# Chaco-formosa - Argentina



## pato_chacoana

Hey, I would like to share some pictures of two trips to the Chaco and Formosa provinces in north Argentina.







A. chacoana oportunistic burrow.







A. chacoana.







A. chacoana habitat: Chaco subtropical forest with a dry season (winter). This habitat was the second largest forest of the american continent. The first one is the Amazonas forest. The Chaco forest is almost extinct these days.







E. campestratus burrow.







E. campestratus.







E. campestratus.







E. campestratus grassland habitat (not natural, but almost.)







A. chacoana adult female freshly molted.







My poor oldie Ford!







A. chacoana oportunistic burrow.







Cool frog.







Frog quest at night, we found a lot, the noise was incredible!







A. chacoana juve female about to molt.







A. chacoana oportunistic burrow, sealed with silk as she was eating a mouse!







Do you see the mouse's tale??? I couldn't believe my eyes...







Take a look at the shed skin and the burrow entrance.







Blaberus spp. The common roach in these lands.







Look at this working guy!







soo freshly molted chacoana.







another frog.







eating lunch..-







cool toad.







look these colors...







Death Moth!!!







Lagarto Obero.







Grassland E. campestratus habitat.







E. campestratus juv eating a cricket.







Tannin factory, destroying the forest for more than 100 years and still running. They chop the Quebracho, the biggest and oldest tree of the forest to produce this tannin. Some of these trees are 300 years old or more. Oh..we humans what the H%&/$! are we doing...!!!



















cigarra.







Pepsi wasp ''san jorge'' which parasites A. chacoana. Big scary things...













E. campestratus at night, waiting for prey outside the retreat.







Giant toad Buffo paragnemis.







communal spiders.







Mantis.







what a frog....







hundreds of them!







cabachui wasps, really dangerous to be arounds these little ones...







''ataja caminos'' nocturnal bird







Bermejo river. limit between Chaco and Formosa province.







''Bañado La Estrella'' Formosa. The second largest swamp of south america.













Look at the size!!







Amazonic parrot. It's practically extinct in the wild and I saw 3 of them. They have their nests in the tall Quebrachos, which are really few out there...







Well, I made the trip in summer!!! Many people called me crazy, but it was one of the best things I could ever done for a holiday. I sweat a little who cares! 







What a sunset.







We lived for a couple of days with the natives. The kids were playing with a a little croc (yacaré). Then they realised into the wild again.













A. chacoana entrance.







Where is she??







There she is...carrying a sac two.







A. chacoana habitat.







Pampa del Indio Park. This Quebracho Colorado (red) is 500 years old. the growth average rate is 80cm per 100 years. People tear it down in 30 minutes with a chain saw.







Quebracho Blanco (white) is the other one, which is bigger and more rare than the red one.







Weird roach, was the only one we saw.







Cigarra.







The lost paradise...


I hope you like the pics. It's a sample of the great diversity of the Chaco forest or Bosque Chaqueño as we call it over here. It's flora and fauna is in great danger and many species are gone extinct already. Once it was an gigantic paradise, now is almost gone and nobody seems to care... 

Pato.


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## Jason Vaughn

wow that is awesome I would love to go to south america one day, too bad they are destroying The Natural Habitat


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## AlanMM

Great pictures! Been once to Argintina, Foz D' Iguacu. Lot's of nice bugs...

Belgian nature sucks... We can go for cow spotting here...


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## T Frank

Awesome pictures! Thank you for sharing them with us.


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## verry_sweet

Super pictures!!! :clap:


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## Stefan2209

Hi there,

what´s that:







Looking interesting...  

Regards,

Stefan


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## syndicate

great photos!looks like you had a fun time.i love all the habitat shots


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## ahas

That must have been a great travel.


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## UrbanJungles

Great Pics!
You are a brave man to travel in that Ford!!!!!!!!!
:clap:


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## tarcan

Absolutly wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing them!


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## pato_chacoana

Thank's all for the nice comments.
I'm hoping to make another little trip this year, this time to the ''Yungas Jungle'' which is a unique jungle habitat in north-west Argentina in Salta and Jujuy provinces. Local provinces are great to make a road trip.
Yes, my Ford always stands by me! She's 20 years old... The last trip I drove over 3500 km. in 9 days and she is still brand new  The dirt we carried was heavy though  

Pato.


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## Hamburglar

Fantastic..  great to see all of those critters in the wild...


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## gunslinger

Im with Stefan, I want more pics and info on the unmentioned spider!


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## reptist

*Thanks!!*

Great pix man, You are a lucky man and I wish you the best in your travels, 2 of my fav. T's, those fresh chacoana are sweet, sweet, sweet, Did I mention those are great PIX? keep em' comming,  PEACE, B.


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## seanbond

congrats on capturing great moments!


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## pato_chacoana

Thank's!  A. chacoana is one of my favorites too    I have more pictures, I'll keep posting some!
About that unknown spider, I don't know what it was, it has a ''lycosidae aspect'' and had a cool retreat and web on that tree.

Pato


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## ftorres

Hola PAto,
Muchas gracias por compartir esos momentos con nosotros, me encanta tu carro. Las fotos estan fantasticas, eso escarabajo esta de buen tamano, al igual que la mantis tienes mas fotos de mantis y escarabajos?

Que lastima que estemos destrullendo nuestras riquesas naturales.

Keep the pictures comming.

thanks
francisco.


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## pato_chacoana

Gracias Francisco. El escarabajo y mantis son esos los que encontré además también pude ver el escarabajo pelotero.
Deberíamos proteger aunque sea lo que queda de la riqueza natural, pero parece que producir más soja importa más por acá...en definitiva, la gente quiere dinero rápido y poco les importa la fauna y flora silvestre.
La raza humana lamentablemente es un parásito del planeta, que no se va a detener nunca, abusando, destruyendo y utilizando siempre en forma egoísta a el resto de los seres vivientes y no vivientes... 
Nuestro castigo más grande es ser consientes de esto mismo.

Un abrazo grande, seguiré subiendo algunas fotos.

Pato.


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## eman

Wow!  Muy bien hecho. Gracias por compartir las fotos y los detalles... 

Saludos, 

Emmanuel


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## pato_chacoana

Muchas gracias!

Pato.


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## pinkzebra

Awesome, just AWESOME photos! Thanks so much for sharing!!


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## pinktoe23

Wow, tremendas fotos Pato! Gracias por compartirlas con nosotros  



pato_chacoana said:


> My poor oldie Ford!
> 
> Haha no te creas, ahi tienes una valiosa reliquia!
> 
> Quizas lo bueno es que con el tiempo los carros bien antiguos van cobrando mayor valor para coleccionistas de carros, asi que si algun dia decides venderselo a uno seguro que te dan un buen precio por el! :}


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## whazzup101

woww, this was really great.
this makes me want to get another T so bad hahaha and do some traveling to somewhere in South America myself.


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## pato_chacoana

Yeahh, I love field trips. Thank's pinkzebra and pinktoe I'm glad you like the photos. My car isn't worth much but yes it's in great shape! It's old but it makes me able to do what I love the most, look for tarantulas in the wild. Here new cars are very expensive and to make a trip like these I'll probably need like a Land Rover or a big expensive truck! My '87 is still running and hopefully will last for a couple more trips  !

Saludos!

Pato.


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## pato_chacoana

Some more pics:







Dawn in Chaco.







Road in Formosa to Bañado La Estrella.







Getting to Bañado La Estrella.







Bañado La Estrella, Formosa.







Not a good place to broke down the car or run out of gas!!  







Habitat of A. chacoana in Chaco. More habitat pics coming...













Chopped Quebracho Colorado.







Big old tree in the forest.







I guess there used to be water there...it's been a few years now since there is a dry cicle going on...causing a lot of damage in the flora and fauna.











































E. campestratus adult female in grassland. There seem to be two slightly different color forms. This one I think it's the darker form.







This one seems to be de light form...

Hope you like those.

Pato.


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## M.F.Bagaturov

Прикольные вы парниши, однако (с)
So. Pato, is that You???
Not sure... if that would be You, we would see a lot of fisehry pictures 

BTW. Tarantulas are nice indeed too!  thanks for sharing!
i believe I will send sone russian guy this year to You and Juan Andres for some fishing (it's not joke, btw) 

Post other pics please. I would like to see some reptiles too!!!
Una lagardo para me?


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## pato_chacoana

Yes, that's me   I regret we didn't fish!  But there wasn't much time either. We also had to go back from there to find a place to camp. A place with solid ground  I mean   We stayed near there where it was more forest like. This place was really amazing.
So you have friends coming here? that's cool! But you should come to visit Argentina some time!  
Not much reptiles pics unfortunately  

Pato.


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## M.F.Bagaturov

I'm sure have to visit Argentina to see You and maybe Claudio also, but definately my old good fellow Juan Andres 
And I hope fotr it one day... but definately not a couple of the followings.... ;(


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## amplexus

Wow!

Fantastic pictures and it looks like you had a very successfull trip !

I´ve been wanting to go to Chaco for quite some time now. Now I´m dying to go. Looks like a trip is def on the cards next summer.

Thanks for sharing those pics

Kev


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## pato_chacoana

Thanks. If you go there in summer , you better like heat!   Although you kinda forget about it with such great places...
Wait, are you talking about northern hemisphere summer?


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## amplexus

hahahaha

No. I´m living in Argentina too now. I mean Argie summer. I´m not that bothered about the heat. Spending a long time in Manaus sure got me used to heat.

Kev


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## pato_chacoana

Ha! I like heat too. So many places to go look for tarantulas and cool wildlife! There's never enough time.....


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## pato_chacoana

Some more pics, these ones taken by my partner Emmanuel.

I could hardly see the road, so many bugs!  







Blaberus giving a warm welcome:






Typical Humid Chaco habitat






Social spiders  






The road is beautiful












Closer to Dry Chaco Region






Bañado La Estrella






More Habitat shots












Pato.


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## M.F.Bagaturov

Buenos Patricio!

Nice haitats shots but there're their inhabitants?
What blaberus species it is (B. craniifer)?


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## DrAce

Cool photos Pato!


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## Anastasia

Awesome! I would love to visit this tarantula paradise!
Thank you Pato for sharing, Awesome pictures!


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## calum

that's awsome man! I would kill to go too a place like that. were there hundreds of those E. campestratus?


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## pato_chacoana

Thank's all! Both field trips to Chaco Region were really cool. I can't wait to go back again I'm in love with Chaco hehe

The Blaberus roaches I'm not sure which sp. they are, but I brought back home a few from the first trip two years ago and they are breeding since. Although they don't breed as much as my Blaptica dubia colonies. Lately I changed the Blaberus setup and they seem to be doing better. They are more moisture dependent, so I put peat moss and big bark chips so they can hide. They also seem to need more vegies than other roaches.

About E. campestratus, well, it's not like they are everywhere. You have to be lucky to find a colony. Maybe you look and look and you can't find any and they are like only 2 km away, but you just missed it. Both colonies were  associated with human activity, a country school, camping place. I guess they benefit (as long as people don't disturb them much) because they have more access to water and food (the lights attracts a lot of bugs) We found two colonies in different places. One was very well populated and breeding very well, as some females were with sacs. Unfortunately, when I made the second trip, a year later, the numbers of spiders was much less. I don't know the causes of this, but the good news is that they are still breeding, as we found empty eggsacs outside burrows. The other colony, was a little more populated. I guess kids in school don't bother them too much hehe.

Will post more pics later!

best regards,

Pato.


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## pato_chacoana

*More pics*

E. campestratus also giving a warm welcome in our first night.







The red circle points an empty ootecae:







A. chacoana













Some more cool bugs



















termites






molt






cactus






mushroom







Best regards,
Pato


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## pato_chacoana

Anastasia said:


> Awesome! I would love to visit this tarantula paradise!
> Thank you Pato for sharing, Awesome pictures!


Thank you Ana! I would love to take you there if you come to my country


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## c'est ma

Oh, man, what a paradise!  Pato, thanks so much for the wonderful travelogue.  Seeing all that beautiful _A. chacoana _habitat makes me feel a little guilty for keeping mine in such limited circumstances... 

Every site looks fascinating but I'm esp. taken with the Bañado la Estrella.  Like a fantastic forest of natural topiary...

The epiphytic cactus is pretty cool as well; so are all those frogs...

How come the only shots that no longer show up are of the famous car?  

Is Argentina working on any eco-tourist ventures?  Also, what family are the quebrado trees in?  Wait--guess I can google that!  

You sure got some fantastic shots of those T's!

Thanks so much for sharing...Can't wait for your next report.  

--Diane


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## pato_chacoana

Thank's Diane! I'm glad you like it. Chaco Region is really amazing, and very few people appreciate it. Eco-tourism in Argentina is fairly popular, as it has several protected areas comparing with other south american countries. Argentina was the second country in the world to create a National Park, and these days has  National Parks in almost every Eco-Region. Although the parks should be bigger and there should be more of them. It's a fight against farming and very corrupted goverments...

About Bañado La Estrella, well it's a very special place! I was amazed too when we got there. Never seen anything like it. That place use to be a forest, and a big flood happened about 20 years ago, from Pilcomayo river (limit between Paraguay and Argentina). The trees died and have those plants all over and a big swamp was born, very big. It's full of wildlife and this swamp then connects with unflooded forest, creating a unique rich environment, where it's likely that endangered animals such as Jaguar are still roaming.

Quebracho Colorado trees are what defines the Chaco Region. There are 3 species I believe in the genus _Schinopsis_. The Quebracho Blanco belongs to another kind of tree which doesn't relate much but it's also a very tall tree with an extremly hard wood, the genus is _Apidosperma_

Well this year I got a new decent camera, and hopefully will make another field trip and post many pictures!

Best regards,

Pato-


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## c'est ma

pato_chacoana said:


> Thank's Diane! I'm glad you like it. Chaco Region is really amazing, and very few people appreciate it. Eco-tourism in Argentina is fairly popular, as it has several protected areas comparing with other south american countries. Argentina was the second country in the world to create a National Park, and these days has  National Parks in almost every Eco-Region. Although the parks should be bigger and there should be more of them. It's a fight against farming and very corrupted goverments...


Pretty universal problems, sounds like.

Hope I get to be an Argentinian eco-tourist some day!  



> About Bañado La Estrella, well it's a very special place! I was amazed too when we got there. Never seen anything like it. That place use to be a forest, and a big flood happened about 20 years ago, from Pilcomayo river (limit between Paraguay and Argentina). The trees died and have those plants all over and a big swamp was born, very big. It's full of wildlife and this swamp then connects with unflooded forest, creating a unique rich environment, where it's likely that endangered animals such as Jaguar are still roaming.


Really, really amazingly cool!  



> Quebracho Colorado trees are what defines the Chaco Region. There are 3 species I believe in the genus _Schinopsis_. The Quebracho Blanco belongs to another kind of tree which doesn't relate much but it's also a very tall tree with an extremly hard wood, the genus is _Apidosperma_


Having once been a botanist of sorts, I had to look those up.  As you no doubt know, those two genera are in different families! Gotta love common names-- 

(Actually, it IS a pretty cool common name...I also learned this: "Their common name is quebracho, from Spanish quiebra-hacha, "axe-breaker", a recognition to the hardness of their wood. ")

If there are any other plant wonks on here, here are links about the two families:

Apocyanaceae (_Apidosperma_)

http://www.sju.edu/biology/ksweb/plantax/PlantTour/tsld025.htm

Including...ahem...this note of interest: 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=ddb071dc847ebd60dbce5fc15687dfa2 


Anacardiaceae (_Schinopsis_)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacardiaceae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schinopsis 

"Schinopsis is the exclusive food plant of the moth _Coleophora haywardi_."  (Pretty dull little guy...)


Guess you can tell, I like to travel vicariously!  

Thanks, Pato.  Looking forward to your next adventure!


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## pato_chacoana

Thank's Diane, I can't wait for next trip ! I was going to be out in October, but I still couldn't go anywhere yet! But the weather is getting perfect for tarantula seeking  

Pato-


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## dtknow

Wow amazing! Besides that mouse(?!!)...have you observed what else the tarantulas are consuming in the wild? Any reports of slings? I'm guessing the slings start their own little burrows and barring unfortunate circumstances remain in the same burrow for life.


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## pato_chacoana

They consume everything that walks near their burrow and they can catch basically. There's quite a variety of insects in this region, so crickets, roaches, coleoptera sp. and such are plentiful. Also small verts such as frogs, lizards and mouses are common. A hungry tarantula would eat anything, I fed wild tarantulas while I was there, it's fun hehe.

Pato-


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## gulogulo82

Great pics!!!

I read another one of your posts on a different forum and you said you have yet to come across G. aureostriata in the wild, but i was wondering if any of those photo's or other species would be similar to where or how a G. a. would live in the wild. I would like to set up a proper natural terrarium for mine when it's grown.


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## pato_chacoana

Thank you! Well, yes... G. aureostriata is also from the Chaco Region, so it's supposed to be from this same habitat  If some day I happen to find one I will post pics for sure!  

Best regards,
Pato-


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## Ehhpic

I'm sorry I missed the pics- photobucket doesn't show them any more  can you repost?


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