One of the nice things about keeping a blog like this is that I have access to all sorts of on-line experts who can help identify some of the impossibly-varied flora and fauna of this ecosystem. The magnificent tree near the river shown here, with strikingly red, smooth bark has always been an embarrassment to me as everyone wants to know what it is and until now I have not been able to tell them. But thanks to forest engineer Rafael Serathiuk from Curitiba, I can now tell them, as if I have know all my life, that it is Eugenia multicostata, a member of the Myrtaceae or myrtle family, that also includes guava, jaboticaba, pitanga and eucalyptus. It does not seem to have a common English name, but its Portuguese name, Pau-alazão, derives from a description of chestnut-coloured horses' coats -- although nothing to do with chestnuts! The trunk of the tree has a kind of luminosity that sometimes gives the illusion of reflecting sunlight through the forest even on a dull day.
The alazão tree is in low-lying area where the main trail winds through to the river bank, and where in the morning there is often lots of interesting bird life, such as in this recording I made yesterday. According to my ornithological adviser Bruno, it includes the call a Unicoloured Antwren Myrmotherula unicolor (the thin, descending whistle) and the loud cheep of the Rufous-capped Ant-thrush Formicarius Colma a slightly comical little bird that runs among the undergrowth like a tiny chicken. As their names suggest, they are among the large number of species that gather together to find ants -- seeing the variety in this category makes you understand why conservation biologists pay so much attention to ants when measuring biodiversity.
And finally, another identification. This snake that lay across the trail before slithering away during our bird survey a couple of weeks ago turns out to be Oxyrhopus clathratus or false coral. False because unlike the "true" coral snake, which we also get around here, it is not venomous. I won't stand around working out which one it is though - I tend to assume the worst with snakes and spiders.
