Wildsumaco Biological Station

09/11/2025

Beautiful photos of a margay kitten.

13/09/2025

Great photo of Gould's Jewelfront, at an angle that captures the jewel front (above the bill). This also happens to be the favorite hummingbird of the station Director 😉

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24/07/2025

"Margays are true tree specialists — they spend nearly their entire lives in the canopy."

Not true at WildSumaco! Our research cameras capture photos of them on the ground all the time. The question is, why is this the case at Wildsumaco?

The Miniature Jungle Acrobat – Meet the Margay!
🌿 A cat so agile, it can climb down trees headfirst like a squirrel!

The Margay is a small, elusive wild cat native to Central and South America's rainforests. With its big, soulful eyes and luxuriously spotted coat, it looks like a tiny ocelot — but don’t let the cuteness fool you! 🐆🌙

🐾 Margays are true tree specialists — they spend nearly their entire lives in the canopy. They’re one of the only cats that can rotate their ankles 180 degrees, allowing them to climb down trees headfirst and hang from branches with one paw!

🌌 Nocturnal by nature, margays are stealthy hunters, feeding on birds, monkeys, frogs, and even fruit. They’ve even been seen imitating prey sounds to lure in their dinner — clever little tricksters!

Because of deforestation and illegal pet trade, margays are sadly becoming rarer to spot in the wild.

18/07/2025

Our cameras have documented these same three cats at WildSumaco Biological Station, along with Margay (Leopardus wiedii) and Jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi). And just above us on the slopes of Sumaco Volcano resides a species of Tiger Cat or Oncilla (we think), Leopardus tigrinus. Recent genetic work suggests splitting the Tiger Cat into three separate species.

31/05/2025

The Sword-billed Hummingbird is not found in the lower montane rainforest around WildSumaco Biological Station. But it can be seen not that far away, in upper montane rainforest (a.k.a. cloud forest) at places like Guango Lodge. What a spectacular hummer!

Find more incredible hummingbirds in The Wonderful World of Hummingbirds online course: https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/product/the-wonderful-world-of-humm...

31/05/2025

The Jaguarundi (𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘺𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪) - one of SIX species of cats documented by our cameras around the station and in the adjacent national park. The other five are Oncilla (most likely, or a recently described new species, the Clouded Leopard Cat), Margay, Ocelot, Puma, and Jaguar. WildSumaco sits in a critical habitat corridor connecting Andean ecosystems on Sumaco Volcano to lowland tropical rainforest at lower elevations.

29/05/2025

We’ve seen these at the station!

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