Tag Archives: trees

The Inevitable Farewell, Goodbye Belize and TFBs


I can’t believe that the trip is over. Each day lasted forever, but all together time flew by in the blink of an eye. There is no way to completely sum up my experiences into just a few paragraphs, especially since this trip was so full of firsts, but the least I can do is answer the questions asked of me. The rest is… kind of intangible, swirled up in my brain like the keystone memory that it is going to become, and no blog could do it justice. 

The similarities between the reef (the rainforest of the sea) and the rainforest (the reef of the land) cannot be overlooked. Both ecosystems were so chocked full of diversity, each holding the title of the world’s majority stakeholders in biodiversity for their respective realms, there is no shortage of comparisons to be made. 

First, they are not separate in the first place. The calcium carbonate from the reefs finds itself in the soils of the rainforest, and the sediments of the rainforest find themselves in the reef. Without one or the other, neither would be as we know it. The soils of the rainforest are homes to millions of creatures and critters, and provide a space for the brilliant, expansive fauna to grow. Nutrients in both of these ecosystems are hot commodities, snatched up at first notice, leaving the reefs and trees to find a way to get the nutrients they need. And so, both have figured out ways to maneuver through this system, coral using symbioses, trees laterally growing buttress roots, epiphytes finding nutrients from debris in the canopy – they continue to thrive in the low nutrient areas. This means that they both have this huge amount of biodiversity in spite of the lacking nutrients. 

There are also creatures in both ecosystems that fill very specific niches that in their own ways push the ecosystems forward. From the symbiosis of the symbiodinium and coral to the plants and mycorrhizae, they have found ways to thrive in these competitive, complex ecosystems. 

I noticed that the impacts of climate change and human influence between the two protected areas, the Marine Protected Area and the forest preserve, seemed vastly different. I feel like forests are a lot more resilient than the reefs, able to withstand more stress without dying out, and able to bounce back with less resistance. There is simply so much diversity within the rainforest that when it is standing, one thing will fall and another will take its place. But on the reef, one thing falls, and it takes 5 things with it. 

I have to say, my favorite part of the course was snorkeling (in general). I love swimming and the water was so clear and watching the schools of fish swim by was so cool, it was an amazing experience. My least favorite part of the course was the hiking of the bird tower trail – which comes as a surprise to no one. I was terrified the whole way up and down, but hey, I pushed through and made it to the top (and back to the bottom). 

One thing that I found so surprising was the state of the coral reefs, even within the marine protected area. They were mottled with disease, and often parts were just broken to rubble. I knew that reefs have been getting hit hard in the past century with a bunch of stressors, but it was crazy to see that in person, and that will definitely stick with me. 

For my second thing, I never knew about lionfish and their prevalence as an invasive species – they were never even on my radar. Seeing Scott spear those fish was awesome in and of itself, but going forward into the future, I am now so much more aware of their presence and the need to rid the seas of them.

My last important thing is less tangible, but definitely something that I will remember in 5 years, or more honestly, for the rest of my life. That being the trip as a whole. Going on a field expedition to Belize, to the reef and the rainforest, as a scientist and researcher, meeting other POC scientists and researchers, being able to be immersed in the field, is something that I honestly probably would have never experienced if it weren’t for this trip. It showed me that I was capable of something to that level, to propose questions and make observations in a foreign place, and get taken seriously even as a student. This was only my second time out of the country, both of which occurred this summer – as an FGLI student, that alone had a learning curve. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that this class allowed me to explore the field of biology and my own capabilities as a scientist, and that is certainly something that I can never forget. 

This course exceeded my expectations, brought me to another side of the world and took me out of my comfort zone in ways that showed me what I was capable of. Even though we had to wrap up early, I wouldn’t change anything about this trip for the world (except maybe the amount of bug bites I received – I am still so itchy!!)

Forest day 3: wANT to look at Ants? (06/18/22)

It’s already our second Saturday on this trip. We get back on Wednesday. Time is passing so fast. This morning for breakfast they changed it up with some ham and bread with the beans and eggs rather than bacon and tortillas. It wasn’t a coffee morning for me though.

After breakfast, Michael presented his lecture in tropical soils, during which we were all told to hydrate and drink our water. After the lecture, we did an experimental design for testing the abundance of arthropods on the forest floor vs the canopy, in nutrient rich conditions (pee tubes) vs nutrient poor conditions (water tubes). After planning, we then went to pee into tubes. The setup for this experiment is: at breast height on a tree, one water tube and one pee tube will be wired onto opposite sides of the tree, and then at the base of the tree, with the same orientation, the second water and pee tubes will be put flush into holes in the ground.

The horrific vials *shudder*

The tubes are going to be picked up tomorrow for collection and counting of arthropods. I didn’t actually go out with the group to put the tubes up since my ankle was hurting from twisting it yesterday, but my tubes were placed in the field by someone. While they were out, they apparently ran into a jumping viper (venomous) and an eyelash viper (also venoumous) that someone who has worked here for 12 years hadn’t even seen.

Eyelash Viper (Bothriechis schlegelii)
Tiny jumping viper (Atropoides picadoi)

The group returned at lunch, which is when I rejoined them. After lunch, we went exploring around the field station clearing on the search for small leaf cutter ant nests. Once we decided on one, Scott instructed us on how to dig next to it to find the fungus cavity. This nest was young, only about a year old, so it was quite small. We saw some seargent majors (large worker ants), but no soldiers (large defense ants) since the colony was so short. He dug out some of the fungus from in the cavity, and eventually pulled out the queen for viewing. She was huge!

In an attempt to excavate a larger colony (which ended up being abandoned), we found a Mexican burrowing toad!! They are super funny looking guys, with gelatinous bodies, splayed legs and almost no neck. I didn’t get to hold him since I was wearing bug spray, but he was such a rare and cool find. 

Mexican Burrowing Toad

Scott then excavated another colony, solely to show us what soldiers looked like. Some people picked them up, and even let them bite their shirts?? It’s a no from me dawg. 

 

I didn’t have much exposure to new trees today, but while we were in the clearing looking at the ant nests, we noticed some almost blackberry looking things on the ground, which I identified as some sort of cone, that were very light and had a woody consistency when cut into. These cones are the seeds of the bay cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia). I also believe I saw a small Billy Webb tree (Acosmium panamensis) along the edge of the clearing based on the shape and color of its fruits, although I could be wrong. 

We finished up the day with the lectures of the day before dinner, with free time or an optional night hike (which I did not choose to go on, again, because of my ankle).

today is also the day that I learned that I am covered in chigger bites on my arms from yesterday’s falls. They’re so itchy, I hate it.

That concludes day 11 – can’t believe we’re so far in. 




Forest day 2: Discovering a new phobia (06/17/22)

Oh boy has it been a day. A day it has been. We’ll start from the beginning, which was more chill, then move forwards throughout the day.

After the late night of bugs, I skipped the morning bird watch to get an extra hour of sleep (till a bright and early 6:30AM). After a breakfast of bacon, beans, tortillas, and fruit, we had a planning session for our 4 day camera trap experiment.

Our plan was to place 5 cameras each in 3 location types (trail, road, and jungle) to measure how often predators (small and large) and prey (small and large). We set off hiking once we were done planning, hiking down the “shortcut” trail, where we placed one camera, to get to the road. (This is all wearing rubber boots by the way). This went pretty smoothly: there was one steep area on the shortcut trail that I was sliding a bit since it’s the wet season, we got through to the road to place more cameras.

My personal goal for this day was to be on the look out for any trees with buttressed roots (which are pretty much super extended, almost platelike roots above the surface). These trees are usually larger than the others in the rainforest (the laterally extended roots often work as structural reinforcement since the trees they support are so tall, such as the ceiba tree), but since the species with these roots are so tall, it can be hard to determine the species of the tree without sight of the leaves, so identification was often impossible. 

Along the road I believe that I spotted a big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). Along the trails, I saw 9 trees with buttressed roots, most of which I was unable to identify. However, I do believe that one was a strangler fig (Ficus aurea) and one was a ceiba (Ceiba pentandra). Right next to the ceiba, I believe that I saw a chicle/sapodilla tree (Manilkara chicle), the tree used in making chewing gum, which had the very characteristic slash marks on its bark.

And right outside our bunks is a spanish cedar tree (Cedrela odorata), which is considered a vulnerable species!

After we placed 1 trail camera and 5 road cameras, it was time for lunch. We returned, and after lunch we were given some time to prepare for going back out.  Adrienne switched boots with me because I had some difficulty with sliding on the shortcut trail’s steep section, and we were expecting to be going up to the bird tower trail, which is known to be very steep. 

This is where the previously unknown phobia comes in. I don’t know why, I didn’t know that I had this fear, or what exactly the fear is, but as we were climbing these steep, muddy inclines, I freaked out. When we first got to the incline area, I looked up and automatically thought “nope” but I kept going anyways, and promptly slipped in the mud and fell. And then after that I kept pushing through, but I was terrified and literally having panic attacks between sections climbed, and fell once more. Adrienne stayed with me in the back and helped me make it through, which I greatly appreciated. We eventually finally made it up to the bird tower, which I climbed with no skepticism (I’m not afraid of heights, again I don’t know what this fear I discovered is).

On the way down, it was just as slick, but slightly easier, but I still fell again on the way down. We did encounter a cave that had some old Maya pottery inside, which was really cool! I twisted my ankle on a rock in there though, so that was fun. Today was just not my day. The rainforest does not like me. I am definitely team surf. 

 

Some cool things we saw in the forest though: 

The largest leaf cutter ant nest Scott has ever seen!

A tree fall on the path so we had to cut a new path through the forest!

Some red tree frog eggs!

2 turtles!

Maya pottery in cave!

We also saw some scarlet macaws in the Chiquibul forest!

The night presentations were by phoenix and rusty, about biogeography and amphibians.

Jumanji: Day 9 (forest day 1) 06/16/22

Welcomeeee to Jumanji!

Choose your character: trees, birds, bugs, or monkeys…

You chose… Trees! Good choice! Are you prepared? The game is about to begin!

Level One: The Maya Ruins of Caracol 

After a 3 hour drive down an unpaved, bumping and jolting road, you have arrived at your first destination: the found ruins of the classical period Maya People, Caracol.

Let your adventure begin!:

This morning started off at with an early 6:30AM breakfast, and getting on the road by 7:15AM. This was travel day 2 to the Chiquibul. Along the road in the Savannah plains, the Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea) is still one of the most numerous trees on the side of the road, as well as some palms. Once we arrived at Caracol, we were given a debriefing of what the Caracol site was, its history, the history of the Maya people, and what our trek would be. Only 1% of the entire site of Caracol is excavated for viewing.

We climbed to the top of the temple/place, the largest structure still standing. There were So. Many. Stairs. I honestly don’t know how I made it up. But once on top of the temple, we were at the highest point that a man made structure reaches in Belize, which was crazy to me.  The view was breathtaking.

We also saw the temples used for astronomy, gauging the solstices by the alignment with the temples peaks. We also saw some tombs and a Steele.

At the ruins, we were shown two Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra), and explained the historical significance of the species. Historically, their bark was used for paper, but the fibers of the tree are so strong that they were used in WWII for parachutes, which resulted in the downing of many ceiba trees.

When standing in front of the astronomy temples, I correctly identified a gumbo limbo tree (Bursera simaruba), characterized by its green shiny bark covered in red papery peeling strips. Also known as the tourist tree since it’s always red and peeling. Funnily, around the gumbo limbo was a strangler fig tree (Ficus aurea), which had completely grown around the spot that the gumbo limbo was planted, completely overtaking it. Both of these trees are known to be of the taller variety, but the gumbo limbo was dropping over to get sun from beneath the canopy of the strangler fig. We also saw and were told about the horse balls tree (Tabernaemontana donnell-smithii), which has round fruit that produce a latex-glue like substance.

After our tour, we ate lunch curtesy of our tour guides, Leo and Miguel. Leo was so informative, and even worked on excavation at the site from 1995-1998. 

After lunch, we finally made it to Las Cuevas Research Station in the evening. We caught up on lectures, had dinner, and then continued with the day’s lectures.

Our room was full of bugs, and we had to tape the screen flush to stop them from coming in. We don’t even know if we got them all out, but we eventually had to sleep. And that are our day, day one in the Chiquibul forest!

If not friend, why cat purr? (Day 8, travel day 2)

Note: I will start including more taxon information about trees tomorrow! They’re certainly everywhere!!

Today we said farewell to Glover’s reef and Middle Caye, waving sayonara to our reef taxon for the rest of the trip. Bye mollusks! We had our last breakfast on island, some beans, sausage (honestly it may have been closer to a hot dog) and a tortilla and a mango. Sadly, I forgot to ask what type of mangos the baby mangos were so I could purchase them in the future. 

After breakfast, we loaded our luggage back into the big boat that we came to the island on, and took a group photo with our water safety officers. It was here that we said goodbye to Ruth and Adrian, as only Cladius was accompanying us to Belize City. Dramamined up and ready to go, we boarded the boat to leave. But! One of the engines wasn’t working somehow, so two of the crew had to wack around in the engine department until they got it started, and we were off!

With a departure around 8:30, we arrived in the marina of Belize City around 12:40, ~4 hours later. I napped on the boat on the way there, as today was not a day about taxa but about travel. 

Once at the dock, we unloaded everything and walked to the place where we started on the dock 7 days ago. We then loaded everything into 2 white vans that hold 10 people each.

After this, we had lunch at Calypso, the restaurant on the marina we came in on. I had the beef fajitas, but after seeing what everyone else got, I wished I had ordered pasta instead. They had fresh fruit juice, so I tried cantaloupe juice for the first time, and it was delicious and refreshing.

 

After leaving Calypso, we went to a local supermarket/pharmacy (pretty much a small version of H‑E‑B), where we stocked up on snacks and refilled supplies like bug spray and Tylenol.  

After checkout, we headed to the Tropical education center near the Belize zoo, just outside of Belize City, where we would be staying the night. After getting settled into 2 person cabanas, we listened to a talk by Borris Aravalo about his research on the endangered north subspecies of the scarlet macaw and conservation. 

Dinner was next, a traditional Belizean meal much like something that we ate at Glover’s. Then, the coolest part of the day: we got to have a night tour of the Belize zoo to see the nocturnal animals!

Even the 1 mile ride to the zoo was amazing, sitting in the back of a truck looking at the oh so dark night sky with wind blowing past us. But once we were there, it was awesome to see the creatures that many don’t get to see at the zoo because they aren’t usually out in the daytime (During Normal zoo hours).  (See the pic of the Big Dipper I captured)

We saw coatimundis and 3 species of owl, got to feed a white tailed deer a carrot, and got to feed a tapir, the national animal of Belize, a carrot as well. Tapirs are so much larger than I thought they were going to be, like a baby elephant or a super large dog. We also got to see 4 species of cat! 2 big, 2 “small” cats (but one of them (the puma) was a big cat classified as a small cat because of it’s ability to purr!) If it purrs, how is it not a friend??

On the topic of trees, the most recognizable tree that I saw the most of today was the Caribbean pine,  Pinus caribaea. They’re characterized by very tall (~150 or greater) trunks with no branches or leaves until you reach the top, with needle like leaves.

At the tropical education center, we also saw a black poison wood, which was not a tree I knew I needed to be aware of! It’s important not to touch these.

And finally, at the zoo we saw a ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra) which is one of the largest species of tree in the area!

Overall awesome place to stay!





In the Corals and the Trees (Reflection Post) with species lists

The coral reef and the rainforest are the most diverse marine and terrestrial ecosystems, respectively. They both represent what seems on the surface a paradox—nutrient poor soils in the rainforest and nutrient poor waters in the reef, despite the incredible diversity of organisms in each place. Coral reefs actually rely on the low nutrient density of the water, because when there are more nutrients available, algae tends to outcompete corals. In the rainforest, the nutrient poor soils are due to the rapid nutrient cycling and wide diversity of decomposers facilitated by high temperatures and rainfall and necessary for the incredible growth present there. In addition, my taxon groups in the rainforest and on the reef were somewhat parallel: the trees in the forest and the corals on the reef. Each of these is the foundation of the ecosystem, photosynthesize (or have a symbiotic relationship with photosynthesizing organisms), and are incredibly abundant.

I took the wide diversity of each species as a challenge, and tried to identify as many as I could, although in each case some of the organisms looked incredibly similar to one another and occupied similar niches.

Unfortunately, when I set out to take this course, I saw the obstacle of my food allergies first and any academic challenges second. The result of this was that I was thoroughly prepared to avoid food allergens, and less prepared for the actual coursework. Despite this, I learned more in these two weeks than I think I ever have in two weeks before in my life: about the rainforest, the reef, and research in the field. Interestingly (maybe this is TMI) I have a skin condition and thought it would get worse on the trip. It did the opposite and flared up as soon as we returned to Houston. Allergies also turned out to be easy to deal with, as the cooks on the island and in the rainforest were very careful and had limited ingredients in the kitchen to begin with (fewer contaminants).

It’s hard to choose a favorite part of the course. We saw spider monkeys shaking trees at us to get us to go away (we just thought they were cute); a tapir on one of our camera traps (we all cheered!), scarlet macaws almost every day in the rainforest, the inside of a leafcutter ant nest. I think the most intriguing things I saw were zombie ants. Zombie ants are ants that are infected with a fungus that somehow compels the ant to climb up (in this case on a palm). The ant then clings to the inside of the palm and slowly dies as the fungus eats it from the inside out, then sends out a fruiting body (mushroom). We saw several of these, and some ants that were still moving but appeared lost on the bottom of palm leaves, possibly controlled by the fungus. The phenomenon is incredible and frightening, as when I’ve related it to friends and family one of the first questions they ask is “can that infect humans?!” The answer to that question is no. At least, no known fungus will do that to humans.

In addition to the course content, I think we all learned how to split up the work to get something done, and not obsess about the details (for those of us inclined to do so). For example, the first research project we did took all day to analyze. We spent the morning making sure each morphospecies (“species” identified as “species A” based on observable characteristics when the species name is unimportant) was carefully identified, and the entire afternoon making a poster. We had all of our graphs on a laptop instead of the poster itself, and had the one person with some of the best handwriting and drawing skills (Liz) draw the entire poster (no printing facilities in the jungle!). By the end of the two weeks, we could whip up a poster in a few hours, max. A few people would work on each section, and at least two people would write and draw on the poster. We were much more efficient, and still conveyed our work effectively.

Scott requested a species count for each taxon in the reflection post, so here those are:

Trees

Elephant Ear/ Guanacaste (Enterlobium cyclocarpum)

Trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata)

Caribbean Pine (Pinus caribaea)

Rosewood (Dalbergia stevensonii)

Billy Webb (Sweetia panamensis)

Nargusta (Terminalia amazonica)

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)

Spanish Cedar (Cedrela odorata)

Bull Thorn Acacia / Bullhorn Acacia (Acacia/Vachellia cornigera)

Basket Tie-Tie (Desmonicus schippii)

Banana (Musa sapientum/paradisiaca)

Prickly Yellow (Zanthoxylum sp.)

White Poisonwood (Sebastiana tuerckheimiana)

Black Poisonwood (Metopium Browneii) (Tropical Education Center)

Fiddlewood (Vitex gaumeri)

Kapik/Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra)

Horse’s Balls Tree (Stemmadenia donnell-smithii)

Guava (Psidium guajava)

White oak sp. (Quercus insignis) (Tropical Education Center)

Sapodilla/Chicle (Manilhara zapota)

Give-and-Take Palm (Crysophila staurocantha)

Gumbolimbo/ Tourist Tree (Bursera simaruba)

Jobillo (Astronium graveolens)

Bay Cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia)

 

Corals

Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata)

Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis)

Mustard Hill Coral (Porites astreoides)

Thin Finger Coral (Porites divaricata)

Grooved Brain Coral (Pseudodiploria labyrinthiformis)

Boulder Brain Coral (Colpophyllia natans)

Pillar Coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus)

Symmetrical Brain Coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa)

Golfball Coral (Favia fragum)

Lettuce Coral (Agaricia sp.)

Mountainous Star Coral (Orbicella faveolata)

Massive Starlet Coral (Siderastrea siderea)

Additional Siderastrea sp., maybe stellata, dead coral

Boulder Star Coral (Montastrea cavernosa)

Day 2: Tour of the Caracol ruins

On the way from the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge to the Chiquibul forest and Las Cuevas Research Station, we stopped in two different places: Rio on Pools (in the Mountain Pine Ridge) and the ruins of Caracol, and ancient Mayan city.

 

At Rio on Pools I took several pictures of trees that I want to identify when I get a chance (during daylight hours, when I can read the field guide). Of course, we saw the Caribbean Pine, which characterizes the Mountain Pine Ridge. For anyone reading this who does not know the regions of Belize, a ‘ridge’ is a description of a general area/ecosystem and not an actual landform of high elevation. I spent most of the time taking pictures, alternating between the trees and my classmates.

Rio On Pools
Rio On Pools

The Caracol experience was more notable in terms of learning about the region. The first time Scott came on this trip, he did not go to the ruins, but local people told him that it was entirely unreasonable to be this close to the ruins and not see them. The palace at the ruins of the ancient Maya city is the tallest building in Belize, and from the top (of course we climbed it!) you can see Guatemala. We learned quite extensively about the Maya for a few hours (religion, culture, social structures).

 

Caracol, from the top of the tallest palace/pyramid

We also saw tons of trees. Our guide pointed out the Kapok or Ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra) and the fluff that comes from the seed pods that I think he said was used as padding, for example in a mattress. The tree also has huge buttress roots extending from the sides that serve several purposes, including structural support and nutrient absorption. [insert picture here]

Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra)

We also saw today:

A few more trees at the Maya site: Cohune palm (Attalea cohune), Fishtail palm (Chamaedorea sp.), more Trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata), relationship with guarding ant species, a Strangler fig (Ficus sp.), and some Montezuma Oropendolas (Psarocolius montezuma).

Fishtail Palm, Chamaedora sp.

At Las Cuevas: a Cedar (Cedrela odorata), A Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) and a Social Flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis).

We don’t have internet today because of the weather. It appears that the rainy season has started early this year. We will get to see how that effects the visibility of our focus species.

Day 3: Monkeys and the Monkey Tail Trail

Today we set up the camera traps for our week-long research project. We are testing the impact of the human disturbance at the research station is significant on diversity of animal species, so we will count species and individuals caught on the traps over the week. Setting up the traps involved hiking multiple trails in the area, so we saw a lot of wildlife.

This morning we hiked to a 50 hectare plot, which is an area marked for research purposes, to set up three cameras in that direction at 15 minute walking intervals. Onn the way there, we saw a mahogany and a fiddlewood tree, which were marked by the research station. In terms of trees, we saw Give-and-Take palms, another spiny palm called a Basket Tie-Tie, several Gumbolimbo trees, and at least a few Sapodilla. We also saw a small tree that I thought might be a Poisonwood tree, but it was too small to tell for certain. I was using leaf characteristics for identification—none of us were willing volunteers to test out the burning properties of the caustic sap.

Chicle/Sapodilla (Manilhara zapota) with slash marks from harvesting sap for chewing gum

On the same walk, we also saw spider monkeys for the first time. They remained high up in the branches, but hung around to look at us. It seemed they were as curious about us as we were about them. “Observe how poorly acclimated to the forest are these humans,” their tour guide could say. And that would be true, although Scott said we would find the hiking easier at the end of our stay here. We did not measure distance, but we spent a few hours in the morning and another few in the afternoon hiking out to place the cameras.

In the afternoon we hiked the Monkey Tail Trail. It was threatening rain, but we only got a few drops and a few distant thunderclaps. It is possible that the rain was captured higher in the canopy by epiphytes (some of these are known as airplants) or other organisms and did not reach us on the rainforest floor. The trees we saw on this hike included more Gumbolimbo. I could see why this was called the tourist tree. It is given the name because it is red and peeling like the sunburn of a tourist unaccustomed to the intensity of the sun here. It is also used locally as a remedy for a range of ailments from colds to gastrointestinal problems to measles to sunstroke. We also saw the Bull Thorn Acacia, which has hollow pairs of thorns in the shape of a bull’s horns which are inhabited by ants. The tree produces food and provides shelter for the ants in a way that induces the ants to defend the tree as they would any other nest. As a result, if you disturb the tree (especially if you break a thorn), you may be attacked by ants. This protects the tree from predators and describes a symbiotic relationship because both species involved benefit.

In addition to some interesting beetles, we came back from the hike with quite a few ticks each. Apparently ticks here don’t carry any serious diseases, but are mostly a nuisance. Picking them up today was the result of travelling an overgrown trail, and especially affected those who were not wearing insect repellant and/or were not trying as much to avoid brushing against the brush.

Note: We still have very limited wifi and may not be able to post at regular intevals.

Day 4: Getting Our Rainforest Legs

Scott said that after a few days of hiking in the rainforest, we would start to feel more energetic and less exhausted. This despite our full days. I think a few of us are starting to feel this. Today started with more bird watching, for everyone else. I slept through bird watching and went to breakfast at 7 instead. Right after breakfast and until lunch we set up an experiment to determine nitrogen limitation on the forest floor versus in the canopy by using human urine. Where did we get human urine? Guess.

We set up vials of urine and water along a straight trail every 200m. We also saw a cave full of what might have been Leaf-Nosed Bats, another Cedar tree (Cedrela odorata), and a Bay Cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia). Liz still has yet to catch a Blue Morpho butterfly, but we can identify them well from a distance. They are an iconic rainforest animal.

The bark of the Spanish Cedar (Cedrela Odorata)

In the afternoon we went to a cave and held the day’s lectures in it. The cave was home to an ancient Maya religious site, and walls and platforms built by the Maya for ceremonies are still standing today. On some platforms Mayan pottery remains. We also saw either swallows or some other bird nesting in the entrance. There were cave crickets and a millipede, and many interesting formations, in the cave.

In the evening we went on a short night hike (not too far from the station clearing) looking for night creatures. Much of the fauna of the rainforest is more active at night than during the day. We saw a Central American Tree Snake, lots of colorful beetles, moths, a scorpion, a tailless whip scorpion (not actually a scorpion, though an arachnid), leaf cutter ants, an orb weaver and some crickets. We also saw a Wolf Spider with its abdomen absolutely coated with little baby spiders. This stage does not last long, so we were lucky to see it. What we saw at first was a yellow shine where the eyes of the spider were and what looked like a huge abdomen with green glitter. Those were the eyes of all the baby spiders.

Wolf spider with babies crawling all over its abomen (green glitter = eyes)

Day 5: A Research Project in a Day

Rainforest Canopy

Today we spent the whole day on the pitfall trap research project. We had tied some vials of urine and water to trees and buried some in the ground to collect arthropods (briefly, bugs) and compare diversity between the canopy and the ground. We collected the tubes in the morning starting around 7am, finished an inventory by noon, and spent all afternoon until 5pm making a poster and presentation which we then presented to Amanda and Scott. We were all getting pretty tired by the end of the day, and some of us started giggling with I assume relief at the end of the presentation.

We didn’t see any new trees today, but I identified a Bay Cedar (to be fair, it is also marked with a sign along one of the trails) (Guazuma ulmifolia). I found it in a field guide using the fruit. The small, spiky fruits smell like honey and are a source of fodder for grazing animals in the dry season. However, apparently small children tend to eat them, and in large quantities they can lead to constipation, which leads to names probably coined by the parents such as stuck-up-da-butt nut or plugabutt.

We saw some more cedars this morning. They are called Spanish Cedars (Cedrela odorata), but here they are just referred to as cedars. The bark has long vertical ridges and can have darker valleys, an identification similar to that of corals (my reef taxon group!). It is easiest to identify them as large trees, and there are several such along the various trails. We have at least seen them on the “flagpole” trail to the 50-hectare plot and the Maya trail. There is also one in the clearing right in front of the cabin.

This evening we saw a lot of cool stuff. That could describe any day, but today Kaela showed me some nightjars that I identified with the help of a guidebook and Scott’s knowledge of local bird names. Apparently it was a Pauraque, which is pronounced “par-ahq.” I thought it was “pear-uh-quay” or “pear-uh-kay.” I’m learning all sorts of new things on this trip.