5/18/19: We retrieved our pee. All 11 sets of pit-fall traps were successfully captured. Wooohoo! As crazy as it might sound, I was kind of sad when I didn’t find too many arthropods in my pee. I mean, I don’t know what I was anticipating, but I kind of wish a beetle would have fallen into my pee. Is my pee not good enough? All I accounted for was a few ants and ticks.

Today, we worked on evaluating our results from these traps and preparing a poster presentation.  Prior to this trip, I would have thought it was nearly impossible to make a poster and present it in one day, but boy was I wrong. We worked very well together, and we were able to create a poster and present it in a single day. I worked on the data analysis which I really enjoyed. Getting to apply what you learn in class in the field has definitely been a highlight of this trip.

It was a slow day for arachnids. I saw a quite a few wolf spiders walking to retrieve the pee samples on the Mayan trail. They ranged in size from 0.1 cm to 4 cm across the body.  And of course, I had a few run-ins with some ticks. But aside from that, my day seemed to be consumed with amphibians and birds. URINE not going to BELIZE what I saw! We saw a Morelet’s tree frog and a toucan walking along the Maya trail. Ahhh! Seeing the Morelet’s tree frog in real life makes reading about it seem so insignificant. The real-life experience was incredible, and I won’t ever forget it. I am going to keep an eye out for a Golden Orb Weaver spider tomorrow because it is something I have really been wanting to see.

 Wish me luck!

-Bella