Day 5: May 19th 2018, Las Cuevas

I woke up again at 5:30 today to bird watch.  We saw several of the same birds as before including a Montezuma Oropendola with a bright yellow tail by its nest, but we also saw some new thing.  We saw two birds called the Chachalaca sitting atop a tree and a bright blue little bird called the Sorodian Warbler.  After breakfast, we also saw a toucan perching on a far high branch.

Then it was off to our third project, a new project idea based on the Hurricane that had occurred about two years prior.  We wanted to test the effect of hurricanes (hurricane gap areas) on the richness of grounded vascular plants. We hypothesized that there would a greater richness of grounded vascular plants in hurricane gap areas (areas that have fallen trees creating gaps) versus non gap areas.  We tested this by sampling the leaves of the grounded vascular plants in 5 areas of gap and 5 areas of non-gap using a 22in by 22in quadrant that we three randomly into each area.   On that walk to collect data, we saw a Helmitted Iguana, a coral snake, and large groups of cricket nymphs. 

We broke for lunch, eating a fantastic version of chicken fried rice.  After lunch, we sorted our leaves into morphospecies (different species by appearance), and analyzed our data.  We needed up concluding that we could not reject the null hypothesis that there was no difference between the richness of grounded vascular plants in gap and non gap areas. We presented our finding to our professors for feedback on experimental design, presentation of data, and future ideas.  While in the lab, Pedro showed me a picture of a dead gray/black furred rodent that he had found that had fur on its tail. My guess was that it was at least related to the Hispid Cotton Rat, genus Sigmodon.  After a nice break, we heard lectures on Bees, Amphibians, and Visual and Auditory Communication in the Rainforest.

After dinner, we did a night hike.  There was so much to see, we didn’t walk very far.  We observed several large spiders on the way to a frog pond where we saw several small mud turtles, two enormous brown crickets, and a brown colored anole in addition to the many insects flying around us.  Pedro found the skeleton of some type of nocturnal mammal (about 1 ft long) to the side of the pond.  It was likely preyed upon by another larger animal.  As we walked away, we saw a small 1ft red snake slithering into the brush.  We think that it was a coffee snake.  We also saw a banded gecko with leopard like patterning that was uselessly attempting to bite Professor Solomon’s finger.  Professor Correa had her own fun as she tried to pick up cockroaches without screaming. She was, however, successful at one point.   At the end of the hike, Pedro showed us a tarantula hole, and lured out the tarantula for us to see and for him to hold.  It was huge, furry, and the perfect conclusion to the night.  Things really do come out in the night here, and I swear they’re bigger than anything you’ll find at home.  However, the stars here are second to none, and to be honest I don’t think any of us want to leave.