1 Week, 3 Sites, and the Elusive Singing Mouse

      We trapped in new locations this week while staying at the La Calandria field station.  These were exciting new transects because we were finally trapping in Scotinomys (singing mouse) habitat.  Scotinomys is a genus of rodent that includes one of Dr. Ribble's previously studied subject species, which greatly increases the 'cool' factor of these animals.  A trait that inherently makes these small, dark colored, diurnal rodents interesting is that they produce a high-pitched song whose purpose is not yet fully studied.  With optimistic spirits of potentially trapping one of these elusive mice, we set up transects around the Monteverde Biological Station, Crandell, Nacimiento y Vida, and Finca Rodriguez and our adventures are chronicled below.

June 11- 

        The morning started out slow because we were allowed to "sleep in" until breakfast, which was served at 7 A.M. (CST).  After breakfast, we set up new transects in the Monteverde Biological Station and Crandell.  We set three transects in each location and each transect had 20 small folding sherman traps and 5 big folding sherman traps.  Ten trap stations make up a single transect and each station is made up of two small sherman traps and every other station has a big sherman trap.  Every odd-numbered small sherman trap was assigned oats and peanut butter as bait and every even-numbered small sherman trap was assigned sunflower seeds and grains as bait.  This assignment of baits allows us to see if there are any patterns of bait preference among rodent species that we trap.  The large sherman traps are baited with both types of bait in order to trap as many rodents as possible regardless of bait preference.  

        Monteverde Biological Station had the more treacherous trails between the two locations as a result of Hurricane Nate.  The trails along a small creek where we trapped had been washed out and all the vegetation along the banks had been torn away by the storm.  Dr. Ribble had trapped in this area for his singing mouse study and was amazed by the destruction of the storm.  With the vegetation and leaf litter that comprise prime singing mouse habitat gone, hopes of catching one of these rodents was low.  Additionally, the previous year's group had not caught a singing mouse using the same methods of trapping so the possibility of catching a singing mouse along the now rocky creek bed seemed dim.  

         Setting up our transects around Crandell occurred uneventfully for the most part.  The trails were most agreeable with little elevation change throughout the whole area.  We split up to set up the transects and worked efficiently to get the job done.  This is where we first encountered a new group of high school students on the trails on our way to set up transects who were part of a program known as Change the World Kids.  Little did we know that we would encounter these students again and again throughout the week.
        After setting up the Crandell transects we hung around the Monteverde Institute awaiting an evening lecture.  We received a lecture about the history on natural history from a researcher named Deedra who was accompanying the Duke Engage students.  The talk went over the history of the first great naturalists and their adventures in the new world and ended with mentioning more contemporary naturalists including Mark Wainwright.  Being in the room with two other student groups, the Duke students and the Change the World Kids students, gave me optimistic sentiments about conservation.  While we have heard saddening talks about our anthropogenic impact on the environment, here were students from all over the United States coming from various backgrounds and all concerned in making a difference in our environmental situation.  A testament to growing awareness.
        We finally had dinner once we arrived back at La Calandria and turned in for the night.

June 12- 

We got to sleep in today! By that I mean we didn’t have to do anything until our 7am breakfast. After that, we split up into our two groups to go check our traps at Crandell at the Monteverde Institute and the Monteverde Biological Station. We were expecting to catch similar species as the past few trapping sites, Heteromys and P. nudipes with the chance to catch some singing mice at MBS. My group went to the Crandell station to check our three transects. While we only caught one mouse among the three transects, a juvenile Heteromys, the group at MBS caught 17 mice! After we finished checking our traps, we had time to go get ice cream at the old cheese factory and creamery before having to meet up with the group at MBS. As we walked there from MVI, we met a dog that we named Lola who followed us to the ice cream shop and waited outside for us. She was very nice and we asked Maikol if we could keep her but he said no. We met back up with the MBS group and reconvened at La Calandria for some downtime and assigned readings until lunch, including a paper published by Dr. Ribble himself. After lunch, we went back to MVI to listen to a talk from Deb Hamilton on Bellbirds. This was interesting and very fitting for our location because Monteverde serves as a biological corridor for the bellbird, one of Costa Rica’s most iconic birds. These corridors are important because they essentially serve as highways of habitat for these birds that allows them to travel around the country and from different primary forest habitats that are farther than the birds would typically fly without any suitable habitat in between. After the talk, we split back up to go reset our traps before dinner. We finished off the day with some post-dinner yoga and went to bed excited to see what we would catch the next morning.

Checking transects at the Monteverde Biological Station

June 13-

The food at La Calandria field station seemed to be everyone’s favorite. It’s really good. I’m talking about the kind of food your mother makes type good. This made the 7am early start and breakfast all the more bearable. Today was a group favorite...pancakes! One cup of coffee later (although if we’re being honest it’s more around 2~3 for us anti-morning people (aka me) ) we set out to Monteverde Biological Station and Crandall to check our traps. Since we had only caught one mouse at Crandall the previous morning, we were competitively hopeful of catching more. The hike up to our transects at the Crandall reserve was unbearably steep, where every five steps made us want to stop and rest. Some of us even resorted to crawling on our hands and knees towards the end of the trek. We ended up catching three mice, and so we decided that entitled us to some celebratory 8am ice cream (the best type of second breakfast). After leisurely eating our ice cream, we picked up the people that were checking traps at the Monteverde Biological Station and headed back to La Calandria. 

Handling a Heteromys at our Monteverde Biological Station transect

June 14-

        The morning started off with bird mist netting with Duke students.  We were short on time because we didn't want to leave any rodents in the traps for too long and only stayed to watch the first two birds get tagged.  We caught 4 birds (1 Rufous-and-white wren, 1 Orange-billed nightingale-thrush, and 2 Rufous-capped warblers) in about 30 minutes and it was interesting to watch the process of handling birds and tagging them.
        We checked the Monteverde Biological Station transects while the other half of the group returned to Crandell to check those transects.  To our amazement, sitting in a trap at transect 2, was a small dark colored rodent.  As our excitement grew exponentially, Dr. Ribble confirmed our greatest hope of catching a singing mouse.  Dr. Ribble handled the 6 gram mouse and noted that this individual was a lactating female.  This was particularly exciting because that meant that not only did this female have a litter of pups nearby, but that there had to be at least one male singing mouse in the area that mated with this female.  Perhaps the hurricane's creek bed destruction of singing mice habitat hadn't pushed all the mice out of the area. Later in the afternoon we headed to Nacimiento y Vida, and Finca Rodriguez to set more traps in different transects.

Rufous-and-white Wren

The elusive singing mouse

June 15- 
This morning, we returned to Nacimiento y Vida and Finca Rodriguez to check our traps. My group went to Nacimiento y Vida. While we started off slow, we did end up catching five mice across our two transects, consisting of two P. nudipes, two cotton rats, and one small oligoryzomys that we fondly named Nugget. Because Nugget was so small, a whopping 5 g, we brought the trap back to La Calandria so Dr. Ribble could safely handle her. The entire walk back from the transects to the van, all we could talk about was how we hoped that there was going to be french toast for breakfast. To our surprise, when we got back to La Calandria, the cooks had made french toast! It was another small win of our early morning. After breakfast, we met up with Julio from MVI to help plant 100 trees in the secondary forest surrounding La Calandria. We were, once again, split up into two groups and each group had two diggers, two planters, and two data collectors. While we were mid-plant, a local farmer came to pick up 500 trees to plant on his property. We all helped load the various trees into his truck, acting as a human conveyor belt. After we successfully planted our 100 trees, Maikol awarded us with snacks to hold us over until lunch. After lunch, we went back to reset our traps at Nacimiento y Vida and Finca Rodriquez. (Check spelling of all of these sites) We had been told that if we followed the trail of of one of the transects a little farther, we could find a waterfall at the end. A few of us decided we were up for the challenge and after resetting our traps in that transect, made the trek to see the waterfall. Although it wasn’t very big, it was beautiful and looked very refreshing. We made plans and suggested it to the rest of the group that we make a group trip there tomorrow morning after checking our traps. Once we got back, we listened to a presentation about bats by Richard Laval, also known as Batman. During this presentation, I learned some interesting things, including that aerial insectivores are the largest group of bats in the world and that the nectar eating bats have very long, funny looking tongues. After the bat talk, we were supposed to go catch bats in the mist nets. However, it was raining and our bat catching activity was postponed until another night. All in all, solid day.

Monteverde Pics 7-17 June

Monteverde pics from 7-17 June can be found here (includes Bajo del Tigre and Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve).

Bajo del Tigre and Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

We’ve returned to the slopes of La Calandria, on the Pacific side of Monteverde.  The wet and dry seasons are more dramatic here than in San Gerardo, which even in the wet season is made apparent by differences in vegetation.  The landscape here is more familiar, with agave-like succulents and waist-high grasses to the west of our cabin.  To the east is a forested patch, interwoven with trails.  The trees here are roughly the size of their Texan cousins, but of unfamiliar species and growing in thick clumps in slippery, rust-colored clay.  They are relatively unburdened by epiphytes, unlike those of San Gerardo, allowing us a less obscured view up toward the canopy.

On the morning of June 8^th, the relentless drizzle finally broke and we woke to a rosy-pink sunrise with only a little bit of moaning and groaning about the early hour to split up and check on the traps we’d set the evening before.  Things didn’t get off to a great start.  The mice proved to be unusually feisty and from one group, two escaped before we were able to take all the proper data, and in the other group once of the mice managed to bite someone hard enough to draw blood even through a layer of fabric!  You know things are getting serious when Dr. Ribble pulls out his gloves, which he did for the next two.  Worse, several of the camera traps were misbehaving and caught no footage overnight.  While the issue appeared to be with batteries- unusual, given that the older models barely took any power and could be set for years, according to Ribble, with no trouble- Dr. Ribble decided to bring them back to the station for a few tests.  So, disappointed and eager for coffee, we returned to the station.  Little did we know that on one of the camera traps, we'd caught gorgeous footage of a mountain lion!  You can see that here.

                When breakfast was completed, we threw on our shoes, crammed into the car, and began the day.  First thing on the agenda: a native plant walk lead by Willow Zuchowski through Bajo del Tigre “Jaguar Canyon.”  The area was a thick rain-shadow forest, much of which was composed of wiry second-growth forest just barely into its third decade of growth.  The morning was cold and dry, but as we moved into afternoon the sun came up, leaving the feeling of a crisp April morning in Texas.

Here, Willow introduced us to her greenhouse project, where she worked with community members to bring native seedlings into local gardens and explained the importance of gardening with native plants.  In particular, native plants have co-evolved with local pollinators and other organisms, whereas nonnative plants may be ignored by these species and not take a role in the local ecosystem.  Worse, the nonnative plants may actually thrive and become invasive, which leads to a decrease in valuable biodiversity and thus hurts the health of the ecosystem.  Native plants are also adapted to the local climate, so they take fewer resources –particularly water- to care for.

                After giving us a brief tour of the greenhouse, we set out to the trails, regularly stopping for brief introductions to a handful of particularly interesting native plant species.  For instance, Willow pointed out the Cecropia tree, which has coevolved with a native ant species to make a symbiotic relationship in which the Cecropia tree provides cozy housing via notches in their trunks, while the territorial ants protect the host tree from invaders and clean it of heavy epiphytes.  Monteverde also has a handful of endemic species, such as the avocado-relative Ocotea monteverdensis, which produces olive-sized fruits that are dispersed by birds.  There were also just a few oddballs, such as the forty-foot tall Tebu tree, that’s closely related to daises and has been successfully planted in local cattle farms as a windbreaker.  We were also treated with a handful of exciting bird and mammal sightings, including a handsome- and loud!- bellbird and our first Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth.  Goodness knows how Maikol spotted it, to the rest of us it was little more than a ball of shaggy fur high in the canopy, nearly indistinguishable from the epiphytic mosses.

                At noon, we finished up the walk and headed to lunch, where we were treated to delicious juices and generous portion sizes by a cute restaurant tucked into the back of a local women’s art cooperative.  The courtyard filled with friendly dogs, some… erm, anatomically creative animal statues, and a cute café with fancy coffee and delicious deserts was just the cherry on top!

                Reluctantly, we made the three-block or so walk to the Monteverde Institute, where we were given a warm welcome of fruit cocktails and free t-shirts before being ushered into a presentation over the history and ecology of Monteverde through a lens of cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability, as well as the role of the Monteverde Institute.  Monteverde is situated along the continental divide, with the Caribbean Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.  Monteverde itself has several definitions: the political boundary of the Monteverde District, the Quaker-founded village within the District of Monteverde, the larger economic zone formerly defined by cheese production and presently defined by tourism, and the biological zone of Monteverde that encompasses six life-zones at various altitudes along both the Pacific and Caribbean slopes.  Monteverde composes approximately 0.03% of the world’s land area, but has about 4% of the world’s biodiversity, with about 3000 distinct species, about 2500 of which are plant species.  About 900 of these plants are epiphytes, as well as about 800 orchids and 800 trees!

                Monteverde receives about 120 inches of rain annually (for reference, San Antonio receives 15-20 inches annually), which drains into four primary watersheds on the Pacific side and many more on the Caribbean side.  As Monteverde is situated at the top of these watersheds, whatever people do here to the water affects the people and ecosystems downstream all the way to the ocean. 

                Historically, Monteverde was sparsely populated by Native Americans on the fringes of the Inca and Aztec empires.  It later became a safehaven for people both involved in and escaping piracy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  In the 1920s, Spanish-descended Costa Ricans began to settle the area and set up subsistence farms and rumors of gold began to spread.  The first ever-hydroelectric system was created here in Monteverde as a part of a gold planning scheme downstream.  Little ultimately became of this and the community continued to be small until 1948, when Costa Rica abolished their army, which made Costa Rica attractive to Quakers fleeing the draft in the United States.  In the 1950s, a Quaker community settled in Monteverde and began a cheese factory.  While this operation was initially devastating for the local environment, in a strange twist of history the former chainsaw seller turned into an environmentalist and rallied his community to donate land and money to promote cloud forest research.

In fact, by the 1970s, Costa Rica was the most deforested country in Central America, and the conservationist movement began with an economic shift toward promoting tourism.  In 1972, the first research and tourism center in Monteverde was opened and accommodated 471 people in that first year.  By 2017, this number has swelled to over 200,000 annual visitors to Monteverde, far beyond the first teams of bird-watchers and researchers who were initially drawn to this unique ecosystem.  In the place of cattle farms, tourism operations such as zip lines and canopy tours have sprung up and brought challenges of their own.  Namely, Monteverde has only about 6000 permanent residents, and the rapid influx of tourists has put strain on the town’s infrastructure, particularly for its water use and pollution-management systems.

                From there, we transitioned into a tour of the Monteverde Institute grounds.  The Monteverde Institute opened in the 1980s to educate the community on sustainability issues and create opportunities for local people who don’t directly work with the tourism industry.  In keeping with this goal, we were shown their grey water system and water-harvesting system, both with the intention of preventing water pollution and runoff.  Even their outdoor classroom was built by harvesting non-native trees and using their wood, then planting native trees in their place.  Throughout the talk was a running theme of mistakes made and learned from, with an emphasis put on how current and future generations of students were needed to find creative solutions to sustainability issues.

Next, it was back to the station to reset our traps, grab some dinner, and go to bed, feeling spoiled from the warm showers and delicious food prepared by the “House Moms.”

                June 9^th began much like the day before, with the highlight of the morning being an escaped mouse of indeterminate species.  Oops!  Thankfully we got all the data we needed for the remaining seven mice.  After packing up some sandwiches and juice boxes, we were hurried back out to the bus to head to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, where we split into two groups and began a guided nature walk through the cloud forest and up to the elfin forest.  The cloud forest is what one would think of a classic tropical rainforest, with massive trees, long creeping vines, and hundreds of epiphytes covering the trees; the undergrowth is a tangle no man could get through without a machete.  It differs from a rainforest both in its cool temperature and that the majority of its precipitation is from horizontal rain, fog, and mist, which permeates the air.  This horizontal precipitation keeps the forest moist and vibrant throughout most of the year and allows epiphytes to remain moist without a root system.

Some sights were familiar, such as the massive strangler figs we became acquainted with in The Osa, while others were new.  For instance, we were introduced to a species of fig tree that is pollinated by wasps, that enter the fig through a natural opening, lay their eggs, and die.  The males emerge from the eggs first and fertilize the females, then leave the fig and die.  The females then hatch, already fertilized, and exit the fig.  They become covered in the tree’s pollen on the way out, such that when they find their own fig in which to lay their eggs, they pollinate a new fig flower on the way in.  Even more exciting, we’d barely 30 feet from the park entrance when were treated by the sight of a resplendent quetzal male and it’s adorably little chick.  Making this sight even more precious was its rarity, quetzal hatchlings have a 85% mortality rate!

                As we climbed in elevation we left the cloud forest and entered the elfin forest, a unique ecosystem in which the high winds stunt tree growth and create a relatively epiphyte-free, dwarfed forest with wind-shaped tree branches and hardy, squat birds.  The elvin forest is placed right on the top of the mountain, along the continental divide, where the trade winds blow from the Caribbean to the Pacific.  As water-laden air from the Caribbean is pushed up the mountain, the air pressure drops and causes a drop in temperature.  This colder air can’t hold as much humidity, so the water condenses into clouds, then rain, keeping the Caribbean side consistently moist.  By the time the air reaches the Pacific side, most of the moisture has already been lost, creating a rain shadow and dramatic dry season on Costa Rica’s western coast. 

Here, with the high winds whipping around our hair and threatening to take any loose items of clothing with it, we settled down on a creaking overlook to eat our sandwiches and meditate on elevational differences and life-zones across the two slopes we straddled.  Chilled and damp, we started our descent toward the cloud forest, where we were treated with another quetzal and sloth, as well as an aww-inducing baby mouse climbing up a tree.  We made a brief detour onto a suspension bridge overlooking a patch of canopy, where the more adventurous of us tried their best to sway and bounce it around, while the more cautious classmates hung on for dear life and tried their best not to look down.

                The two halves of the class met back up, of course, in the gift shop, before jumping over to a little coffee shop famous for their strategically placed hummingbird feeders that set their air alight with fluttering green-and-blue wings and offered a welcome respite for our feet. 

                At 2:00PM, we shifted to a classroom where Dr. Alan Pounds, an influential local biologist, gave us a talk about the effects of climate change on endemic species.  He introduced his lecture with an explanation of the cloud forest, particularly how the trade winds from the Caribbean Sea blow in moisture laden air that condenses at the top of the mountains.  He transitioned to conservation by introducing the now-extinct toad species, the golden toad, which was famous for its brilliant orange coloration and endemism to Monteverde’s elfin forest.   When first surveyed, the golden toad numbered 1,500 individuals, but in 1988 and 1989, only one male Golden toad was found in the elfin forest.  It has not been seen since 1989.  Other toads, such as the Monteverde harlequin frogs and the golden eyed leaf frogs have also disappeared in the same, sudden manner.  Eventually, these disappearances were tracked to the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which is responsible for a global crash in amphibian populations.  However, according to Dr. Pounds, the fungus was never the only threat to amphibians, as similar declines are being seen reptiles and birds.

                Dr. Pounds’ most recent work involved the Harlequin frogs decline, where he and a handful of his colleagues showed a correlation between the disappearance of the Harlequin frog and unusually warm years. His research also expands into reptile species, such as the cloud forest anole, the montane anole, the ground anole, the banded canopy anole, the blue eyed anole, the lichen anole, and the dry forest anole.  Over the past few decades, these anoles have experienced changes in their ranges: lowland species have spread upward in elevation, while highland anoles have shown an overall decline in both range and overall abundance.  This ripples up the food chain, as the bird species that are dependent on anoles as a food source, such as our beloved quetzal, are now threatened.  While new anoles are spreading into the range of the quetzals, the overall abundance of the anoles is declining.  The current environmental pressure even spans to mammals.  For instance, squirrels were also shown to have the same trend of increasing range elevation. These trends are most clearly explained by anthropogenic climate change.

                To support this hypothesis, Dr. Pounds provided graphs of local rainfall patterns, temperature changes, and humidity, all taken daily since 1973 by a Quaker schoolteacher.  Ultimately, the graphs boiled down to the fact that, in recent years, both temperature and rainfall fluctuations have become more extreme. In particular, while the total amount of rainfall has increased by 600mm over the past 45 years, the dryer days are getting dryer and the wetter days are getting wetter, causing more stress for the organisms that live here, particularly species like orchids that depend on consistent moisture to avoid drying out.  In the conclusion of the graphs, Dr. Pounds explained his theory of the lifting cloud base, where the increased temperature leads to increased transpirations, which in turn leads increased moisture content in the clouds.  However, the air temperature is warmer, so instead of dumping all the water on the Caribbean side of the mountains due to the trade winds, the clouds pass over the mountains and dissipate rather than bathing the Caribbean side of the mountains in consistent cloud cover and horizontal precipitation.  At the end of the presentation, Dr. Pounds explained what he most wanted was to avoid the worst case scenario, an increase in global temperature by several degrees, and called for us to work on solutions to climate change.

                After thanking Dr. Pounds for the presentation, we returned to La Calandria and the evening passed unremarkably, with reset traps and a delicious dinner.  Next up: Monteverde Biological Station and Crandell.

The suspension bridge in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

A quetzal

Your correspondents. Andrea (left) and Laura (right)

Site of a landslide during Hurricane Nate

Our guide at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Victorino

A sloth!

San Gerardo

The San Gerardo field station is nestled in the Children's Eternal Rainforest. Inside this 70,000 hectare preserve, six life zones create one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Without the help of a group of Swedish school children, this breathtaking cloud forest might not still exist. When one primary school class in Sweden heard about the growing need for rainforest preservation they set to work on a fundraising campaign that spread like wildfire (no pun intended). Because of their efforts two million dollars was raised by people all over the world. This money is what was used to by the first land that became The Children’s Eternal Rainforest. Now the preserve also works to teach locals and tourists about the importance of rainforest conservation. This preserve is particularly important because it provides water runoff to Arenal Lake. Arenal provides hydroelectric power that accounts for 40% of Costa Rica’s electricity. For forty years San Gerardo was also the prime viewing spot for the world longest continuously active volcano (Arenal Volcano). Lava could be seen spilling out every night until 2012. It wasn’t until day two when we were finally able to see the stunning view of the volcano and lake (thanks to the vast number of clouds and rain). San Gerardo quickly became the favorite field site for several of our students, thanks to the views and our guide to all things nature, Mark Wainwright. Stay tuned for the play by play of our adventures down on the Caribbean side of the continental divide.

Early on a Monday morning, we were all reluctantly pulled from the comfort of our fresh La Calandria beds and scrambled to pack three days worth of our things into our backpacks (which for the record is easier said than done). After a short, but very crowded, van ride to the small station at Santa Elena, we were faced with a daunting task: hiking down 4km (and down 500m in elevation) on an extremely steep, muddy, and rocky road to the San Gerardo field station. Of course it was drizzling on us the entire way, not surprising given that we were hiking through the clouds that frequently cover the Caribbean side of the mountain, giving our long hike an even higher level of difficulty (resulting in a few slips and falls). However, luckily for us, we had Mark Wainwright with us to distract from the gloomy, chilly weather and treacherous hike by giving us a peek into his vast knowledge as we stopped to examine several different types of life forms that appeared around us. From the wide array of epiphytes (orchids, bromeliads, mosses, fungi, etc.) that covered almost every tree to the beautiful calls of different tropical birds to having us smell all sorts of plants and insects, Mark was overflowing with stories about some of the smallest but often some of the most crucial details that many people overlook when trying to understand the complex nature of a tropical ecosystem. Mark’s biologizing (which is now a word if it wasn’t before) made the hike down to the station extremely interesting, and several hours long. So, naturally, we were all starving and relieved when we finally arrived to the station just in time for lunch. We all quickly slid out of our mud covered boots and scurried (carefully over the slick hardwood of the station’s floor) towards the enticing smells that were coming from the kitchen. And oh man was it was delicious. After lunch, we headed out to set our traps on three different transects around our new location. Once back at the station we had a little bit of free time to get settled in and associated with our little home for the next few days, but we were soon summoned to the main area of the bottom floor for a presentation. Mark talked with us about the history, missions, obstacles, and other important aspects of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest preserve (along with other protected areas around Monteverde). That night, after another delicious meal, we put our rain jackets back on and headed out for a night hike. The slight drizzle didn’t stop us, or the animals we were looking for, from coming out and exploring the night. Being enveloped by the sounds scattered throughout the darkness was incredible, and Mark quickly found and showed us some small frogs (Spot-shouldered Rain Frog, Common Rain Frog, and Rufous-eyed Stream Frog), two Ringed Snail Eater snakes, and some really cool bugs (Web-casting Spider, Funnel Spider, and the Leaf Katydid). Once back to the station, all of us were exhausted and ready to get to sleep, but our slumber was stalled a while due to the (historically) freezing showers and an uncomfortable number of moths and other large bugs circling our bedroom lights. However, we were quick to adapt (having some practice from past field stations) and were soon able to go to bed.

Despite the fact that we were able to sleep in until breakfast (and you know it’s sad when breakfast at 7am is considered sleeping in), the morning came too early. We were all slow getting out of bed and ready for the day but we eventually made our way downstairs, motivated by the smell of breakfast and the prospect of a hot cup of coffee. After breakfast, we made our way outside and gathered up the equipment and made the hike out to check our traps. This first capture was alright, with only capturing 5 mice. As we finished up checking the last transect, Mark joined us so that we could do some more biologizing on our hike back to the station. In natural rainy season fashion, it started raining on us pretty hard throughout the hike. But once again, that didn’t stop us from finding some really interesting plants and talking about their natural histories and importance. Getting back from our hike, once again just in time for lunch, Don David talked to us about what we were going to do after we ate. He gave us the assignment of going out to a spot on a trail, situated where we were spread out and couldn’t see or hear one another, and sit for 15 minutes to listen and watch the forest around us. We were then told to find a plant that particularly interested us and study it for 20 minutes, writing down a description of it. We all came back together about an hour later and presented our selected plants. It was incredibly interesting seeing what people chose (especially because it happened that no one picked the same thing) and how everyone described the key features of their plant and began hypothesizing what those features were used for in the function and reproduction of the plant. After our little plant show-and-tell, we had to rush out to set our traps in order to get back to the station in time for dinner. During dinner, we were surprised that the weather was still really nice (especially for the rainy season) so we all decided to do another night hike. The night was absolutely beautiful, with the clouds clearing enough to be able to see some stars. On this hike, we saw a few more frogs (Golden-groined Rain Frog, Brilliant Forest Frog) and Mark was even able to follow the unique sounds of the Emerald Glass Frog and capture one for us to look at (he was so small and fragile that Mark put him in a clear bag so that we could look at him).

The next day came quickly once again as we awoke to the smells of breakfast and the hopes of catching more mice. We also quickly realized how blessed we were with the beautiful weather from the day before, because it proceeded to rain fairly steadily on us throughout the day (which is when I was completely soaked and came to the realization that my “rain jacket” was sucking because it was, in fact, a windbreaker). Anyway, the mouse traps were a little more successful, with us catching 11 mice. We hurried back to the station to get out of our soaking wet field clothes and into something nice and (relatively) dry. Once changed, some of us made ourselves a nice cup of coffee or tea and sat together in the common area to hear Mark present about the amphibian decline and recovery within the reserve. He went through several different factors that could have led to a drastic decrease of the amphibian population between 1987 and 1988. After discussing several plausible factors, we concluded that it was actually a Chytrid virus that caused the sudden decline of several species across different areas throughout successive years. There was a happy ending however, in that many of the species that were affected are steadily making a comeback, and some are actually growing immune to the disease. From this presentation and after eating lunch, we all begrudgingly put our cold and wet clothes back on and made our way out into the rain to reset our traps for the last day of collection. After we set all the traps, Mark joined us once again to biologize about the vast array of different plant species that we could find along one of the trails. We found some really interesting things: Hot Lips, Soris, some more epiphytes (of course), Spiral Ginger, African Violet, and a really cool parasitic root. Once back to the station, we were able to put our dry clothes back on (and for good this time) and had some free time to enjoy our last day. After dinner, we joined together one last time in the front room, this time to discuss some cultural and historical factors that helped shape Costa Rica. From the importance of coffee, banana, and dairy farms on the economy (and the resulting deforestation caused by these businesses) to the influence of political leaders on both local and global agendas, it was really interesting to learn more about the country in which we are spending so much time.

On our last day, we had our best number of captures yet, with 16 mice! This count lifted our spirits and distracted us (somewhat) from what was ahead of us after breakfast: that beloved hike back up the mountain. We were all trying to figure out how to shove everything we brought back into our backpacks and tried to distract ourselves with the amazing view of the valley that we would all soon miss. After checking that we had all our things, after saying goodbye to the amazing staff that helped us out and cooked for us, and of course after taking a few pictures, we were all (more or less) ready to begin the long journey back up to Santa Elena. Eventually we all made it up (with only minimal slipping casualties) and were ready to head back to the wonderful station at La Calandria (where a hot shower and laundry were calling our names). However, I know that the rain-soaked valley in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest where we spent three days at the beautiful San Gerardo Station, will be an experience that we’ll all remember for a long time.

San Gerardo offered new experiences for all of us, this being the first time we were able to handle the mice. Spending three days under the shadow of a volcano learning more than we ever had about our surroundings (thanks to the ever knowledgeable Mark) and experiencing all that field biology had to offer (cold showers notwithstanding). This adventure left us with the excitement needed to push us into the second half of our journey that is all things Costa Rican Ecology.

View of Arenal Volcano from the second floor balcony of the station.

Biologizing with THE Mark Wainwright.

The happiest bunch of biologists that you ever did see.

No mice were harmed in the making of this blog post.

- Emily and Kelley Ann

San Gerardo Pictures

Pictures from San Gerardo can be found here

Palo Verde Pictures

Pictures from Palo Verde can be found here

Palo Verde National Park

May 31

When we got off the bus at Palo Verde, one of the first things we noticed was the heat and low humidity. Feeling and looking much more like the Texas hill country, we were excited to escape the dampness of the Osa. The next thing we noticed were all of the mosquitoes, as we walked they followed us in swarms. After taking our "deet baths" in bug spray, we went to set traps. We set the three transects at varying elevation. The farther away from the station, the higher the elevation, meaning the third transect was at the highest elevation. We split into three groups to set the traps, but were rushed by an incoming storm. After setting the last camera trap, the sky opened up and we made it quickly down the mountain. After waiting for the rain to die down and having a short bout of frisbee tossing, we settled into dinner. After dinner we had one last meeting, along with some yoga, and then we went to bed under mosquito nets.

June 1

We got to sleep in to a whopping 6:30 in the morning, which was when breakfast was ready every day. After breakfast we went on the trails as one large group to check our traps. We found at least one mouse on each transect, and caught a total of five mice. We caught four Liomys salvini and one Sigmodon hispidus. Three of the five mice were found on transect two, with the medium elevation. For each mouse we measured weight, determined sex, breeding status, species, and then put an ear tag on each. Later in the morning we went bird watching with Maikol as our leader. We walked along the coast of the wetlands, we looked both towards the water and in the trees lining a road near the water. We saw a variety of species including: Crested Caracara, the Great Kiskadee, Orange-chinned Parakeet, Bare-throated Tiger-heron, and Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. After birding, it was time for lunch. After our couple hours of free time, we went back on the trails to rebait our traps, except this time we did not come right back to the station. Instead, we followed a trail up to the rather perilous top of a group of limestone boulders. We sat for a couple of hours to watch the sunset with a 360 degree view of our surroundings. We returned for dinner and Ann-Elizabeth Nash talked about her research on Ctenosaur iguanas that are commonly found around camp.

June 2

We got an early start this morning at 4:30am in order to be ready to look at traps at 5:00am. We caught another 5 mice yesterday, most of which were Liomys and but another was a Cotton Rat. We returned just in time for breakfast. After breakfast we got to take a river boat tour lead by Gustavo, the manager of the field station. The tour was about two hours and we saw lots of birds, crocodiles, and some very friendly Capuchin monkeys. One of the monkeys, potentially the alpha male, even got on the boat, which made for spectacular pictures. After the tour we had time to relax and work on assignments, like this blog. We were even fortunate enough to see the iguana researcher release a captured iguana. After lunch we had more free time, followed by a discussion with Dr. Reed about the banana plantations and their impacts on the economy, culture, and social classes. After dinner, we went on a rainy night walk out onto the boardwalk that goes over the wetlands. We saw plenty of mosquitoes, frogs, rabbits, and many glowing eyeballs in the distance (because of our flashlights).

June 3

We woke up at 5:00 to check one transect of traps before breakfast. After breakfast and finishing the other two transects, we captured a total of 15 mice. We rushed back to the field station to shower and pack to prepare for our next adventure. While at Palo Verde, we learned the necessary steps to preserve the wetlands. The wetlands are currently overrun by cattails, a species of plant invasive to Costa Rica. The cattails grow rapidly, and deplete the wetlands of water. Visible water is necessary for migratory birds to know where to land when they visit the wetlands. To naturally get rid of the cattails, the Palo Verde National Park lets cattle roam the wetlands during the dry season. The cows eat new plant growth and stomp and squish older plants. The cows' efforts lead to more water in the wetlands and more birds knowing where to land. By lessening the cattail population, the cows slowly combat the growing problem of invasive species in Costa Rica.

Our experience at Palo Verde taught us how different the tropical dry forest is from the rain forest at Osa. Even though we observed it during the wet season, we can easily imagine the dry season when trees drop their leaves. During the wet season the wetlands are alive with birds and the adjoining forests are full of rodents (we caught 3 different species). As much as we enjoyed Palo Verde, we look forward to moving up in elevation and experiencing cooler temperatures in the cloud forest.