Field Research Update: Wrapping Up!

It's been a busy week since I last posted a fieldwork update! Unfortunately, my camera conked out a while before that, so my illustrative ability will be lower than usual. Fortunately, persistent emails to NIKON finally convinced someone to reassure me that my warrantee will probably cover whatever has happened to it, even if I can't ship it till a few days after the warrantee expires. Probably.

Despite being outside of the U.S., I had a fantastic Thanksgiving at La Selva Biological Station. We had a long field day there, with a 1.5 hour hiking commute and a lot of rain and mud. It rained most of the day while we were out, so when we returned the next day a lot of the lowland trails were flooded. We found an eel swimming down one of our trails the next day! After the long day and a bit of rest, we were treated to a truly fantastic Costa Rican hybrid Thanksgiving feast. About 40 people were in attendance, and there were tables and tables laden with side dishes and desserts. My favorite was a turkey carved out of pineapple! We drank ginger chicha and I my entree was a tomato baked with basil, spinach, and cheese. Short of being with family, it was the best Thanksgiving I could hope for.

La Selva was a great place to look for animals; notable sightings include two Leptophis nebulosis (Oliver's parrotsnake) and a Bothriechis schlegelii (eyelash viper). Very cool! Also saw some unidentifiable bats and a lot of glass frogs.

Bothriechis schlegelii

The following week was the last one available for fieldwork, and we tried to squeeze in as much as possible. At one sight, we had a ball of a time hopping down an almost-too-large river using boulders. Low sightings there due to rain, but I did see my first wild Thecadactylus rapicauda (turnip-tailed gecko)!

Thecadactylus rapicauda

Our last site of the season here, we did a double: day and night surveys in the same day. The stream transects were absolute slogs; we split to either side of the river and I spent too much of the searching time whacking at grass and brambles taller than myself, trying to follow the riparian corridor. We finished early enough to head back to town for a special pizza dinner before heading back out in slightly-damp field clothes for our night surveys. I had good luck catching anoles by hand, something I've been working on the whole trip. It's really, really helpful to do it at night, when they are slowed by sleep and cold! Land transects in the pasture were unsurprisingly unfruitful, but we were on a big beautiful piece of land and had a small audience of horses and (friendly!) cows for a lot of our ramblings.

It was a great field season: I learned a lot about herpetofauna sampling techniques and systematics, Costa Rica flora and fauna, swamp locomotion, dissertation structure, and lots more!

Bucket List: See Sloths

It might not be a good bucket list entry if I've already seen one (does a distant blur in the jungle room of Montreal's amazing Biodome count?), but I am in love with sloths. Like, not so far from Kristen Bell-level in love with sloths:

Well, I'm within a day's travel of this sanctuary. I'm always going to be a little dubious about tourism-oriented "rehab" operations, but if the background research checks out and this is a legitimate rescue and education operation, I am sooooooo interested in going:

Bullet Ant Inspired Experiments at La Selva Biological Station (Video)

Check out this video about a bullet ant experiment performed right at our very own La Selva Biological Station. La Selva, run by the Organization for Tropical Studies, is the home of many of our research sites.

The video has some cool shots of bullet ants, the old growth and late-stage secondary forests we are working in for the herp project, and offers a cool example of what visiting graduate students might do in a visiting course with OTS.

If you're interested in the liquid/solid protein confusion on the part of the bullet ants, here is the publication referenced in the video. InsideScience.org did an explanatory piece that's not behind a paywall.

Stung by a Bullet Ant! All About 'Paraponera clavata' And Why They Are Scary

Well, it was likely to happen. If most of my work here is bushwhacking through the jungle, brushing up against trees and walking slowly and poking around with a stick, I was bound to tick something off. And tick it off I did!

The sting of the bullet ant, Paraponera clavata, is rated as the most painful hymenopterid sting on the planet (more than a factor of 10 more painful than your average wasp sting, according to the Schmidt sting pain index. It contains a neurotoxic peptide named for the genus, poneratoxin, which blocks the voltage-gated sodium ion channels in the muscle and causes slow and extremely painful slow muscle contractions.

I must either have gotten a glancing or light sting (or stung by a sister species?), because what I experienced was not incapacitating; it peaked at an 8/10 on the pain scale. The pain lasted a little over 2 hours, subsided for about an hour, and returned again in a very painful way for about 90 minutes. The surge-and-subside pattern of pain persisted into the night, but didn't interrupt my sleep. The sting site was numb and inflamed on the day, and twinged throughout the next day. I still have a mental twinge response whenever I see a bullet ant crawling around!

And crawl around they do. They generally nest at the base of large trees (the riskiest place to tick them off), but they forage far and wide, including into places that seem like they should be safe (near other ant nests, swamps, streams, bare earth, etc).

These guys are pretty cool, and I'm definitely researching them a bit more on the side. Here's a short video that I took of one doing something with some kind of nematode:

Harvesting the nematode? Being parasitized by nematode? I need better footage and a parasitic entomologist, please!

Additional videos of the infamous bullet ant glove ritual:

Field Research in a Field: Very Unfriendly Cows, Many Glass Frogs, and a Nice Dog

We recently completed a set of pastures sites attached to an idyllic set of casitas. Arriving on a Sunday, we found a large extended family or two relaxing-- kids in the river, senoritas to abuelitas in the shade of the porch. They were mildly interested in the gringas wanting to look for frogs on a sunny weekend, but not at all taken aback; this land had been used for other studies by scientists before us. After a very steep climb up the hill, we were greeted by fantastic views of just-as-steep neighboring hills to distant mountains half-obscured by clouds. The sun beat down as we headed off in search of our three land and three stream transect sites. Selecting the land sites is pretty easy; we pre-select some well-spaced tree or patch and a random angle to start from and go. We are usually more limited on stream availability; this site didn't have too many, so we spent a lot of time walking around the hills trying to find some streams of consistent size.

Our plans were severely complicated by a few groups of cattle that were, shall we say, not thrilled to see people creeping through their home. Our first interaction with the cattle involved an unyielding bull-- we skirted him and his herd and went on our way, hugging the fence. Later in our expedition, we descended into a valley bounded by a large river. Cattle faces poked over the ridge. The cows and calves jostled each other for a view, the bull guarding them started getting pissy and making some very deliberate eye contact and incremental movements towards us. Then, the herd started meandering in our direction, despite our hoots and hollers. I broke out my garbage bag, waved my stick, made threatening yells and "you're in trouble" sounds that would stop any horse in its tracks. But these cows, they did not care. They approached. The bull glared some more. He swung his head and stomped his hooves. After some hasty deliberations and calculated risk assessment (skirt around the herd to unknown pastures on the other side of the hill?), we retreated into the river and crept along its banks to a cow-free pasture. From then on, we didn't stray far from fences or thick vegetation in case of marauding cattle.

It was a fairly fruitless day; we had started transects later in the day than usual, didn't find much (as expected in day surveys of pasture), and didn't get all of our transects set up due to cow interference. We returned in midafternoon the next day to finish our day transects before dusk and night surveys. We were immediately befriended by two pups, one of whom latched onto us and kept us company the whole time! He was a little guy, white with polka-dotted ears, and looked like the product of an italian greyhound and a jack russel, but with a curly tail. We ate our dinner on a cow-free ridge, and he stole our apple cores and probably scared some frogs away. Something to incorporate into the model! (Every time something changes or goes wrong, I joke that it needs to be incorporated into the model. Models are without limits! Infinite variables means it's accurate, right?)

We had a good night, spotting three species of glass frogs, an unidentified snake, a juvenile Rana warszewitschii, a giant fishing spider, and a marmosa (mouse opposum) that was missing most of a tail! A small swampy area on the side of a hill proved to hold not only tons of frogs but a large population of fish. I wonder how they survive the dry season-- mud burrowing?

"Lithobates warszewitschii" by Brian Gratwicke - Flickr: Lithobates warszewitschii. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Neighbors Across the Road: Foals, Cattle, and... a Water Buffalo?

I much prefer to "live like a local" when traveling, as much as is possible while remaining a transient field biologist! A lot of researchers stay at research stations or in communal housing, but for a longer-term project it can be much cheaper to rent a local house-- luckily this is just such an arrangement. The house is a 5-minute drive from a small town and a 15-minute drive from a large town, and with all the tourists seeming to remain exclusively in the handful of ecolodges nearby, I am getting a sample of the real Pura Vida. Our bumpy dirt road is frequented by cars, buses, enormous trucks, tour buses to be parked at the drivers' houses for the night, dirtbikes, people on horseback, wheelbarrows, and bicyclists and pedestrians. Just on the other side of that road:

Yes, that's a water buffalo. From behind it looks not at all dissimilar from a rhino in size and color. No, I have no idea why there's a water buffalo.

The Research Week in Photos: Coral Snake, Glass Frogs, and Tadpoles in Trees

When out bushwacking in the forest, you have to be careful of vines, thorns, and creepy-crawlies that don't appreciate your intrusions. Here's an ant with cool mandibles that remind me of a hammerhead shark:

A handsome tarantula (gearing up for a fight with a contender a few feet away, actually!). The measurements are from my new best friend: a PVC pipe that serves multiple roles as yardstick for stream- and perch-height measurements, hiking stick, and poking-in-search-of-hidden-animals.

Here is a net-casting spider, which uses web strung between its front legs to ambush prey from above:

We crossed paths with a very graceful, shy coral snake the other day. Gorgeous! Went streaking off into the woods as soon as we noticed each other.

I had the opportunity to check out some glass frogs, too! They are so cool: transparent skin, green bones, semi-visible internal organs.

They lay their eggs on the undersides of leaves that hang over water. Once the tadpoles outgrow their eggs, they fall into the stream below. Check out these unhatched tadpoles:

This is a Norops humilis, a ground anole we catch pretty often. To get their SVL (snout-to-vent length) and some good body-proportion photos, we momentarily press them up against a plastic tray and take a few photos.

A lot of my desk work is using a program called ImageJ to calibrate the scale in this photo to measure the different body proportions of some focal species. When the study is complete, it should yield some interesting data on how the morphology of these species changes over time based on habitat and location.

Environmental Outreach, Our Coffee Snake, & The Squirrel Cuckoo and Other Fancy Birds

Last week, we participated in a big environmental festival at La Selva Biological Station. I made the acquaintance of a bunch of researchers and spent most of the day sitting at our booth, showing young people a handful of frogs, tortoises, lizards, and a very tolerant red coffee snake (Ninia sebae). Here's the little guy getting a drink of water before we released him back home:

It was a great chance to brush up on my Spanish and herp-related vocabulary.
"No, no, este culebra no es venemosa."
"Pueden ver las ranas en esos picturas? Hay uno en cada pictura, pero las tienen mucho camuflaje y estan muy dificil a encontrar."
"Esto es una rana arbórea de ojos rojos."
Repeat ad nauseam, answer questions.

But really. there were thousands of people there, most of them school-aged children with their families. It was great to see such big turnout, and it gave me a good feeling to see a community so interested in their wildlife and local environment.

There was also traditional dancing and bouncy castles, so that was a nice entertainment bonus for everyone in attendance:

We shared an area with a couple of bat researchers, who had a great little setup showing how mist-nets are used. We chatted about techniques and I got to scope out their central american bat books. So many phyllostomids here!

I went on a couple of walks throughout the day.

My first walk, I was lucky enough to befriend a friendly birder on an ecotourism / naturewatching vacation, and he very helpfully told me the names of all the exceptionally fancy birds we saw. I hadn't brought my camera, so I'll have to use wikimedia to illustrate how cool they were. Here are some birds we saw:

The Rufous Motmot:

 
Broad-billed Motmot:

Rufous-tailed Jacamar:

Squirrel Cuckoo:



Collared Araçari:

On a later expedition, I saw a bunch of identified parrots and had a close encounter with an indifferent peccary:

 

Today's Photos from the Field: Howler Monkeys, Intense Cable Bridge, and Being In Streams

The workday began with an intense experience with a wobbly (but seemingly reliable) bridge.

We use the PVC poles to measure stream depth, but mostly to stay upright while wading through jungle mud. The measuring tape is used to determine the boundaries of our transect.

We saw a troop of howler monkeys hanging around on our way home! This is the mom of a super-cute but hard-to-capture infant.

Pretty plants by the road

Morning Commute / Do Something Every Day That Scares You

Night Survey Numero Uno: Toxic Frog, Jesus Lizard, and a KINKAJOU!

We had an enormously productive and enjoyable night survey the night before last. Besides sinking into several patches of swamp and inhaling dozens of unfortunate but at-fault bugs, we saw and captured a good variety of animals, especially for a pasture site.

Some photos:

Leptodactylus savigii, the South American Bullfrog, which exudes a toxic mucous when disturbed that can cause bystanders to cough and tear up. Toxic to other frogs. Note the red eyeshine.

Basilicus plumifrons, one of the Basilisk lizards known as "Jesus lizards" for their ability to run across the surface of water.

Smilisca baudinii, the common mexican tree frog, is darn photogenic.

Ninia sebae, the red coffee snake. We temporarily absconded with this mellow fellow to use as an educational animal for a scientific outreach fair the next day.

One of several unidentifiable frog metamorphs-- part way between tadpole and frog.

I also saw a bunch of medium-small insectivorous bats, and, oh yeah...

A KINKAJOU!!!!

It's been a bucketlist species to see one in the wild, up there with other tropical species like the three-toed sloth. This guy was in an enormous tree in one of our pasture sites, moving around noisily and checking us out as thoroughly as we were him. His eyeshine was almost as noticeable as the racket he was making. We weren't sure at the time (Olingos are pretty similar), but I ID'ed it later by its prehensile tail, visibly lighter belly. and general scampering around. It was too high up and obscured by branches and darkness for any great photography (besides which, I was pretty occupied with staring at the kinkajou!), but here is a video of a kinkajou doing kinkajou things:

First Day: Strawberry Frogs, Sinking Boots, and a Lovely Sharp-Clawed Turtle

Today was my first day of fieldwork on this project, and it was a fun one! The purpose of this project is to examine how herpatafauna community composition varies by forest age, so we will be comparing the herps we find in primary forests, secondary forests, and grazed fields. We will be doing day and nighttime surveys on alternating days to find species that are active at different times, and looking on land and along streambanks. At each site, we will be performing transects: stretching  a cord out to 50m, and counting everything on 1m out on each side.

We started with a field site in the daytime today, which meant that a small herd of nervous steer eyed us very cautiously whenever we passed by.

We started with two stream sites, into which Michelle bravely waded up to her waist to drag the transect line. I found a small anole and also a strawberry poison-dart frog, which are a focal species of this study (meaning that we try extra hard to catch and measure them). We found a few more of these guys throughout the day and they are quickly becoming a favorite of mine: not only are they gorgeous, but they are way easier to spot than most sneaky brown species.

Oophaga (Dendrobates) pumilio. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons 

We waded through our last stream site like a couple of sinking gondoliers, clinging to our measurement poles and using them to keep afloat. We also found a very lovely turtle!

Day 1 -- Preparations

Thank you, thank you, thank you universe for the access to high-speed internet. There may be gecko poop on the floor and a squeaky belt on the field vehicle, but academic research (and staying connected to home) are made so much easier by reliable internet access. We're still waiting on a wireless LAN in the house, but an ethernet cable to the router is getting the job done just fine thus far. Here's why I'm so happy about that: This morning I was able to have a skype interview! After all my worries about meeting with a potential graduate advisor, it went well and we had a better connection that I normally get at home.

After my video call, Michelle and I headed to town to gather some field supplies and run a few errands. I purchased some tall rubber boots (footwear with built-in snakebite protection) and failed to find an umbrella. I spent the next few hours marking out the centimeters on our PVC vegetation-measuring poles and getting to know our acoustic monitoring equipment.

Tomorrow is our first day of fieldwork, which I hear will be a pasture site with some very swampy bits and some stream surveys. I'll follow up more on the process once I get into the swing of things!

Getting There

My trip to CR was a bit of an adventure: I had two flights with an overnight layover in between. On my first flight, I was blessed with the company of Jerry (?), a rather inebriated Brazilian truck driver from Taunton. We chatted for most of the flight before he submitted to a hangover before landing. I also befriended a girl from Boston on her way to CR to spend her vacation volunteering with Sea Turtles, and a nice retired guy in the process of moving to CR. Thanks to some research (shoutout to sleepinginairports.com), I knew that the Orlando airport was not a bad place to crash; after all, I would have to be up and about less than five hours later. I found a nice padded bench in the food court (which was full of people with similar intentions) and zonked out for the night. On my second flight, I sat between some professional cyclists on their way home from a meet and a group of Orlandeans ready to party in Costa Rica. I took a taxi to the bus terminal I needed (I decided to spend a little extra to avoid an afternoon of bus terminal roulette with luggage), hopped on one two minutes to departure, and was on my way to Puerto Viejo! I was a little paranoid about not ending up in Puerto Viejo de Limon (where the tourists go) and instead making my way to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, especially after the ticket clerk acted dubious and triple-checked that I knew where I wanted to go. However, I had boarded the right bus, and was met shortly after my arrival by Michelle, my new boss.

I recieved a driving tour of the surrounding towns as we made our way to the house. It's a very cute little two-bedroom cottage, with tile floors and a papaya tree outside. There is a mare with a young foal just beyond our backyard fence, and I am entirely enamored with them. I unpacked, spent most of the afternoon dozing and studying up the project, had a beer with a researcher friend of Michelle's, and went to bed early.

Alive and at My New Base Costa Rica

Title says it. It's lovely here. Time for rest now, more updates to come.

New Adventure on the Horizon

Hello all! It's been awhile since I last updated my poor travel log (which I admittedly neglected a bit during my last project). I'll make an effort to update with  my best photos-- sorting through them all and backing up my favorites has been a very time-consuming task!

My next project is working with herps, a term I'm already informed makes laypersons think of "herpes simplex" before "herpetile" or "herpetofauna." Same greek root, you guys!

Greek: ἑρπετόν, hereton, "creeping animal" [Wikipedia]

Most of my fieldwork thus far has focused on mammals and the herbaceous matrix we find them in, so this will be quite the treat to play with a new taxon! I grew up catching leopard frogs and shuttling garter snakes off the road, so I'll be tapping back into adolescent herp-hunting mode.

And most excitingly, this project is in...

Costa Rica!

Woohoo! This project is a great fit, considering my goals to conduct international fieldwork, work with many taxa, and progress with my passable Spanish skills.

I will be flying out next week (still need to pack and sort out a multitude of details!), and will be back by Christmas. I'm spending this week catching up with friends and family, reformatting and repairing my long-suffering travel netbook, sewing up the holes in my bags, cleaning the family homes, and finalizing my packing list. More updates to come!