Night Survey Numero Uno: Toxic Frog, Jesus Lizard, and a KINKAJOU!

We had an enormously productive and enjoyable night survey the night before last. Besides sinking into several patches of swamp and inhaling dozens of unfortunate but at-fault bugs, we saw and captured a good variety of animals, especially for a pasture site.

Some photos:

Leptodactylus savigii, the South American Bullfrog, which exudes a toxic mucous when disturbed that can cause bystanders to cough and tear up. Toxic to other frogs. Note the red eyeshine.

Basilicus plumifrons, one of the Basilisk lizards known as "Jesus lizards" for their ability to run across the surface of water.

Smilisca baudinii, the common mexican tree frog, is darn photogenic.

Ninia sebae, the red coffee snake. We temporarily absconded with this mellow fellow to use as an educational animal for a scientific outreach fair the next day.

One of several unidentifiable frog metamorphs-- part way between tadpole and frog.

I also saw a bunch of medium-small insectivorous bats, and, oh yeah...

A KINKAJOU!!!!

It's been a bucketlist species to see one in the wild, up there with other tropical species like the three-toed sloth. This guy was in an enormous tree in one of our pasture sites, moving around noisily and checking us out as thoroughly as we were him. His eyeshine was almost as noticeable as the racket he was making. We weren't sure at the time (Olingos are pretty similar), but I ID'ed it later by its prehensile tail, visibly lighter belly. and general scampering around. It was too high up and obscured by branches and darkness for any great photography (besides which, I was pretty occupied with staring at the kinkajou!), but here is a video of a kinkajou doing kinkajou things: