Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a ridge with arresting gulf panoramas. Activities include guided nature hikes, night tours
and boating the mangroves. Or just relax on a wilderness beach.
Ancon Expeditions' Coastal Darien Explorer tour includes the round-trip airfare
between Panama City and Punta Patiño, lodging, food and activities. This can also be
combined with a trip up the Río Mogué to the Emberá village of Mogué and a guided
hike to a harpy-eagle's nest. Punta Patiño is also a destination on Ancon's highly recom-
mended two-week Darién Explorer Trek.
Independent travelers can hire boats in La Palma to reach Punta Patiño. Notify Ancon
Expeditions in advance to reserve a cabin.
THE MOTHER OF ALL EAGLES
The harpy eagle, Central America's most striking raptor, is considered by many to
be the most powerful bird of prey in the world. Unfortunately, opportunities to see
the bird in the wild are limited as they are rare throughout most of their range and
hard to spot in the canopy. Fortunately, you're in the Darién, and the area sur-
rounding Reserva Natural Punta Patiño is home to a healthy nesting population. Al-
though your chances of spotting one is still low, it's better here than anywhere else
in Central America.
Harpy eagles are enormous birds with a wingspan of 2m and a height of 1.5m -
they are immediately recognizable. Adults tend to have white breasts with a broad
black chest band and faint leg barring as well as grey upper parts. They also have
piercing yellow eyes that can be seen from the forest floor, as well as powerful yel-
low talons and a hooked bill.
Harpies rarely soar above the treetops, instead they hunt by attacking prey
through the canopy. Monkeys are plucked from the foliage, unwary birds are taken
from tree limbs and snakes are swept off the forest floor. However, the majority of
the harpy's diet consists of sloths, which are extremely vulnerable basking in the
morning sun. A harpy will sit nearby - sometimes for days - until it is hungry, and
then snatch the sloth at its leisure.
Anyone who has had the privilege to watch a harpy eagle hunt will tell you that it
is simply awesome. A harpy can hunt a large male howler, crush the monkey's skull
with her talons and carry it back to the nest unhindered. With massive claws as big
as a grizzly bear's, and legs as thick as a man's wrist, the harpy is nature's Termin-
ator.
With females weighing up to 9kg, such a large predator obviously has high en-
ergy requirements. As a result, harpies hunt all but the largest forest mammals. As
an apex predator (like the jaguar), the harpy eagle probably never occurred in high
densities, though deforestation has removed much of its prey base and its habitat.
