Instant Wild Update #2 ( no agouti edition)

Hello Instant Wild!

Just another Agouti!

WOW.  I have been working on this since September and just now finished!

When we arrived back in the States and had a chance to view all the images and we saw some interesting items worth sharing.  Before our cameras were activated by Instant Wild, we received our first image outside of Costa Rica as shortly after we landed in Miami.

It is a Green Iguana, but check out the below video from the companion camera nearby, seconds before it stopped in front of the Spartan cam.(maximize screen)

This camera was triggered 362 times and recorded 724 images to the card.  We think that we received around 300 images via Instant Wild. The images not received were likely due to lack of cellular network availability.

We'll try to unravel a few mysteries by showing images from companion cameras and companion images.

On Valentines Day this image of a Tayra came through:

 However, what we don't see is that there were two other Tayras traveling with this one.

This image led some to think that we had a well fed black labrador roaming the property...

however the previous companion image shows that it is a Tayra.

This tail led us to much speculation as well:

Seconds before...we see this cool looking Tayra.

So did history repeat itself when this image came through?

Of course not.  This is a Jaguarundi with a kitten.

These ocelot images were never transmitted(far left edge):

We saw one Capuchin monkey on this camera, however here is the companion image.

The other camera at Tres Hermanas was triggered 287 times and generated 574 images.

Mystery Bird.

We saw quite a few animals on this camera.  Curassows, Tinamous, mystery bird/s, giant marine toad, spiny rat, agouti, coati, tamandua, capuchin monkey, skunk, common opossum, jaguarundi, ocelot, tayra, and domestic dogs.

Mystery Bird/Animal upper left corner.

See the toad in the lower right corner.

It is probably the Giant Marine Toad(Bufo marinus), made famous in the excellent documentary, "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History"

Daylight ocelot near right end of log

Ocelot, right center edge of frame.

Ocelot, close up from above pic.

The next series of shots were either missed or completely unidentified.

Note animal on right end of log.

Companion image one second later.

Close up showing animal tail.

We had a companion camera not far from the wireless camera.  It helped solve our mystery:

It was a beautiful Jaguarund, clearly on the prowl.

During our last visit we were kept up half the night by very close by barking dogs.  As several cameras later revealed, it was 3 paca poachers and we believe that they were unsuccessful.  They did remove two color video cameras and tweaked a few others to let us know they could have done more. 

2 of 3 Paca poachers

 We tried to find them, not necessarily to prosecute them for trespassing, but to ask for the cameras or memory cards back.  It would be fine with me if they actually used the cameras on other land to help map the animals in our area.  Best we could tell, was that they were not from our immediate area.  They looked like a dad and his two teen age sons out for adventure. Ocho Verde appreciates the contributions for new cameras from some Instant Wild regulars.  We will deploy them on our next visit.

Recently, our Tre Hermanas camera has failed.  We inexplicably ran through a set of lithium batteries in 10 weeks, then another set in 10 days.  This is a sign of either bad batteries or camera failure(which we expect that it is), so we don't expect to have it back up until our visit next month.

On our next visit, we hope to add one more wireless camera and update the firmware to help with image quality.

Thanks for following along,
OV-Frank

2 Years In

Striped Hog-Nosed Skunk seems to be a common resident.

The cameras are still preforming well and we are learning about the animals every visit.  Thanks to all who have contributed and supported us with encouragement and financially. A special shout out to those who have cared for and fed our pets when we're out of the country for extended periods of time. 

Our trip in July left us with over 20,000 images and videos that needed to be sorted through categorized and cataloged.  Now that we are finished, we'll give you the highlights.                    (MAXIMIZE videos in lower right of screen)

The above video is common opossum.  Her pouch is loaded with young possums.  Once they are too big for her pouch, they will ride on her back.

Opossums were not the only ones who had young during the January-June period.  The below image came through one of the wireless cameras.

 Well this could be a number of animals:Tayra. Coati or a Jaguarundi.  These cameras take two pictures seconds apart per trigger.  Here is what the companion picture recorded two seconds earlier:

That is a Jaguarundi and her kitten.  These are the first images of young jaguarundi that the cameras have recorded.

We got several other Jaguarundi images as well.

We even had a jaguarundi image sent by the wireless camera just last week:

The Coatis also were with young.  In this video, you can see the clan of females and juveniles.  Adult male Coatis are solo.

While we saw no evidence of offspring, you have to wonder how this trio of Tayras paired off on Valentine's day.

To further the Tayra mystery, we suspect this ritual is related to scent marking, but it was pretty funny to see  how it all went down.

The day before we left to head back to the States, I made one more quick run through the jungle to double check the cameras' settings/batteries/aim. We captured this image of a Tayra at the famous rock:

We saw several ocelots that we could not recognize including this big guy:

and...this little guy:

We have no idea if any of the ocelots are related, but we suspect that they are.

Finally, we get to the monkeys.  The Capuchins were very active on nearly all cameras.  One camera in particular caught something quite interesting.  It shows capuchins actually feeding with coatis.  The unusual thing is that adult capuchins will capture and eat young coatis, but this clan and troop seem to get along really well.

One of the male monkeys even flashes the camera before he spins it away from himself.

Remember that you can follow the wireless cameras on your iPhone with the INSTANT WILD APP from the Apple App Store...it is free!
See you next time!

Remember to visit OCHO VERDE YOUTUBE PAGE for more videos and Follow @OchoVerde on Twitter.

If you would like to support our project to help with expensive lithium batteries, camera upgrades, data plans, etc, please use the secure PAYPAL button below.  Thank You!