Tips for a visit to Peru (Cuzco region)
Dear all,
This coming summer (late July to mid-August), I will be visiting Peru with three friends.
In addition to spending a good week in and around Manu National Park (Amazon and Cloudforest), we will be heading into the Andes Mountains for a period, including the Sacred Valley.
We are currently looking for tips on spotting mammals. Not so much for specific locations (although those are welcome, of course), but mainly for tips and advice regarding local customs and safety, etc.
We think it would be fun to go spotting for a few nights, but it is the first time in South America for all of us, and that is a completely different ball game compared to Europe. The plan is to rent a car and drive ourselves, and besides, none of us speak Spanish…
I look forward to hearing from you,
Kind regards,
Nick Peeters
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2 Comments
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Ben S
I’ve been on several trips to the Manu area, most recently December 2024-January 2025.
Manu Road used to be amazing for wildlife watching but the traffic has gotten progressively worse in the years since it was paved. Not only are more cars on the road, but they are often going dangerously fast. You’ll need to be careful when walking. I haven’t rented a vehicle on my trips, but I’d guess that night drives would be extremely productive in the absence of traffic. I’m not sure how practical they are currently as there is little room to pull off and let someone pass.
I haven’t found the higher parts of Manu Road (e.g. around Wayqecha) to be particularly productive for mammals, though some nice species are possible. The section between San Pedro and Union Bridge is excellent for night walks. I’ve seen Water Opossum (in a roadside ditch!) and Isothrix barbarabrownae plus easier species like Night Monkey, Kinkajou, Coati, etc. It’s also great for herping, at least in the wet season. The lower you go, the more the fauna looks like that of the lowlands. Keep an eye out for Oncilla, I had a nice encounter with one just across from the entrance to Sapan Sachayoc. Make sure to see Bolivian Bamboo Rat in the large guadua stands lower down.
Night walks in the lowlands are one of my favorite experiences. The rate of sightings is much lower by foot than by vehicle, but close, personal encounters with wildlife are possible. My two favorite encounters on my last trip to the region were a Margay at Manu Wildlife Center that approached me like it was stalking my headlamp and an Ocelot at CICRA that walked right up to me and sniffed me. (Yes, I have videos.) Finding cats takes a lot of time in the forest, though. I recommend walking slowly and quietly with as few people as possible. I walk alone unless I’m focusing on herps instead of mammals.
Have you already booked accommodations in Manu? If not, I can provide some advice.
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Vladimir Dinets
Hi Nick, I was there in 1995 and again on a family trip just a year ago. Cuzco area has been densely populated for a very long time so mammals are sparse, but if you are prepared to do longer side trips, here are some places to consider:
1. Upper Manu Road: I don’t know what your plan for Manu is, but if it doesn’t include higher elevations, it’s worth going back and exploring the upper portion of the road yourself. There are a few abandoned buildings with bats (although numbers and diversity are very low), and by spotlighting you might find goodies like Barbara Brown’s brush-tailed rat and high-elevation opossums and small rodents. The side road to Tres Cruzes del Oro is good for spec bears and other paramo/uppermost cloud forest species.
2. Abra Malaga, a high pass super popular with birders, has upper paramo species like pampas cat, mountain viscacha, painted big-eared mouse and many less distinctive rodents. Bat diversity is good if you go a bit down on the far side of the pass, where mountain paca also occurs. It can be very cold and wet on the pass.
3. Ampay Nature Reserve is another good place for paramo fauna, I got culpeo fox, mountain coati and white-tailed deer.
4. Machu Picchu has only mountain viscachas and silent grass mice during the day (and only if the weather is good, which is uncommon in March), but at night there is a lot of stuff along the access road which passes through excellent cloud forest, with a few species known only from that site. Look for the gorgeous Incan water rat and Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat (both very difficult without a thermal scope). You can also walk that road early in the morning (before the first bus) for squirrels, Kalinowski’s agoutis, and birds (hummingbird diversity is amazing). There are a few short trails out of Aguas Calientes worth trying, and the road to Santa Tereza is worth walking at night. In 1995 I saw a pacarana near Mandor Falls and there are recent iNat reports from exactly the same spot.
5. Mountain cavies are common at some archeological sites, inc. Paucartambo and Tipon, plus around Lago Huacarpay – the latter also good for birds and bats. There are also smaller rodents at archeological sites but I didn’t see any on this trip, perhaps because I didn’t explore them at night (some smaller sites are not fenced – try Huaca Hanan Huri Pacha where I remember seeing Andean rabbits back in 1995).
I wouldn’t worry too much about safety if you are confident about your mountain driving skills, but be prepared to be stuck for a few hours because of roads blocked by mudslides. Here is my non-zoological trip report: https://dinets.home.blog/tag/peru/