A home for animals

Unlike stones, flowers and crystals, wildlife is associated by us city dwellers with an indeterminate danger. This is probably just an abstract thought which evokes the primal fears that many phobias are based on. The subject of such fears, whether snakes, spiders or birds, is rarely rooted in real personal experience. The animals in Altamira and the neighbouring Serra are extremely timid. The visitor who can will enjoy the stillness. If you take the time to be quiet and calm you will be surprised by busy leafcutter ants, grasshoppers, beetles and moths. And by the fluttering of the butterflies, whose deep luminous blue seems to condense the colour of the sky. Or the orange-red butterflies who bask in the sun without a care in the world right next to the house. And the brilliant red butterfly who seems to be waiting to be photographed.

The blue butterfly, called a "flying flower" by the Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli, is everywhere. As are its caterpillars. Many species on the Red List have also found refuge in the Serra. There are 170 species of bees and an enormous variety of reptiles, amphibians, lizards and snakes, of which but a few are dangerous to humans. Birds of prey nest on the rock face near the waterfall. There are hummingbirds, or "Beija Flor", meaning, flower-kisser. Lucky is the person, who spies the elusive kinkajous in the forest, or who encounters a couple of giant ferrets crossing the road. The monkeys are not so shy and will even reach out cautiously for a banana if you hand them one. Rare mammals, like the anteater, the Guará Wolf and the Jaguatirica, a small leopard, and some primate species are to be found only occasionally due to habitat destruction and hunting. We hope to give them a home again.