Hello friends, family and those who are interested in our travels to Costa Rica. This first week of travel, exploration, and investigation has been a whirlwind. Arrival in San José was almost seamless with only a flight delay for Dr. Ribble and a missed flight by fellow student, Brian. So, 14 out of the 15 students were on the ground in Costa Rica for our first adventures. At the time of writing, Brian has now successfully joined the group.
The next afternoon our local flight to Golfito was delayed for four hours due to the unpredictability of the tropical weather. The little dingy plane is pictured below. Because of our flight being rerouted we were able to take several "ferries" (read: little speed boats) across the Gulfo Dulce to Puerto Jimenez. While on the water we saw our first glimpse of the awesome wildlife in Costa Rica, including bottle nose dolphins, stingrays and possibly otters (or driftwood, unclear). Finally, after taking a bus, two planes, 4-wheel drive cars, and the ferries we made it to our home for the next 4 days: the Greg Gund conservation center on the Osa Peninsula. The lodgings were ~rustic~ but the location was paradise.
Now the biology, and the sweating, could really begin. The forest near the station was something out of a story book, the ideal rainforest. Despite the rain, the wildlife was abundant; we saw all four types of monkeys (capuchins, spider, squirrel and howlers), turtles, frogs, birds, hawks and vultures, as well as some peccary tracks. For our rodent research project, we laid out 80 Sherman traps- 20 large and 60 small ones- across three separate pathways called transects. One transect was in the secondary forest (an area of regrowth after a clear cut for farming) and the other two transects were both in primary forests (areas which, in theory, have never been cut). The primary forest is much denser and taller with less of an understory because less light permeates through the canopy to the ground. This lack of ground cover also provides less protection for rodents, and so the traps set in the secondary forest showed more activity than the traps in the primary forest. In our time in the Osa we caught four mice, all females, but the torrential rain from the tropical storm paired with the novelty of the traps meant that our yield was low. Interestingly, the tail of one of the mice caught fell completely off as a defense mechanism (tail pictured below).
In addition to our Sherman traps, we placed four camera traps along the trails. While many of our recordings were videos of hairless bipedal mammals (us) trekking back and forth along the hiking paths, we managed to also sight a small variety of other mammals (not us) not found in our Sherman traps.
The ecology of the forest has also been a new environment for many of us to explore; beyond the animals that call the forest home we have also been spending time understanding how the trees, plants, vines, roots, ferns, fungi, and shrubs all interweave to create one of the most diverse landscapes on the planet. The Osa peninsula has 0.008% of the world's land, yet contains 2.5% of the worlds biodiversity- that incredible statistic meant that everywhere we turned there were new things to see and explore. The frequently sighted strangling vines ("matapalo" in Spanish, which translates to "tree killer") are epiphytes that grow down and eventually encase the host tree and kill it. Additionally, the walking palms, which look like a regular palm tree with the addition of tall root support system resembling a teepee, were abundant throughout the primary forest.
Beyond our biological work, life at the Greg Gund conservation center was filled with laughs, many short, cold showers due to our sweaty, smelly clothes, and great food (prepared with love by an even better cook). One tidbit of wisdom gained in our time: "A man without his belly is like the sky without its stars." We have definitely been living up to this mantra.
Stay tuned for our next update from La Ensenada!
Signing off- XOXO Gossip Girl (Claire and Chiara, shh the secrets out)
walking palm
Dribble with the ultimate accessory, a rat tail earring.
the plane (if that qualifies as such)
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