Today we went for a speedy hike to collect the trail cams we set out on day 10. What took us many hours to set up, only took us about an hour and a half to collect. Our ability to navigate the forest terrain has substantially improved, yet there was still some slipping and sliding in the mud. There was a refreshing light rain while we were hiking, but loud and foreboding thunder out in the distance.

Thankfully we made it back before the downpour began. But with all of this rain, we could hear a cacophony of toads out in the distance. It sounded like a swarm of insects, but it was the layered calls of many many Mexican Burrowing Toads (Rhinophrynus dorsalis). We decided to quickly hike down to the frog pond, to check out their activity. Although we did see any, their mating calls surrounded us while we stood by the frog pond. Definitely a cool experience, and a perk of traveling to the forest during the wet season.

While there we were also able to check on the Tree Frog eggs, we had found a few days earlier. Now bellow them sat a substantial puddle of water from all the rain, a perfect place for them to fall into once they hatched. You could see that the tadpoles were further developed and looked more like tadpoles than just dots. Yet, it was still too early for them to hatch. I love exploring the frog pond and it was nice to see it filled with water.

I mentioned earlier that Day 4 was my favorite day and also was sure that title would be given to another day soon. Well, I must say even though every day on this trip has been incredible, today is going to be hard to beat! Not only did I see the toad I hoped to encounter the most, but I was also lucky enough to see and interact with the critically endangered Morelet’s Treefrog. The only word to describe today is simply incredible.

We began actually on a much different note, with Michael’s lecture on the complexities and paradoxical nature of tropical soils, and then proceeded to discuss ways to analyze the abundance of arthropods on the forest floor compared to the canopy. Yet, as a critical component of this test, we needed a solution to place in our traps that is high in the nutrients the forest lacks, like nitrogen. Luckily (or rather unluckily) we had access to a supply produced by 18+ individuals…urine. I wasn’t expecting to be peeing in a conical tube for science, yet here we are. We placed our pitfall traps through the forest and will return to them in the morning to assess our success. While placing them though we happened across first a jumping viper, and then a moment later I spotted the incredibly rare eyelash viper! The station manager at the LCRS said he had yet to see one in his 12 years of working here.

The afternoon and evening are when the fun activities not utilizing bodily fluids took place. We started by excavating a couple of leaf cutter ant nests. We were able to dig until we saw the spongey, grey, honeycomb textured fungus gardens the ant meticulously tend to. But when digging up a larger colony, we came across a wet, gelatinous, black a red blob just below the surface. After some gentle dirt removal, we uncovered the amphibian I hopped to see most, the Mexican Burrowing Toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis)! He was the cutest little guy (I’m not actually sure about the sex of this particular individual) but these toads break the stereotypical mold of how a toad should look, with a wide gelatinous body and a head but no visible neck. The photo I’ve attached is a far better descriptor than I could possibly provide verbally. I was able to hold him for a couple minutes and to my initial surprise, his hind legs were super strong (which they use to burrow through the ground). This species is primarily active during the wet season and also feeds on ants, so it was definitely a right time right place kind of moment. He did pee on me a few times (a common defense mechanism by toads/frogs) so I guess it’s a common theme between today’s activities.

I thought this was the best I was going to do on this trip. I knew we had planned a night hike, yet I have been trying not to keep my hope too high when encountering more than eggs/tadpoles, as frogs and amphibians are quite elusive. However, when hiking towards the location we saw treefrog eggs yesterday (frog pond), we came across a Morelet’s Treefrog among the leaf litter of the forest floor. I crouched down to take a few photos, and moments later he hopped from the ground to my light, to my hand, and then finally landed on my face/head. His body was cool and moist and I could feel the tackiness of its toepads on my face. He made a final resting place on the crown of my head/hair, but after a little nudge from a bug spray-free hand, we convinced the little guy to move onto a nearby tree. This is honestly one of the coolest moments of my life and such an incredible memory.

We then went to check on the eggs we spotted earlier. And there we sadly saw a northern cat eyed snake. These snakes eat frog eggs, and we watch him for several minutes waiting to see if he was on the hunt for a snack. The snake was quite slow at first, but while waiting we happened across another Morelet’s Tree Frog! What are the chances! After another photo session we returned to the snake and to my sadness yet also fascination, he began to feed on some of the eggs. This is one reason amphibians produce utterly massive quantities of eggs, as they make easy snacks without a protective shell or relatively many defenses at all. We watched the snake for probably 20 minutes as he ate a few but not many eggs. I am definitely team tree frog, yet to watch this interaction in nature was truly amazing. I mentioned yesterday how treefrog eggs can hatch early to avoid predation, yet that didn’t happen in this case. They may have not been at the right developmental stage but regardless there was no water below for them to land in anyways. However, as we moved our headlamps we spotted several snakes in the vines around. We counted 7 but I am sure there were many many more!
Today was a real-life nature documentary. I think this was the ideal day I could have had on this trip, and I may have an incredible number of itchy insect bites, but any discomfort has been well worth this once-in-a-lifetime experience! I am saddened by the fact the end is nearing quite quickly. A warm shower sounds nice, but I’ll take the cold cave water showers any day to continue exploring here at Las Cuevas.

Today marked our transition from aquatic tropical field biologists to terrestrial TFBs. We started the process of testing a research question that we could answer using camera traps. These “camera traps” are discrete cameras attached to trees throughout the forest, and snap a photo when an animal moves past the sensor. We decided to test how the distribution of predator and prey of various sizes would differ based on the camera’s placement on either trails, roads, or in the thick of the forest. We thought large predators would take advantage of the ease of travel on trails and roads (as safety is not as big of a concern for animals of their stature), yet we expected smaller prey and predators to be more often sighted (relative to their own groups) in the thick of the forest, because of the protection of the trees. We will collect these cameras on the last day, and hopefully have some interesting a fun data to look through.

Setting up the cameras was a bit of a big endeavor though. Navigating the forest terrain was definitely difficult and a new learning curve. We traveled fairly slowly, as we were all fascinated by the documentary-quality views of the trees/plants, and as we all hunted to find something relating to our taxonomic group. I didn’t have much hope of finding anything related to amphibians, but boy was I wrong. Thankfully we are here during the wet season, which gives us the best chance of encountering water-loving amphibians (which tend to be most active this part of the year). We first came across several tire tracks in the mud, which collected puddles of water, and in the water were hundreds of small tadpoles! Identifying species from tadpoles is quite difficult, as there are many more similarities and less distinctive colors, yet it was a fun find. There were clearly at least two distinct species though. In one puddle the tadpoles were small and nearly black with no obvious pattern, yet the other puddle had tadpoles that were larger (so probably older) and had a distinct pattern of off-white and dark grey blotches.

When we went to set up our last camera at the appropriately named “Frog Pond.” I was at first sad to see no standing water in the area, but to my surprise, there were huge clumps of treefrog eggs hanging from the leave at face height. These clumps of clear jelly contained probably a few hundred treefrog embryos. An amazing sight to see. Dr. Solomon was telling us how the frog eggs have adapted the ability to sense vibrations from a predatory snake slithering on the branches and prematurely hatch to avoid being eaten. The complexity and creativity of nature is truly unmatched. I am excited for tomorrow and hope to see more amphibians but I know they’re not too common to encounter so we will have to see.