We went to the Tuxtla zoo on Tuesday. Actually it was more of a preserve then a zoo. I saw lots of birds and 2 life birds! I saw lots of Guans and Curassows walking around the zoo everywhere! They were very tame and you could walk within 5 yards of one and the darn bird wouldn't move! They also tried to rob your dinner plate! Especially the Plain Chachalacas. They would jump up on your table and then wait until you started eating and then you had to watch out! If you didn't pay enough attention to the birds under your table they'd walk right next to your chair and start begging for tacos!
There were also Motmots (we saw 1 next to the path), and these little weird creatures called Agoutis. Agoutis are rodents that look like miniature Capybaras. They seemed to fancy bananas and were sitting on their hind feet devouring bananas! Of course there were some caged animals like jaguars and warthogs in large natural enclosures, and a big aviary. In the aviary there were lots of colorful birds like Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Yellow-winged Cacique, and 2 very noisy Double-striped Thick-knees that stood on the path and shrieked as loud as they could! They got annoying after a while so we (my dad and I) left the aviary and went around the rest of the zoo in search of a Crested Guan. It took us a while to find one but at last we saw one, although it wasn't how we expected to see one. We rounded a bend in the path and saw a guan being chased by Agoutis! Boy, it was a funny sight; the guan running as fast as it's legs would carry it and the 2 Agoutis right on its tail! The guan eventually grew tired and flew up into a tree and was left in peace. My dad and I admired it for awhile and then moved on to look at other parts of the zoo.
There was a whole area of big enclosures for Birds of Prey from around the Chiapas area. Black Vultures perched on top of the cages looking bored and very hungry. Besides Crested Caracaras and Grey Hawks, they had a Collared Forest Falcon and a King Vulture. The vultures continued to look very hungry and were moving over the Caracara cage. The male or female Caracara (I think it was the male) brought over a piece of meat from the edge of their enclosure and started eating it with the female/male. The vultures didn't miss any of it. A group of about 5 birds came right up to the edge of the cage and tried to steal the caracara's precious piece of meat. Unfortunately for the vultures, the two hawks didn't miss anything either. The moment the vultures got too close he quickly jumped off their little branch, ran to the other side of the enclosure and buried the piece of meat in the ground at the foot of a tree. Then he came back and groomed the female.
Of all the animals in the zoo my favorite were the Spider Monkeys. The people who work at the zoo had put up a big enclosure with tall trees for the monkeys and the monkeys seemed very happy. My favorite was a young monkey who was very feisty and goal was to annoy all the adults and make the limbs of trees fall off! I stayed at the primate cage for a long time and only left when my dad said he had seen a guan on the path. Later, as we were walking through the zoo I saw some movement in the treetops and thought that a vulture had landed in the top. I was wrong. A monkey seemed to have escaped from it's enclosure and was happily swinging in the trees making a huge commotion as it passed. I still wonder how it got out of it's enclosure but I can only guess. I think it might have somehow swung from a tree in the enclosure to another tree on the other side of the fence. Then it probably swung around the zoo, scaring all the birds in the vicinity away as it went!
Besides the birds I have already mentioned, I also saw a flock of Green Jays, 1 Bare-throated Tiger Heron, a Brown Pelican, White Ibises, White-winged Doves, 1 Russet-crowned Motmot, the ever present House Sparrow, Great-tailed Grackle and a dove species I couldn't identify.
I also saw lots of birds that were in enclosures including Scarlet Macaws, Keel-billed Toucan, Green Parakeets and numerous types of chachalacas.
There was also a jaguar who roared very loudly as we were leaving and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. We were planning on going to a forested canyon nearby called Sumidero Canyon but we didn't have time. Instead we decided to head back to our pop-op trailer that was waiting for us at home in Ocozocoatla at Hogar Infantil. On the way to Ocozocoatla I saw a flock of White-fronted Parrots by the road! I only got a quick look at them though and I was a little disappointed. But it was the first parrot I had ever seen so I am pretty contented (for the moment).
When we got home we all had a quick dinner (hot dogs and noodles), brushed our teeth and all went to bed. That night I dreamed of curassows, guans, and chachalacas all chasing me into a pool. It must have been from seeing so many of them and taking pictures. Then I think they wanted revenge! Uh-oh, gotta run! Keep watch for curassows!
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