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Into the Thick of It!

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Hey y’all!

We started the day bright and early so we could spot the early birds of the Chiquibul forest and it was gorgeous! We saw a lot of birds including parrots, vultures, Flycatchers, and the most colorful turkey I have ever seen all while enjoying coffee, tea, and chill vibes from the deck of Las Cuevas Research Station.

We then got to start our very first big project in the rainforest! We attached 14 camera traps–cameras that take pictures when they sense motion–to trees around the station. Our goal is to see whether places deep in the forest have that many more animals passing through than man-made paths. One of the cameras we placed was close to a big cat scratch in the ground, so we’re really hoping we can catch a Puma or Jaguar!

While we were setting all of these cameras up, we found one of the coolest things under a log! When Dr. Solomon flipped the log over, we found over twenty baby Tailless Whip Scorpions! They aren’t actually scorpions and even though it looks like they just have three legs, their fourth pair of legs actually act to catch and hold food, and these chompers look pretty gnarly! Not to mention, the colors on these little guys were so vibrant and beautiful!

I guess the phrase “Leave no stone unturned” should really include logs too!

Ever since yesterday, I have seen a plethora of spiders I am fairly certain are Wolf Spiders! They tend to hide amongst the leaf litter and are very easy to miss if you aren’t looking closely. Seriously, I think I have seen almost ten in the last day alone!

Serenity

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Day 13 (5/28): Arachnid Paradise

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I finally made it to bird-watching today! I saw two scarlet macaws perching on a high tree branch. At 8AM, we went out to the rainforest to collect our urine tubes. Upon analysis of these urine tubes back in the lab, we found ants, beetles, crickets, flies, and arachnids!

After lunch, we headed to the Las Cuevas Cave, which is about a 5 minute walk from the station. The entrance of the cave was massive- we looked down from a Mayan built platform and there was a 50 foot drop to the bottom. This cave had 9 chambers, each assembled by the Maya for ritualistic purposes. Due to archaeological excavation, we were only able to see the entrance of the cave and the first chamber.

The first chamber of the cave was dark, chilly, and mystical- a perfect place to present on amphibian and reptile taxon groups! Afterwards, Damien presented on tropical diseases back at the station. Then, we headed out on a 45 minute hike to the Bird Tower, an observation deck 300 feet in the air that oversees all of the Chiquibul Rainforest. The view was breathtaking. Everywhere I looked there were mountains, rolling hills, and deep rock crevasses. The research station was also visible from the Bird Tower- it was a small speck of clearing and really put our isolation to the rest of the world in perspective. Turiez topped everything off with an amazing presentation on her defaunation research in Gabon and the Amazon.

Bottom half of the Bird Tower

The Chiquibul

On the way back to the station was the self-proclaimed night hike. I saw a wolf spider (Hogna spp.), a tailless whip scorpion (Paraphyrnus raptator), and 2 Florida bark scorpions (Centruoides gracilis)! The wolf spider was motionless on a leaf while both the tailless whip scorpion and 2 Florida bark scorpions were found after Scott chipped some bark away from a dead tree.

 

Wolf Spider

Tailless whip scorpion

Florida Bark Scorpion

All in all, today felt very productive and I’m glad we had the chance to see all of these sights because tomorrow is our last full day at Las Cuevas :(.