As we pulled away from the airport, the scenery around us changed, and we were on a muddy jungle trail punctuated every so often by corrugated metal shacks. It was whilst passing one such shack that I saw a green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) slithering out from behind a building. Despite its species name, this particular snake was its characteristic brown with black spots. As we were travelling slowly and forced to stop frequently due to the bad quality of the road, I had time to point out the snake to my wife, whereupon several other people on the bus also took an interest. We moved off again, and before long we saw a small jaguar (Panthera onca) wearing a collar and lead, clearly a roadside curiosity.
The air had a certain thickness, and the sickly sweet scent of the rainforest, yet as far as I knew, we were still supposed to be in Europe. More animals appeared out of the side windows, a wild boar (Sus scrofa), a serval (Leptailurus serval), greater rheas (Rhea americana), and a ragtag herd of camelids, most notably scruffy-looking llamas (Llama glama) and alpacas (Vicugna pacos) moulting clumps of shaggy hair. Mixed in with the llamas were some curious camel-like beasts I had never been before. Physically they resembled Bactrian camels, but they were rather longer and had dappled coats. Some locals on the bus told me that they were giraffe-camel hybrids, but I forget what they called them. They seemed to be bred for no purpose other than to look strange.
No comments:
Post a Comment