Howling howler monkeys
Tikal, Guatemala
For an animal the size of a small dog and weighing about 7kg, the howler monkey is incredibly noisy. Its guttural roar (in truth, it’s nothing like a howl) is said to be one of the loudest of any terrestrial animal on Earth, and a group of monkeys in concert can be heard up to 5km away. There are 15 different species, and many are of them are not rare, so you don’t have to go to the remote Mayan ruins of Tikal to find one – in this case, the Yucatán or Guatemalan black howler monkey. But the extraordinary location, with its unique stone temples towering above the surrounding rainforest, make this an extra special place to hear the monkey’s roar. To get the best effect, you’ll need to be here either early in the morning or as the sun is going down, for that’s when the monkeys are most vocal.