Wildlife

The seminary in which I am working is, very much, in the city. But, like many Central and South American cities, you are never too far from wildlife. In fact, the seminary probably has more than its fair share since it has quite a bit of land that is not built on, and many trees. Furthermore, it is next door to a university that has an extensive campus.

They tell me that there are many monkeys here, but I haven't seen them. But I have seen a great many other things. First of all, the ants: every square inch of this place is alive with one type of creature or another. If you leave a sweet paper on the ground, in at most three minutes it will be covered by ants. I don't know much about ants but there is a great variety of shapes, sizes, and even colours. Most are perfectly harmless to humans but some can give you quite a nasty nip. So far I have not been bitten by one (this year).

I have, of course, been bitten by mosquitoes. While mosquito control is pretty effective in Panama City, there are still a lot of them around. As everyone knows, these insects can spread harmful diseases - most notably here you have to be careful of Nile Virus and Fever (which I got once in Ecuador, and don't want to get again).

There are also many crickets who sing, in my opinion beautifully, all night long. At this time of the year they are accompanied, on the bass line, by the frogs! And frogs are not the only reptiles. Iguanas are regularly seen dashing about the place.

There are many birds, too, that are often very attractive, and quite different to what we normally seein Europe. Probably the most evocative of South America is the hummingbird. This is an amazing bird that has hollow wings that allow it to flap like mad and stay motionless while it extracts the nectar from plants. There are many different types of hummingbird - the picture shows the most common one here.

Mammals are not absent either. Yesterday, while I was teaching, I spotted a Ñeque which is a large rodent, about the size of a small lamb. These are herbivores and not aggressive. As a matter of interest I have often eaten these while in Ecuador where they are highl prized - although I have to admit that I had eaten it before I knew what it was. If I had known that it was basically a rat with no tail I might have thought twice.



Outside my window at the moment there is a sleeping three-toed sloth - known here as the lazy bear

(although it is not, technically a bear, I believe). These animals sleep for up to 18 hours a day by hanging from the branches. Their incredible camouflage together with the amount of noxious material they accumulate in their fur seems to keep them free from predators. The picture of the sloth here is from the internet as I couldn't get a good picture due to the natural camouflage.

That's it for the moment - any other unusual sightings and you will be the first to know.