This morning we went on a long and speedy hike to pick up all the camera traps we laid out on our first day in the Chiquibul! I had a great time using the GPS to help find the location of our camera traps, although it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to zoom in and out on the GPS map!

On our hike, I was able to confidently identified a butterfly! I saw an orange striped butterfly in the genus Heliconius. It looked just like the tiger-striped long wing, with orange striped wings and white spots on the ends of the front wings. However, as this butterfly has several mimics it could have been one of them instead. This genus of butterflies has been used in many studies about mimicry, so this was especially exciting for me!

I also saw a really cool massive wasp (?) while hiking this morning. It had long orange legs and a black body with yellow markings. It was giant, about the size of a ping pong ball, and just resting on a leaf. Hopefully I can look it up when we get back to civilization and figure out what kind of wasp it is! ( Or ask Scott!)

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In the afternoon there was a heavy rain, and the previously dry frog pond filled up a bit. This was very exciting as it meant that the frogs began to loudly call from this area. We hiked out to see them, and although we didn’t have any spottings it was very cool to be surrounded by their loud strange calls. According to one of the staff members at Las Cuevas Research Station, it was likely a bunch of Mexican Burrowing Toads.

We drove out of the Chiquibul this afternoon, and although it was a long and bumpy car ride, I am happy to have warm water again!

– Ava