5/26: I Would Walk 500 Miles

We started our day early today for birdwatching, but the hazy morning made it difficult to spot much of anything. After a late breakfast at 7:30, we designed our first project of setting out camera traps to monitor predator and prey, hoping to spot a big cat or two when we collect the traps again in a few days.

We may have bitten off more than we can chew though; we set about half of our traps before lunch, and then went back out at 2:30 to set the rest of them. This involved going deep into the bush, though, and we did a little bit of accidental meandering that led us to return to the field station a full five hours after leaving and a bit after dark. This made for an interesting, dark, spider-filled walk back to the station. This means that we spent the high majority of today walking, something I haven’t done in a while.

A camera trap with a makeshift fastening rope

We managed to see a lot of reptiles today. This morning we spotted a Norops biporcatus, a green tree anole, and a Degenhardt’s Scorpion Eater snake, also known as Stenorrhina degenhardtii. In the afternoon we spotted a Plestiodon sumichrasti, a Sumichrast’s skink, a Norops lemurinus, or canopy anole, and even a small Bothrops asper, the notorious Terciopelo snake. Upon returning to the station, another group had found a Turnip-Tailed Gecko, also known as Thecadactyla rapicauda.

Canopy anole

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