, so we moved on.
