bajajudy
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Mexico's 10 most surprising animals
Mexico Mix
Mexico's 10 most surprising animals
Christine Delsol, Special to SF Gate
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Everyone loves Mexico's sturdy burros and green iguanas, but when you explore beyond the tourist zones, you have a chance of seeing some truly amazing
animals you've probably never heard of. Here are some of the most surprising Mexican birds and beasts you could hope to meet.
1) Eyelash viper (also nauyaca de pestañas, "eyelash pit-viper"): Don't be fooled by the name, or the pretty green body adorned with rust-colored
spots. This is a highly venomous, 3-foot pit viper, known for slithering through trees and vines in lowland forests and scooping up tree frogs,
lizards and mice for dinner. If you were to look one in the eye (which is inadvisable), you would see vertical pupils and several spiny scales jutting
out over each small eye, giving it "eyelashes" believed to serve as camouflage. The nocturnal snakes live in the low- and middle-elevation forests of
Chiapas and Tabasco states.
2) Jaguarundi (also leoncillo, "little lion"). This mid-sized (just over 2 feet, plus tail), spotless, reddish- or grayish-brown cat actually looks
more like a pint-sized puma than a jaguar. Its short legs, long, slender body and flattened head gives it a weasel- or otter-like silhouette.
Jaguarundis hunt near running water and are expert fishers; they favor undisturbed lowland forests and tall grass but also appears in dense tropical
vegetation. In fact, most of the country is jaguarundi habitat, except for Baja and a central strip of the northern desert, but their numbers are
dwindling. The Calakmul and Sian Ka'an biosphere reserves on the Yucatán Peninsula offer the best chance of an encounter.
3) Mexican caecilian (also called culebra de dos cabezas, or "two-headed snake"): Pity the poor caecilian. Though a perfectly respectable (if
primitive) amphibian, it looks like nothing so much as a 2-foot-long earthworm. With its limbless, gray or purplish body ringed by creases and a
slightly flattened triangular head barely distinguishable from its tail, it could easily star in a grade B horror flick. Like earthworms, caecilians
spend much of their lives underground, surfacing at night during rains. Unlike worms, they have tiny retractable tentacles and give birth to live
young. In the lowland rain forests of Veracruz, Oaxaca, Campeche, Chiapas and Tabasco states, you might find them lurking under logs, rocks or piles
of leaves. In populated areas, they hide in garbage piles.
4) Striped basilisk (also lagartija jesucristo, "Jesus Christ lizard"): Yellow racing stripes down the length of its brown body distinguish this
nimble lizard from its larger, more lethargic and far more famous cousin, the common green iguana. With a slimmer body and longer legs, the basilisk's
agility extends to running across the surface of water on its hind legs, earning it the biblical nickname. It grows to about 32 inches and lives along
streams and other bodies of water in Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco states.
5) Roseate spoonbill (also espátula rosada, "pink spatula"): If you've seen the Aflac commercial with the goat trying to pass itself off as a duck,
you'll be prepared for the roseate spoonbill — in this case it's a flamingo masquerading as a duck (or perhaps vice versa). Its legs and neck are
shorter than a flamingo's, and its 4.25-foot wingspan is slightly shorter. The mature spoonbill's body borrows the flamingo's shape and color, but the
neck and head are white and end at a comically elongated, spoon-shaped bill. Once hunted to decorate women's hats, the roseate spoonbill is now far
more widespread than the flamingo: It can be found wading in lowland marshes, ponds and lakes along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, along the Pacific
Coast from southern Sonora to Chiapas and on the east coast of Baja California Sur.
6) Pauraque (also tapacaminos picuyo, "road-blocker picuyo"): Next time you hear "goatsucker," banish thoughts of the hideous mythical Chupacabra and
dwell instead on the goatsucker order of birds, whose closest relatives are owls. Of the goatsucker order, the pauraque, about 11 inches long, is one
of the loveliest: tweedy brown feathers brightened by black spots and streaks, long tail a riot of white and black stripes and brown and black bars.
White bands on their wings flash during flight. Pauraques are nocturnal, resting on the ground during the day in shady spots, in grasslands, pastures,
woodlands and cultivated areas throughout southern and central Mexico as far north as Sinaloa.
7) Paca (also tepezcuintle and tuza real, "royal tuza"): Though dainty compared with South America's capybara (the world's largest rodent), the
2.5-foot-long paca is Mexico's rodent king. It burrows in rain forests, mangrove swamps, drier areas close to water and even in tree thickets in
public parks, ranging as far north as San Luis Potosí and throughout southern Mexico. With its squirrel-like head, delicate feet and brown fur
speckled with white spots much like a fawn's coat, it's an endearing creature — but its fondness for yam, cassava, sugar cane, corn and other food
crops bedevils Mexico's farmers.
8) Violaceous trogon (also trogón violáceo): The smaller (about 9.5 inches) cousin of the legendary quetzal, this bird has one advantage over its
much-celebrated kin: Its habitat is more widespread and its population larger, boosting the chances of spotting one. The trogon lacks the quetzal's
extravagant tail streamers but is showy in its own right, with a dark violet-blue head, greenish yellow eye ring, yellow breast, green back and black
and white barred tail. They live in deep-forest tree canopies but also frequent clearings, forest edges and tree plantations near streams and rivers
in tropical Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and throughout the Yucatán Peninsula.
9) Tayra (also cabeza de Viejo, "old man's head"): This cousin of the weasel and the otter looks like a product of Dr. Frankenstein's lab, with a
yellowish, dog-like head on a black or brown mink-like body. Reaching about 28 inches plus a luxurious tail, it shares the long, thin body, short
legs, long tail and soft, dense fur with its relatives. Unlike its kin, the tayra adapts well to populated areas and pops up in gardens and orchards
as well as its natural tropical and subtropical forest habitat. The omnivorous tree-climber can be spotted in daytime or at dusk in trees or on the
ground, where it nests in hollow trees, logs, burrows or tall grass. The tayra is found throughout the Yucatán and in Tabasco and Chiapas states.
10) Cacomistle (also mico rayado, "striped monkey"): A doe-eyed tree-dweller resembling our ring-tailed cat, this critter has family ties to the
exotic kinkajou and the common raccoon. Its pointy-nosed, vaguely cat-like head has a dark mask surrounding yellowish-white eye rings, creating a
saucer-eyed face that would be right at home in a Margaret Keane painting. A dark stripe runs down its tawny, densely furred body to a bushy, ringed
tail. The agile climber bounds through the middle and upper levels of trees by night and retires by day to hollow trees, caves, rock crevices or
abandoned buildings. They were hunted in the past but are fairly common today — though not often easy to see — in mountain and lowland forests as far
north as Guerrero, Puebla and Veracruz states and throughout southern Mexico.
For more information: "Travellers' Wildlife Guides: Southern Mexico" by Les Beletsky, a field guide with more than 100 color plates covering the
country's most wildlife-rich region, presents scientific detail in accessible text written with a touch of humor.
Most Web sites devoted to Mexico's animals stick to more commonly seen species. The fauna database in the online encyclopedia of the Mexican
conservation project Via Natura includes more unusual animals than most sites, plus many good photos. The educational site Mexicanfauna.com also has
detailed animal descriptions, some with photos.
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Oso
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2637
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
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Mood: wait and see
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Cool. When I lived on Cozumel in the mid 60's, Roseate Spoonbills were called "Chocolateros" because their feeding habits, wading in shallow water
stirring up the bottom with their bills, resembled the Mexican method of making hot chocolate. At the time, I thought they were endangered but the
locals said they tasted good.
Cozumeleños had a habit of calling things by different names than mainlanders. Coatimundis, called "Tejones" in most of Mexico, were "Pisotes" on the
island.
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
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Mango
Senior Nomad
Posts: 685
Registered: 4-11-2006
Location: Alta California &/or Mexicali
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Mood: Bajatastic
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What!? No Chupacabras! I'm devastated. 
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Suzie
Junior Nomad
Posts: 31
Registered: 1-5-2006
Location: San Antonio De Las Minas, B.C.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajajudy
Mexico Mix
Mexico's 10 most surprising animals
Christine Delsol, Special to SF Gate
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Everyone loves Mexico's sturdy burros and green iguanas, but when you explore beyond the tourist zones, you have a chance of seeing some truly amazing
animals you've probably never heard of. Here are some of the most surprising Mexican birds and beasts you could hope to meet.
1) Eyelash viper (also nauyaca de pestañas, "eyelash pit-viper"): Don't be fooled by the name, or the pretty green body adorned with rust-colored
spots. This is a highly venomous, 3-foot pit viper, known for slithering through trees and vines in lowland forests and scooping up tree frogs,
lizards and mice for dinner. If you were to look one in the eye (which is inadvisable), you would see vertical pupils and several spiny scales jutting
out over each small eye, giving it "eyelashes" believed to serve as camouflage. The nocturnal snakes live in the low- and middle-elevation forests of
Chiapas and Tabasco states.
2) Jaguarundi (also leoncillo, "little lion"). This mid-sized (just over 2 feet, plus tail), spotless, reddish- or grayish-brown cat actually looks
more like a pint-sized puma than a jaguar. Its short legs, long, slender body and flattened head gives it a weasel- or otter-like silhouette.
Jaguarundis hunt near running water and are expert fishers; they favor undisturbed lowland forests and tall grass but also appears in dense tropical
vegetation. In fact, most of the country is jaguarundi habitat, except for Baja and a central strip of the northern desert, but their numbers are
dwindling. The Calakmul and Sian Ka'an biosphere reserves on the Yucatán Peninsula offer the best chance of an encounter.
3) Mexican caecilian (also called culebra de dos cabezas, or "two-headed snake"): Pity the poor caecilian. Though a perfectly respectable (if
primitive) amphibian, it looks like nothing so much as a 2-foot-long earthworm. With its limbless, gray or purplish body ringed by creases and a
slightly flattened triangular head barely distinguishable from its tail, it could easily star in a grade B horror flick. Like earthworms, caecilians
spend much of their lives underground, surfacing at night during rains. Unlike worms, they have tiny retractable tentacles and give birth to live
young. In the lowland rain forests of Veracruz, Oaxaca, Campeche, Chiapas and Tabasco states, you might find them lurking under logs, rocks or piles
of leaves. In populated areas, they hide in garbage piles.
4) Striped basilisk (also lagartija jesucristo, "Jesus Christ lizard"): Yellow racing stripes down the length of its brown body distinguish this
nimble lizard from its larger, more lethargic and far more famous cousin, the common green iguana. With a slimmer body and longer legs, the basilisk's
agility extends to running across the surface of water on its hind legs, earning it the biblical nickname. It grows to about 32 inches and lives along
streams and other bodies of water in Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco states.
5) Roseate spoonbill (also espátula rosada, "pink spatula"): If you've seen the Aflac commercial with the goat trying to pass itself off as a duck,
you'll be prepared for the roseate spoonbill — in this case it's a flamingo masquerading as a duck (or perhaps vice versa). Its legs and neck are
shorter than a flamingo's, and its 4.25-foot wingspan is slightly shorter. The mature spoonbill's body borrows the flamingo's shape and color, but the
neck and head are white and end at a comically elongated, spoon-shaped bill. Once hunted to decorate women's hats, the roseate spoonbill is now far
more widespread than the flamingo: It can be found wading in lowland marshes, ponds and lakes along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, along the Pacific
Coast from southern Sonora to Chiapas and on the east coast of Baja California Sur.
6) Pauraque (also tapacaminos picuyo, "road-blocker picuyo"): Next time you hear "goatsucker," banish thoughts of the hideous mythical Chupacabra and
dwell instead on the goatsucker order of birds, whose closest relatives are owls. Of the goatsucker order, the pauraque, about 11 inches long, is one
of the loveliest: tweedy brown feathers brightened by black spots and streaks, long tail a riot of white and black stripes and brown and black bars.
White bands on their wings flash during flight. Pauraques are nocturnal, resting on the ground during the day in shady spots, in grasslands, pastures,
woodlands and cultivated areas throughout southern and central Mexico as far north as Sinaloa.
7) Paca (also tepezcuintle and tuza real, "royal tuza"): Though dainty compared with South America's capybara (the world's largest rodent), the
2.5-foot-long paca is Mexico's rodent king. It burrows in rain forests, mangrove swamps, drier areas close to water and even in tree thickets in
public parks, ranging as far north as San Luis Potosí and throughout southern Mexico. With its squirrel-like head, delicate feet and brown fur
speckled with white spots much like a fawn's coat, it's an endearing creature — but its fondness for yam, cassava, sugar cane, corn and other food
crops bedevils Mexico's farmers.
8) Violaceous trogon (also trogón violáceo): The smaller (about 9.5 inches) cousin of the legendary quetzal, this bird has one advantage over its
much-celebrated kin: Its habitat is more widespread and its population larger, boosting the chances of spotting one. The trogon lacks the quetzal's
extravagant tail streamers but is showy in its own right, with a dark violet-blue head, greenish yellow eye ring, yellow breast, green back and black
and white barred tail. They live in deep-forest tree canopies but also frequent clearings, forest edges and tree plantations near streams and rivers
in tropical Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and throughout the Yucatán Peninsula.
9) Tayra (also cabeza de Viejo, "old man's head"): This cousin of the weasel and the otter looks like a product of Dr. Frankenstein's lab, with a
yellowish, dog-like head on a black or brown mink-like body. Reaching about 28 inches plus a luxurious tail, it shares the long, thin body, short
legs, long tail and soft, dense fur with its relatives. Unlike its kin, the tayra adapts well to populated areas and pops up in gardens and orchards
as well as its natural tropical and subtropical forest habitat. The omnivorous tree-climber can be spotted in daytime or at dusk in trees or on the
ground, where it nests in hollow trees, logs, burrows or tall grass. The tayra is found throughout the Yucatán and in Tabasco and Chiapas states.
10) Cacomistle (also mico rayado, "striped monkey"): A doe-eyed tree-dweller resembling our ring-tailed cat, this critter has family ties to the
exotic kinkajou and the common raccoon. Its pointy-nosed, vaguely cat-like head has a dark mask surrounding yellowish-white eye rings, creating a
saucer-eyed face that would be right at home in a Margaret Keane painting. A dark stripe runs down its tawny, densely furred body to a bushy, ringed
tail. The agile climber bounds through the middle and upper levels of trees by night and retires by day to hollow trees, caves, rock crevices or
abandoned buildings. They were hunted in the past but are fairly common today — though not often easy to see — in mountain and lowland forests as far
north as Guerrero, Puebla and Veracruz states and throughout southern Mexico.
For more information: "Travellers' Wildlife Guides: Southern Mexico" by Les Beletsky, a field guide with more than 100 color plates covering the
country's most wildlife-rich region, presents scientific detail in accessible text written with a touch of humor.
Most Web sites devoted to Mexico's animals stick to more commonly seen species. The fauna database in the online encyclopedia of the Mexican
conservation project Via Natura includes more unusual animals than most sites, plus many good photos. The educational site Mexicanfauna.com also has
detailed animal descriptions, some with photos. |
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Suzie
Junior Nomad
Posts: 31
Registered: 1-5-2006
Location: San Antonio De Las Minas, B.C.
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We live in Fracc. Las Lomas, near San Antonio de Las Minas. About a year ago while sweeping the porch, I lifted the door mat and was startled by the
strangest creature I had ever seen. It was a gun-metal gray worm about 8 inches long and almost a half inch thick. I surmised it was a worm because it
undulated side to side and seemed to make no forward progress. The only markings on it were small identical black marks on the head and the tail that
looked like eyes. To foil it's enemies I presumed. We were a little afraid of it so gently lifted it with a shovel to the flower bed where it
instantly disappeared. I have been totally puzzled since then as to it's identity. Your description of the Mexican Caecilian described it exactly so I
looked up pictures on the internet and for sure that's what it was!
Mystery solved. Now the next big question is how did it get to northern Baja CA. since everything I've read about it says it lives in southern Mexico
south to Panama? Has anyone else seen these elusive creatures in Baja?
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Gnome-ad
Nomad
Posts: 156
Registered: 6-4-2007
Location: Todos Santos, BCS
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Mood: Okey-Dokey
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Thanks, bajajudy! What a fun read ... I love animals and hearing about these was entertaining and educational.
The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well. - Ancis
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TacoFeliz
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Posts: 266
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Location: Here
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Giant nutria
I woke up face-to-face with one of these in the jungle near the border of Guatemala in the seventies. Looked like a 250 lb guinea pig, turned out to
be a giant nutria. it was about the size of an adult Saint Bernard. Scared the bejeesus out of me but it turns out they're herbivores...
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richard nauman
Junior Nomad
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legless lizard
Suzie,
No Caecilians are known from Baja California - what you saw is likely an equally interesting animal - the Baja California legless lizard. Check it
out at:
http://www.californiaherps.com/noncal/baja/bajalizards/pages...
RN
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Mexitron
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Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Nice...interesting info, thanks for posting!
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bajadogs
Super Nomad
Posts: 1058
Registered: 8-28-2006
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| Quote: | Originally posted by TacoFeliz
I woke up face-to-face with one of these in the jungle near the border of Guatemala in the seventies. Looked like a 250 lb guinea pig, turned out to
be a giant nutria. it was about the size of an adult Saint Bernard. Scared the bejeesus out of me but it turns out they're herbivores...
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TacoFeliz,
Are you sure you didn't see a capybara instead of a nutria? Nutria max out at 20 pounds while capybara get over 100 pounds, worlds largest rodent.
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Suzie
Junior Nomad
Posts: 31
Registered: 1-5-2006
Location: San Antonio De Las Minas, B.C.
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Thanks, Richard. That makes more sense. I've gardened in Baja since 1972 and had never seen one.
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
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Registered: 10-17-2006
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While traveling through the Viscaino Reserve we traveled parallel to what looked like a wolf. I have since discovered that the Baja Wolf is extinct in
the wild and only found in a preserve dedicated to them in the US.
What we saw was no doubt a Coyote, but it was very big and in excellent shape and looked like a German Shephard. The coyotes I have seen in Mexico
have in the main been smaller than this animal and much more scroungy looking.
Iflyfish
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Jack Swords
Super Nomad
Posts: 1094
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Nipomo, CA/La Paz, BCS
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Another possibility is an Amphisbaenian or worm lizard. They are in order Squamata in class Reptilia. I believe Abe had one on display at the La Paz
Serpentario when he started it. Might still be there. He said it came from his place at Aguas Calientes.
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