The Panama Canal...

The Canopy Tower would be our base to explore the Panama Canal and surrounding area, a richly diverse region on the edge of Soberania National Park.  The Canal itself is an amazing construction and we were privileged to have special access to the canal-side at Miraflores Locks, an area not open to the public.

Unfortunately this was the one place I wasn't allowed to film with the drone. The risk from terrorism to this vital artery connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, is so real that nobody is allowed to fly in the Canal Zone. Perfectly understandable as the canal is the 'World's Greatest Shortcut', saving an 6,500 km journey around Cape Horn. It's also extremely important to the Panamanian economy bringing in millions of dollars each year in transit fees.

The locks at Miraflores

Miraflores Locks are just one of six locks on the Canal and they are constantly busy, usually with a queue of ships waiting their turn to transit.

Our visit had been timed to coincide with a large
cruise ship transit...and there it is!

Tight fit!

Mike capturing all the action

There's very little room for error when going through the lock. This ship had about 3 ft of space on either side to spare!  The small rack-and-pinion locomotive engines on either side of the ship known as mules, help guide the massive boat through the lock to the canal beyond.

A 'mule' towing the cruise ship through the lock.

The Canal is also home to plenty of animals. Because the Panama Canal is so important to the economy, it's watershed is a protected area, which is great for the many species that reply on it.

Overhead Royal Terns, Magnificent Frigatebirds and Laughing Gulls catch my attention while closer to the water there are magnificent reptiles too.

American Crocodiles are relatively common along the length of the canal and are the most widespread species of croc in the Americas ranging from southern Florida and Mexico south as far as Venezuela and Peru. They are big too, growing up to nearly 14 ft they can be very dangerous animals.

A large Central American Croc, Crocodylas acutus rests
on the side of the Canal

Gray-breasted Martins are by far the most common species of Progne in Panama (and much of Central and South America). They are hefty birds, not unlike Purple Martin...just not as pretty.

Gray-breasted Martins - the 'default' hirundine in Panama.

Laughing Gull, second winter - adults have all white-tipped primaries

Magnificent Frigatebird, immature female.

Two-fingered Sloth is larger than its three-fingered cousin and although they vary a little bit in colour, they are normally this lovely chocolate brown, including their eyes. Because they spend their life hanging in the trees their fur grows in the opposite direction to other mammals - from the belly down, so that rain sheds easily off their coat.

Hoffman's Two-fingered Sloth

On the way back to the dock we passed this enormous floating crane called 'Titan'. It is famous in it's own right (it has a page in Wikipedia), having been built in Germany during the Second World War to manoeuvre U-boats. From Germany it travelled to Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California before coming to serve on the Panama Canal in 1996.

Titan aka 'Herman the German'

We got back to the Tower at sunset, grabbed a quick bite to eat and set out again. That night we were filming with a group of bat researchers from the Smithsonian Institute and we were in for a treat. First up was this amazing Trichops cirrhosus or Fring-lipped Bat. They have appeared a few times on documentaries as they specialise in catching frogs! Theses amazing bats pick out their prey by their call - they can even discriminate between poisonous and non-poisonous species.  Remarkably this is only the second one ever caught here by the team, one of 70 species found within the canal basin.

Trachops cirrhosus

Next, a Common Moustached Bat, Pteronotus parnellii ... These are insectivorous eating mostly beetles.

Common Moustached Bat, Pteronotus parnellii

Not to be left out a Jamaican Fruit Bat, Artebius jamaicensis is released by Amanda, one of the researchers, and immediately returns to settle on her head! They are found throughout the neotropics and into South America and have a fondness for figs.

Jamaican Fruit Bat, Artebius jamaicensis

The following day we would be leaving the Canopy Tower to film wildlife in and around Panama City.