Panama
Cacomistle, Bassariscus sumichrasti, Los Quetzales Lodge
I have been to Panama five times, for long weekends in November 2013 and April 2016. For a “mammal lite” week in May 2022 and an even lighter week in 2023 (no trip report) plus a productive three days in 2026 mainly at Tamandua Cloud Forest lodge.
Barro Colorado Island
During a night in 2013 I saw Central-American Agoutis,Mantled Howlers, Greater White-lined Bat, Greater Fishing Bat, Mesoamerican Moustached Bat, Common Big-eared Bat, Northern Stripe-headed Round-eared Bat, Seba’s Short-tailed Bat, Common Tent-making Bat, Heller’s Broad-nosed Bat and Jamaican Fruit-eating Bat.
False Killer Whale, Pseudorca crassidens, up close, Coiba Island
El Valle including the Canopy Lodge
I sayed for a night in 2013 and saw Dark Four-eyed Opposum,Central-American Woolly Opposum, Orange Nectar Bats, Kinkajou, Hoffman’s Two-toed Slot, Tomes’ Spiny Rat, Central American Agoutis and Red-tailed Squirrels.
Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni, Canopy Tower
A night at an El Valle hotel in May 2022 produced a Two-toed Sloth, Black Rats and a Variegated Squirrel.
Gamboa including the Canopy Tower
Lesser Capybara (Hydrochoerus isthmius)
I spent 2 nights here 2013 and found White-nosed Coatis, Merriam’s Long-tongued Bats, Common Big-eared Bats, White-faced Capuchins, Mantled Howlers, Geoffroy’s Tamarins, Spectral Bat, Pallas’s Bat, Olingo, Two-toed Sloth, Central American Agouti, Central American Woolly Opossum, Common Opossum, Nine-banded Armadillo, Agouti, Collared Pecccaries, Seba’s Short-tailed Bats, Rufous Tree Rat, Lesser Capybaras.
Panamanian Night Monkey, Aotus zonalis, Colon
I spent a night at Colon in 2016 and saw my target Panamanian Night Monkey in the hotel grounds.
I returned to Gamboa in May 2022 and added Quichua Porcupine, Gabb’s Cottontails, Spix’s Disc-winged Bat and probable Tomes’s Spiny Rat and Kinkajou to the list. While a brief visit to Miraflores Locks produced a Central American Red Brocket.
Pacific Tent-making Bat (Uroderma convexum)
In 2023 I spent a couple of nights at the Toucan Apartments Airbnb in Gamboa itself – a convenient and comfortable place to say with Pacific Tent Making Bats in the porch and agoutis in the garden. A couple of night walks along the pipeline road produced a Northern Tamandua, many Gabb’s Cottontails, Mantled Howlers, Central American Agoutis and a brief but close and clear encounter with an Ocelot, about 1 km after the gate. Luckily I saw it well enough to realize that – try as I might – I couldn’t make the tail long enough to fit a Margay.
Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana)
In 2026 a few hours around the Rainforest Discovery Centre added Panama Mouse Opossum and Great Striped-faced Bat to my list.
Panama Mouse Opossum (Marmosa isthmica)
Coiba Island
Panamanian White-throated Capuchin, Coiba Island
A one night stay in 2016 produced Coiba Island Agouti, Coiba Island Howler, False Killer Whale, Pantropical Spotted Dolphin, Common Bottlenose Dolphin, Proboscis Bats.
The Chiriqui Highlands
Clouded Oncilla (Leopardus pardinoides), Tamandua Cloud Forest Lodge.
I spent two nights at Los Quetzales lodge with my kids in 2016 and saw Cacomistle, Red-tailed Squirrel, Boquete Rice Rat, Talamancan Deer Mouse, Chiriquian Harvest Mouse and Chiriqui Singing Mouse.
Harris’s Rice Water Rat, Tanyuromys aphrastus
In May 2022 I spent another night there and added Handley’s Tailless Bat, Talamanca Harvest Mouse and the very rare Harris’s Water Rice Rat to the list.
Cacomistle (Bassariscus sumichrasti)
In 2026 I spent a couple of nights at the lovely Tamandua Cloud Forest Lodge just above Los Quetzales and saw 14 species including Northern Black-eared Opossum; Mexican Hairy Porcupine; Red-tailed Squirrel and Bangs’s Mountain Squirrel, Tayra; Long-tailed Weasel; Cacomistle; and Clouded Oncilla.
Bangs’s Mountain Squirrel (Syntheosciurus brochus)
Along with Desmarest’s Spiny Pocket Mouse; Long-tailed Singing Mouse; Talamancan Deermouse; Talamancan Harvest Mouse; Boquete Rice Rat; and Armién’s Myotis.
Isla Escudo De Veraguas
Pygmy Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus
I visited this beautiful island in May 2022 and saw Pygmy Sloths.
Community Reports
Tamandua Cloud Forest Lodge & Gamboa; 2026: Jon Hall, 3 days & 19 species including Panama Mouse Opossum, Long-tailed Weasel and Clouded Oncilla.
Panama Stopovers, 2025-26: Yon Perez’s report of two x 2 night stopovers with 27 species including Rothschild’s Porcupine, Panamanian Night Monkey and Northern Tamandua.
Panama, 2025: William Henri Lewis, 8 nights & 35 species including Quichua Porcupine, Panamanian Dwarf Squirrel and Water Opossum.
Quick trip to Panama and Ecuador, 2025: Wildlifeship, 5 nights with species including Spectacled Bear and Geoffroy’s Tamarin.
Short trip to Panama 2025: Anna Bauerová, 1 week & 12 species including Northern Tamandua, Panamanian Night Monkeys and a Northern Olingo.
Boquete, the Canopy Tower & Canopy Lodge, 2024: Michael Johnson, 16 days & 29 species including Orange Nectar Bat, Lesser Capybara, Panamanian Night Monkey and a Water Opossum.
The Canopy Tower & Canopy Lodge, 2023: John Wright, 13 days & 31 species including Water Opossum, Northern Tamandua and Lesser Capybara.
The Canopy Tower & Canopy Lodge, 2023: Royle Safaris, 10 days & 40 species including Water Opossum and Fringe-lipped Bat.
Panama, 2022: Alex Schouten and Jeannette den Hartog’s report of various primates seen during a month in Panama, with 13 mammal species including Colombian White-throated Capuchin and Brown-headed Spider Monkey.
Panama, 2022: Andrew Balmford, 3 weeks & 45 species including Bang’s Mountain Squirrel, Central American Red Brocket and Brown-headed Spider Monkey.
Pygmy Sloths and rainforest rodents, 2022: Jon Hall, 1 week & 26 species including Central American Red Brocket, Harris’s Rice Water Rat and Pygmy Sloths.
Gamboa, Valle de Anton and Boquete, 2022: Paul Carter’s notes of 2 weeks & 36 species including Alston’s Woolly Mouse Opossum, Cacomistle and an Ocelot and probable Margay.
Panama, 2021: Alex Meyer, 3 nights & 28 species including Armored Rat, Andean Porcupine, Western Lowland Olingo and Panamanian Night Monkey.
Panama, 2021: The Travelling Zoologists, 2 weeks & 34 species including Water Opossum, Robinson’s Mouse Opossum and a Silky Anteater. (Note that the “Panamanian Spiny Pocket Mouse” in the report is misidentified … it is possibly a Mexican Deer Mouse).
Panama, 2019: Steph Elliot, 10 days & 26 species including Rothschild’s Porcupine, Rufous Tree Rat and Spectral Bat.
Panama, 2019: Justin Brown, 2 weeks and some nice species including Cacomistle, Brown-headed Spider Monkey and Pygmy Sloth.
Costa Rica and Panama, 2019: Romain Bocquier, 45 days & 61 species including a Margay, 2 Olingos and Spectraland Northern Ghost Bats.
The Canopy Tower, 2019: Naturetrek, 10 days with mammals including a Rufous Tree Rat.
Panama, 2018: Steve Anyon-Smith, 1 month & 21 species including Cacomistle, Tayra and Brown Four-eyed Opossum.
Panama, 2017: Brian Keelan, 2 weeks & 24 species including Rothschild’s Porcupine and Spectral Bat.
Panama, 2017: Venkat Sankar, 4 nights & 28 species including Rothschild’s (Andean) Porcupine, Western Lowland Olingo, Spectral Bat, Northern Tamandua and – best of all – Brown-headed Spider Monkey.
Panama, 2017: Steve Morgan, 2 weeks & 36 species including Jaguarundi, Cacomistle, Spectral Bat, Western Pygmy Squirrel and Rothschild’s Porcupine.
Panama, 2017: Charles Foley, 2 weeks with species including Cacomistle, Olingo, Chiriqui Singing Mice and Montane Squirrels.
Panama, 2016: Jon Hall, 5 days & 14 species including Cacomistle, Coiba Agouti & Howler and Chiriqui Singing Mice.
Panama, 2016: Cheryl Antonucci, 9 days & 27 species including Cacomistle, Alfaro’s Pygmy Squirrel and Coiba Island Howler.
Panama, 2015: Tobi Lundqvist, 1 week & 19 species including Geoffroy’s Tamarin, Lesser Capybara and Western Night Monkey.
The Canopy Tower, 2014: Scott Flamand, 4 days & 14 species including Allen’s Olingo and Spectral Bats. See also Charles Hood’s brief report (as a comment) to this post.
Costa Rica & Panama, 2014: Dominique Brugiere, 1 month & some nice species including, in Panama, Rothschild’s Porcupines, Western Night Monkeys and Lesser Capybaras.
Panama, 2013: Jon Hall 4 nights & 32 species including Spectral Bat, Western Lowland Olingo and Orange Nectar Bat.
Panama, 2013: Matthew & Maureen Hart, 1 week & 12 species including a strange Sloth and Northern Naked-tailed Armadillo.
Panama, 2010: Canopy Tower Family mammal tour, 10 days & 29 species including a Rothschild’s Porcupine.
Panama, 2008: Curtis Hart, 2 weeks & 20 species including both Sloths, Paca and Rothschild’s Porcupine.
Panama, 2007: Richard Webb, 8 days & 16 species including a Tayra, Geoffroy’s Tamarin and Woolly Opposum.
Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala): Curtis Hart, a few notes on different national parks.
Also See
Spotlighitng access along the Pipeline Road?, April 2025
RFI Costa Rica/Panama at short notice, January 2025
Cacomistles in La Fortuna, November 2024
RFI: visiting but not staying at the Canopy Tower?, October 2024
Costa Rica/ Nicaragua/ Panama – suggestions for very low budget mammalwatcing, September 2024
Barro Colorado Island RFI, January 2024
Bangs’s Mountain Squirrel vs Red-tailed Squirrel Identification, July 2023
Melanistic Oncilla sighting in Volcán Barú, February 2020
Panama- November, RFI – with lots of useful information, September 2013
Pygmy Sloth Fiasco, September 2013
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