Primate Watching

Seeing this Species

 

Metropolitan Park, Panama City, Panama

This is quite a spot. We had doubts about a proper forest being in the vicinity of such an enormous city and feared semi-captive primates. We didn't know if we'd be able to officially count them as a species seen.

 

Boy were we surprised. The park is an incredible stand of jungle, with astounding views of the Panama City skyline, resident toucans, three-toed sloths (we saw five!), and seemingly endless agoutis. 

 

Our experience was unusual. On our first walk in, we found howlers within the hour. We then passed a couple walking the trails and they told us they'd just seen the tamarins, in about the same spot as the howlers. We did not see the tamarins in the next three hours, decided they were clearly wild enough, and returned that afternoon.

 

It was Christmas. As we ventured back onto the trails, a park ranger mysteriously followed us. Soon we realized he was trying to help us. After a very slow, quiet hour, he found them with Adam but, unfortunately, Andie had run off ahead and ended up missing them. The guard, Guillermo, then kept searching with us until dark, for over five hours. We returned first thing the next morning and another guard, Riccardo Apochito, helped us for a few hours until we spotted the tamarins. Once we'd seen them, we spotted more and more. They passed overhead on the trail feeding. Riccardo laughed at trouble until then, saying that he sees the tamarins todos los dias (every day), usually feeding by the start of the aptly named mono titi trail.

 

Probability of Success: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◇

 

Overlapping species: Mantled Howler, White-throated Capuchin

 

Other sites:

 

Pipeline Road

Chris, at Mammalwatching.com, spotted the tamarins here. We did not but it's a great spot to visit. It's an easy trip by taxi from Panama City (~$25 one way).

 

Overlapping species: Mantled Howler, White-throated Capuchin

 

Local contacts: