National Zoo Redux Part IV: Back to Amazonia

Continuing past the end of the American Trail, there is a spectacled bear exhibit.

And a little further down was the Amazonia building. This is a Brazilian rainbow boa on the lower floor.

A few photos of titi monkeys I got on the upper floor. Having come to the National Zoo several times by now, I've concluded that the difficulty of finding the animals in Amazonia is higher than any other Amazon walkthrough exhibit I've been to. Granted, the monkeys, spoonbills, and large fish and turtles you can view from above aren't too hard to spot, but it can take a while to find things like tanagers and tortoises, never mind the really reclusive animals like sloths or frogs (which I still haven't succeeded in seeing). Alternatively, I just have really bad timing.

A roseate spoonbill.

Pacu from above. Closely related to piranhas, these fish feed on a large amount of fruit and are important seed dispersers.

Poison-dart frogs from the amphibian exhibition area that comes after the walkthrough.

A fire-bellied toad. When threatened, these anurans expose their brightly-colored underbellies to warn away predators.

A wood frog and Fowler's toad, both species that can be found locally in the U.S.

An African clawed frog. The exhibit mentions it as the likely originator of the chytridiomycosis epidemic unfortunately being currently experienced by amphibians worldwide.

A gold poison-dart frog. Its scientific name, Phyllobates terribilis, reflects its possible status as the most toxic animal known. However, poison-dart frogs get their toxins from specific arthropods they eat, which these captive ones probably don't have access to.

A Panama golden frog. This toad may actually be extinct in the wild, having last been filmed in the wild for Life in Cold Blood in 2007 (and those specimens were later taken into captivity for protection).

I don't know if it's just me, but the poll on the sidebar appears to have reset itself. I don't know how or why this happened. I'm going to keep it up, but unless the problem fixes itself I'm afraid it's going to be a bust. Looks like even without mysterious backpedaling, the poll still managed to screw itself up.