Tag Archives: Bye Clivus

2022

Goodbye Atoll, Hello Savanna

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Just before 9:00 am this morning, the TFBs departed Glovers Reef. I had such an amazing time as a marine field biologist in training, and I already miss GRMS! I got a picture with Ruth before I left. I am so thankful for everyone at Glovers and for our amazing water safety officers! I will miss Clivus too (the composter toilet system <3).

While on the boat, I sat on the stairs so that I had a perfect view of the ocean. The view was beautiful, and I felt so at peace. I sat there serenely for an hour, and the only reason I moved was to avoid getting sunburned.

We ate lunch at Calypso, and I got fresh watermelon juice and basically a mountain of pasta bolognese with garlic bread! So delicious 🙂

We all hopped into a van and went to a supermarket called Brodies. I bought bug spray (FINALLY!!!) and a few hiking-friendly snacks. Then, we drove to the Tropical Education Center (TEC)!

We got a quick tour and then went to a guest lecture given by Dr. Boris Arevalo. He lectured on nesting ecology and habitat selection of scarlet macaws in Belize and his research and work on the subject. I really enjoyed his lecture! He opened my eyes to the struggles of conservation work and how to weigh the importance of its impacts. This lecture also taught me a lot about research of my taxa and of scarlet macaws, as birds are my rainforest taxa.

After dinner, I rode in the bed of a truck to the Belize Zoo, where we had a night tour! Carlos the zookeeper led my group’s tour. We saw jaguars, pumas, and ocelots being fed, and we also saw a tapir (Belize’s national animal)! I also got to see some of my taxa, including the spectacled owl, barn owl, and mottled owl! I’m not sure how likely we are to see owls while we’re at LCRS, so I was excited to have the opportunity at the zoo! It was incredible to see the animals active at night.

It was a late night tonight, and it’s going to be an early morning tomorrow, so I’m excited to get some sleep in these cute and cozy cabana lodgings! I’m rooming with Maggy!

My Belize ecosystem count is now at 2, and tomorrow’s travels will take it to 3!

– McKenna

2017

Day 8 – A Day of Change

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Hi friends,

Today we bid farewell to Glover’s Reef. It was amazing while it lasted. And I got to see the sunrise in the morning which was beautiful!

Sunrise in Middle Caye.

After leaving Glover’s Reef, we visited a neighboring field station run by the Smithsonian Institute on Carrie Bow Cay. The station manager didn’t expect us there and was supposedly busy so he was going to turn us away but Adrienne convinced him otherwise. And we got a really long tour in the end which turned out well. It was interesting to have another field station to compare with, and I could definitely see myself volunteering to be a station manager when I retire in the future.

We then went to the mangrove nearby for our last ever snorkel in the class. It felt kind of bittersweet but it was exciting too being in a different environment. The feather dusters over there were as magnificent as they come by, as seen in the picture:

Magnificent Feather Duster (Sabellastarte magnifica) in the mangroves.

It was definitely eye-opening to observe the schools of fishes hiding in the mangrove roots and how they would weave in and out of the roots. There were also a variety of organisms that I saw more abundantly here than in the reefs, such as echinoderms and anemones. Below are some cool pictures of organisms I saw:

Seahorse! Apparently a rare find.
Sea star on the seafloor.

We then sailed to Belize City and ate a meal at a local restaurant which was a fun change of surroundings. We travelled to TEC after and settled in, and as a bonus, my friend and TFB alumnus Lucrecia happened to be at TEC today too, as she was on her way to a Belizean forest to do her independent field study. It was great seeing her as she had been studying abroad at Tanzania and it was fun catching up after so long. After dinner, we went to the Belize Zoo! Apparently, as we were seeing the zoo at night, there were animal activities that we wouldn’t have seen if we had visited in the morning, and so it was certainly fascinating. I saw 10 species of mammals out of the 21 on my taxon ID chart, so that was fun. The ocelot was especially interesting as it was making totally unexpected noises when feeding, saying “NOM NOM” in a really low growling voice like a lead singer of a metal band. I was surprised at how tame most of the animals in the zoo are, with the jaguar even trained to do several tricks. I got to feed a tapir which had a really fuzzy nose that goes haywire as food approaches it. All in all, the Belize zoo was a fascinating short look into the variety of creatures in the Belizean land, and it has helped prepare me to face the Las Cuevas forest.

Jaguar (Panthera onca) in the zoo.

Till next time,

Damien