I picked the early spring flowers in my biodiversity garden and photographed them in studio. "Sanguinaria canadensis", commonly called bloodroot (family Papaveraceae).
A beautiful image; an unfortunate result of human encroachment into the cloud forest. Roads are deathtraps in more ways than one. They heat up faster than their natural surroundings. Reptiles and amphibians are attracted to the heat, then run over by passing vehicles. The butterflies are feeding on the fluids of a dead toad. After this photo was taken they too may have been run over by a vehicle. Squashed butterflies are not an uncommon sight on this gravel road. Cloud Forest, Ecuador (butterflies, family Nymphalidae, genus "Actinote").
It is easy to love monkeys because their faces look familiar. This species, the noisy night monkey, the only nocturnal primate in the neotropics holds a special place in my heart. I've had several memorable encounters with night monkeys in both Ecuador and Peru. After ten encounters with 5 different family groups in the field I achieved a remarkable image of these elusive primates. They're pictured here in their daytime roost in a dead tree, high above the water during the wet season, in seasonally flooded rain forest, within the Pacaya Samiria Reserve, Loreto, Peru ("Aotus vociferans").
