The Cave!

After birding today, Scott and Adrienne asked us to pee in 2 vials so we all started chugging our waters for some unknown experiment. We later were told we were going to be using them as pitfall traps for insects to test nitrogen differences in the rainforest canopy versus the rainforest floor. Urine contains nitrogen so we were able to use it to design the experiment.

 

While setting up the pitfall traps we came across a Tailless Whip spider, which actually is the spider Mad Eye Moody uses in the 4th Harry Potter movie (Hp reference!!). Also, Sam spotted a coral snake under a rotting log in the middle of the trail. I was only able to catch a look of the very end of it as it slithered away, but I think it may have been the Central American Coral Snake, and the most venomous snake in this rainforest.

After lunch, we suited up to go explore the Las Cuevas cave, aka: The Caves Cave. Pedro was our guide through the muddy and usually slippery cave. He explained to us the difference between stalactites that were “alive” and still growing versus “dead”. If someone touched a stalactite that was still growing it would stop, so tried to avoid accidentally hitting one with our hard hat.

Once we reached further into the cave and couldn’t see the light from the entrance anymore we saw our first bats hanging from the ceiling of the cave, and as we moved further we saw at least twenty baby bats hanging from one stalactite and then they began to peel off and fly to a higher and more hidden spot. I actually think that bats are adorable and I was super excited to be able to see so many of them. A few of us went with Pedro to a smaller cave, and we had to crawl through a bunch of bat guano and mud to get there, but on the way, we saw a white crab which had died but was still cool to see.

 

Later in the day during presentations, I saw a gecko on a post in the restroom that was brown and had 2 white stripes and then a grey gecko later near a light that looked spiny and had a thick tail but crawled under the wood before I had a chance to get a good look.

 

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