Pipeline Road Eco Trail, Panama

Central American Adventure - 6

Panama’s premier eco trail, Pipeline Road, runs for 17 kilometres (10.5 miles) through the gorgeous forests of Soberania National Park. Not only is the trail the best place in Panama to see lowland jungle wildlife including monkeys, sloths, other mammals, frogs and butterflies, but 525 different species of birds also live there.

The park is a real biodiversity ‘hot spot’ containing primary and secondary rainforest, marshes and streams, with Chagres River also running it. This is the place to come to see wildlife interact, hear birds and frogs calling and smell the gorgeous tropical vegetation.

Along the trail

The start of the trail is just 25 kilometres (16 miles) from Panama City. There is a map of the entire trail here showing the recreational zones for a couple of kilometres at either end and the precious Conservation Zone between them.

Bird watching with the best

The first two kilometres of the trail are on a wide gravel track that four-wheel drives can easily navigate. This area is well-known among international bird and wildlife watching groups and you are often sharing the terrain with binocular clutching enthusiasts pointing at trees, who are very handy for pointing out species you may otherwise have missed.

Mantled howler monkeys often hang out here along with various beautiful birds, and as there are creeks, yellow-eared slider turtles too.

Wandering in the wilderness

After about six kilometres, you enter the Conservation Zone where the track narrows. You can still use a four-wheel drive here but the going is bumpy with potholes and ruts.

The trail here is very rugged and quite hilly at times but the surrounding forest comes very close to the trail and is beautiful with various species of mature trees and wildflowers. Here you are in the heart of Soberania National Park, that covers 220 square kilometres (55,000 acres) of land.

We saw the greatest abundance of wildlife here including white-nosed coatis, white-faced capuchin monkeys, frogs mating, agoutis, green kingfishers, various woodpeckers, a Hoffman’s two-toed sloth, gorgeous helicopter damselflies and an anole lizard up a tree.

You are likely to have this section of the road to yourself and you really feel you are miles from anywhere with just you and the wildlife. I loved it here.

Discovering Rainforest Discovery Centre

http://www.pipelineroad.org/

Around four kilometres before the end of Pipeline Road, you come to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. There’s rough parking at the entrance and even a little café where you can buy soft drinks and souvenir hats. If you need the toilet, it’s free once you enter the discovery centre while the café charges a whopping one US dollar so best to hang on.

The discovery centre aims to protect the tropical rainforest through sustainable tourism and is a great place for people wanting wildlife on tap and walking on more maintained walkways. Along the 2 kilometres of trails we saw lots of different birds, red squirrels and – a real highlight – the rufous tree rat.

If you love hummingbirds, this is the place to be. The feeders attract up to 11 species. We saw 7, and were enthralled.

There is also a lagoon which is a lovely place to see water birds and a 32-metre-high observation tower from where you can see blue cotingas.

Serious bird watchers should arrive at 6 am when the centre opens to see the maximum number of bird species.

Most of the staff at the Panamá Rainforest Discovery Center are from neighbouring communities, so you are supporting the local economy when you pay your $30 entry fee. They also offer night walks.

To Gamboa

A little further on, you once again come across a wide gravel trail and bird watching groups, from Gamboa this time. Again, there are great wildlife watching opportunities. At the other end of the road is Gamboa Rainforest Resort, a hotel in gorgeous grounds. Its bar and restaurant are open to non-guests and you can book ahead to visit their orchid, frog and butterfly houses and the on-site sloth sanctuary which rescues injured and orphaned sloths.

This is a fabulous place to 'ooh' and 'aah' at the ridiculously cute baby sloths, find out more about the differences and similarities between two-toed and three-toed sloths, and donate to the wonderful work the sanctuary is doing.

For more information on the sloth sanctuary, visit https://www.appcpanama.org/sloth-sanctuary.html

Getting there and around

The easiest way to get to and along Pipeline Road is to book a tour with one of the many agencies in Panama City. There are specially tailored trips for bird watchers and wildlife enthusiasts. You could also stay a few nights at Canopy Tower and explore this and other trails with the excellent local guides.
To walk the trail independently, you can get a taxi from Panama City to the entrance, then walk the trail to the other end. The trail is navigable throughout its length. There are steep sections and in the rainy season it can be very muddy. The problem is getting transport back to Panama City from Gamboa. You may need to book return transport with a tour agency.
If you just want to visit the Rainforest Discovery Centre, you can either arrange a tour in Panama City or get a taxi to the Gamboa entrance of Pipeline Road and walk the few kilometres to the centre. There is a bus from Panama City to Gamboa but it is unreliable and stops 5 kilometres from the centre.

About the wildlife

10 cool facts about Hoffman’s two-toed sloths Choloepus hoffmanni

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/h/hoffmans-two-toed-sloth/

https://www.macalester.edu/~montgomery/TwoToedSloth.html

The Hoffman’s two-toed sloth has two long claws on each front feet up to 7.6 centimetres (3 inches) long but three on its back feet, like three-toed sloths.
These sloths are mainly nocturnal and more alert at night, although they can be seen during the day too.
The sloths eat at night, feeding on leaves, shoots, and fruit, and get almost all their water from juicy plants. They also eat bird eggs, nestlings, lizards, and insects
The sloths spend nearly all their lives in trees, hanging from branches with a powerful grip aided by their long claws. They even sleep in trees, for 15 to 20 hours every day, and mate and give birth while hanging in the trees. However, they will go down to the ground to urinate and defecate every 5 to 7 days, or to change trees to find a new food source.
Young two-toed sloths cling to their mothers for the first months of their lives. They don’t stray too far from her until they are around two-years-old.
Two-toed sloths are more closely related to extinct gigantic ground sloths than they are to three-toed sloths, and cannot interbreed with three-toed sloths.
These sloths have the lowest and most variable body temperature and the lowest muscle mass relative to overall body weight of any mammal. They keep their body temperature low to conserve energy – it’s 30 to 34 degrees centigrade (86-93 degrees fahrenheit), cold compared with most mammals. They also conserve energy by having incredibly low muscle mass. Only 25% of their bodies is muscle mass, compared with other mammals that have 50%.
Hoffman’s two-toed sloths live for 10-12 years in the wild, but they can live up to 31 years in captivity.
Sloths generally live alone or with their young, only meeting up to mate. Females occasionally live in small groups.
Algae grows in their hair, its greenish colour providing camouflage for the sloth. In turn, the sloth is habitat for the algae.

10 cool facts about rufous tree rats Diplomys labilis

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/6663/22205343

https://www.canopytower.com/rufous-tree-rat/

This cute tree rat is a large species of spiny rat but is more closely related to the guinea pigs and chinchillas of South America.
Despite being classified as a spiny rat, his species lacks the spiny hairs on its back and rump of other members of the family; rather, it has thick, coarse hair covering its face, body and tail.
It was originally thought to only live in Panama, Colombia and Northern Ecuador, but was discovered in November 2015 in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica.
This rat is found in evergreen and deciduous forest, mangroves, plantations, up to 1500 metres.
It is nocturnal and strictly arboreal and has not been seen on the ground.
This spiny rat moves slowly and may remain motionless for long periods of time, but climbs swiftly if pursued.
During the day, adult pairs or lone individuals sleep in holes in trees. If disturbed, they stick their heads out to see what’s going on. Pairs may travel and forage together at night.
These rats are herbivores, eating fruit, young leaves and trees.
Breeding occurs year round; the female raises 1-2 pups per litter, and the young stay with the mother for up to a year until they reach maturity.
A baby rufous tree rat is called a 'kitten, nestling, pinkie or pup'. The females are called 'doe' and males 'buck'.

10 cool facts about white-faced capuchin monkeys Cebus capucinus imitator

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Cebus_capucinus/

These monkeys have one of the widest ranges of all New World monkeys, spreading from Honduras to Ecuador, as these monkeys are very adaptable, live in a wide range of habitats and have a varied diet including fruit, small animals, nuts, insects and leaves.
These monkeys are messy eaters, ripping up things and dropping them on the ground. As a result, they attract an entourage that will follow the troupe. Agoutis and white-nosed coatis will forage on the ground beneath, picking up dropped fruits and nuts while kites will perch in nearby trees ready to catch insects monkeys have dislodged.
White-faced capuchins are polygamous. The alpha male spends much of his time protecting the group from predators or rival males, giving him more mating opportunities than other males in the group.
The mother takes care of their babies, feeding, protecting and carrying them until they can care for themselves. Although the males have nothing to do with child rearing, they may help their young establish themselves in the social hierarchy once they are independent.
These monkeys can live up to 55 years in captivity: about half that in the wild due to disease, fighting and predation.
Being very social, these monkeys live in groups of about 18-20 containing both males and females. Females stay with the group they are born into while males leave when they are about four to establish a new group.
White-faced capuchins love to play and communicate with each other via vocalisations such as trills. They spend a lot of time socially bonding.
Alpha males taking over another alpha males territory will kill all the young monkeys in the group. For this reason, females in the group will support the existing alpha male. Some alpha males hold territories for up to 18 years.
These monkeys have a home range of about 80 hectares and defend their territories against other groups.
They are preyed on by big cats, snakes, caimans and harpy eagles.

About this video

This video is Part 6 of our Central American Adventure series which will also deal with the wildlife of the Panama tablelands and Costa Rica. Check out our other videos in the series:

Do you have questions or comments about this article? Email maddestinations@gmail.com or leave a comment under the video

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