I had so many bird photos that I left the other stuff for a second post. I promise there aren't as many photos this time.
At first I thought this was a Coati but it turned out to be a Raccoon. Another widespread species - from Canada to Panama. Apparently Vancouver island used to be the northern limit of their range, but they have spread north in Canada. Animals that can live alongside humans do better these days.
We saw quite a few iguanas, in the mangroves and near the beaches. I think they were all Black Spiny Iguanas.
We stopped at Petén Mac to stretch our legs and see some different things. "petén" means hummock - a raised area around a freshwater spring. There was a boardwalk through the forest but it has seen better days and required some balancing between missing sections. (Made more interesting by the crocodiles in the water!)
I didn't see a lot of butterflies this trip (not like Costa Rica) and the ones I did see weren't very cooperative. This was a Guatemalan Cracker. "cracker" comes from the noise the males make to stake out their territory.
The stars of Petén Mac were the crocodiles. The Yucatan peninsula is one of the only places where two species of crocodile coexist - American and Morelet's. Morelet's prefer freshwater, and American's perfer saltwater. But here, where it's a mix, it could be either. And to further complicate things, sometimes they interbreed and produce hybrids. After reviewing the photos I think the ones we saw were Morelet's. The first one we saw was in a pool quite close to the ocean with just its eyes showing.
We saw more in a pool along the boardwalk, including a fat little baby crocodile, mirrored in the still water.
They were quite near the boardwalk so I could get some closeups. (several mosquitos around the eye)
As we were leaving, I looked for the first crocodile we'd seen. At first, I was looking in the water where it had been before but then I realized it was out on the beach. It was nice to see it out of the water. The gaping mouth is for thermoregulation, not aggression - it must have been hot lying in the full sun when it was over 30c. It gave us a good view of its mouthful of teeth.
Most people use panoramas (multiple images combined) for landscapes. I used it for the crocodile.
See all the photos in this batch
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