Toppin's titi (Plecturocebus toppini)

Estancia Bello Horizonte, Madre de Dios, Peru. Jun 15, 2022

comments (11)

Thibaud Aronson

Lion

My first titi! There were 2 or 3 that hung out close to the lodge, and I saw them every time I went into the forest. Unlike the Tamarins that shared the forest with them, they were quite curious, and would often come quite close to check me out. Posted 3 years ago

morpheme

Lion

Very cool - also very unusual that you get to add a new mammal here. Posted 3 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  True, and you triggered me to do the basic math, it looks like we documented some 10-15% of the total. It suggests we have plenty of opportunity left but I think a lot of the undocumented ones are nocturnal, small, rodent-like creatures. Not that easy to capture.
  
  That said, I do believe there's still many "easy" ones left. Posted 3 years ago
2. 1. morpheme
    
    Lion
    
    That’s amazing- only 10 -15%.. i definitely would have guessed more. I’ll bet you are right about many of that 85-90% being small and shy (and possibly nocturnal). It also makes me think about how much of the world is still pretty sparsely populated.
    Edit- I looked it up.. around 40% if all mammal species are rodents. Posted 3 years ago, modified 3 years ago
  2. 1. Ferdy Christant
      
      Lion
      
      Yep, the mind trick to apply is to not see such percentages as linear. Adding the next 10% is not twice the effort/difficulty, instead a multiple of it. The next 10% another multiple of it.
      
      To support this point, consider iNaturalist. Probably the largest observation platform in the world, with millions of users. Together they have documented less than 60% of mammal species. More than 40% of mammal species has never been seen/captured/shared by the sum total of "citizen science". Not once, despite an enormous amount of keen observers. Pretty incredible.
      
      There's more reasons besides difficulty as to why this gap exists:
      - Popularity. Birds and plants rule most platforms, then insects and fungi as very distant second.
      - Anglo bias: much of the non-english speaking world is not sharing on these platforms, either not sharing at all, or elsewhere
      - Still a lot of offline photos/prints and/or specimens
      
      I consider all of this from an optimistic angle: we pretty much have a lifetime hobby. It's truly endless.
      Posted 3 years ago
    2. 1. Thibaud Aronson
        
        Lion
        
        Haha well speaking of, depending on what taxonomy we follow for Saguinus tamarins, I could have a couple species intros ;) Posted 3 years ago
      2. Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        Nice! You know what to do with them :) Posted 3 years ago
        
        Thibaud Aronson
        
        Lion
        
        Hehehe Posted 3 years ago
    3. Barry
      
      Lion
      
      And another 20% are bats - also very difficult to identify. Posted 3 years ago
    4. 1. morpheme
        
        Lion
        
        Not only difficult to identify - rarely seen... at least here where all of our bats are small, nocturnal and hide well during the day. We've got 15 species of bats in our area and other than a vague shape swooping in the darkness (was that a bat?) I have seen one once, and it was dead... we also have 10 shrews and I don't think I've ever seen a shrew... Posted 3 years ago
      2. Barry
        
        Lion
        
        Aah the joys of mammal watching! Posted 3 years ago