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Reports by FLAAR Mesoamerica
on Flora & Fauna of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo
Peten, Guatemala, Central America
Birds and Mammals of the Mayan Rain Forests: Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador
Posted Nov. 3, 2017
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Nicholas first leaned about Howler Monkeys at age 16, while a backpacker, by himself, exploring the rain forests near Tenosique, Chiapas, Mexico (1962).
Now, over half a century later, Dr Nicholas has lived in the seasonal rain forests six years plus explored Mesoamerica for decades.
Our goal is to show all the animals which appear in Classic Maya art, in the Maya codices, Popol Vuh, and other Mayan sagas. Plus, to remind the world of the need to preserve the fragile eco-systems.
We are doing research on mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects, and arachnids. Both zoological studies and also preparing books for children (and their parents and grandparents).
Here is half the team of illustrators, graphic designers, and animators in the FLAAR Mesoamerica office, with Dr Nicholas.
We are showing a set of our animal figures which wide-format inkjet printer companies kindly print for us so we can donate these posters to schools in remote mountain areas of Guatemala.
You can download 4-page previews of our MayanToons books on www.MayanToons.org
Although the 1st editions are mostly in English, the ABC educational books are trilingual (Mayan-Spanish-English). As soon as funding is available to us, we will put them into all the local languages of Guatemala to help the people in every part of the country.
Happy Halloween 2017
Posted October 31, 2017
 Ilustration by Valeria Avilés |
Our pumpkin and squash family wish you a Happy Halloween.
The friendly bat is a “False Vampire” because it does not suck blood, it slices off the head of its victims and eats the fresh meat (and also laps up the blood).
Two species of this bat inhabit the Mayan areas.
 We usually don't dress for halloween but this year we decided to use Tim Burton's movies as inspiration for our costumes. |
Mass of bright green butterfly larvae, Senahu, Guatemala
Posted September 1, 2017
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While driving from Senahu to Tucuru, Alta Verapaz, we stopped to photograph some flowers and Senaida Ba (one of the FLAAR photography team) noticed a bush with two or three bunches of larger than average butterfly larvae.
Two more kinds of spider webs in Guatemala
Posted August 07, 2017
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Since spider web structure and spider web silk material is amazing biomaterial and remarkable structural engineering we enjoy looking for examples of every size and shape and structure of spider web.
Here are two frankly remarkable spiders: one for its web structure, the other for its size (but its orb webs are also of interest).
As soon as funding is available we can find examples of every spider genus in Guatemala.
Macro photography of spiders and insects in Guatemala, Central America
Posted July 28, 2017
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If you enjoy doing macro photography, or like to see the professional results from other photographers, take a look at the macro photography, most of which is accomplished with a Canon M-EP 65mm 5X macro lens. |
Most Nikon macro lenses are 1:1 or 1:2; the Canon lens is 5:1.
Friendly orb spider and other species outside the front door
Posted July 10, 2017
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Since we prohibit the use of pesticides outside and inside (except for mosquito spray for your feet, inside), we have lots of helpful spiders both inside the outside the office. I prefer to have spiders capture the mosquitos rather than to use room-spray. There are probably 80 or more spiders happily residing inside the office. And this week we found four outside with their webs within a few inches of each other.
With the wind the spiders were moving, so no way to do stacked focus (in depth focus) and since the webs were high it was tough to get the camera parallel to the spiders. But at least we got good snapshots. We will have our team identify the genus and species but wanted to post at least one view now.
What was interesting is that the spiders were completely different species (yet very close together).
Giant moth at 8:30 pm, Guatemala City
Posted July 5, 2017
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Went outside to see if the pregnant opossum was still wandering around (it was gone). But much to my surprise saw a giant moth “the size of a small hummingbird.”
If flew so fast there was no way the camera could focus on it (or even keep the month in the viewfinder). The photos are blurry but eventually we would be able to identify it.
I estimate it is a pollinator? Time will tell. It had more color and beautiful design than I expect for a moth.
