Hi everyone, my name is Elise Trenk! I’m an environmental science and economics double-major, and I’m a rising sophomore at Brown. We are now two days out from departing Houston for Belize and I am incredibly excited! So far, I’ve been focused on researching my taxon groups, amphibians (rainforest) and angelfish (reef), and preparing my topic presentation on tropical parasites, diseases, and medicinal plants. I’ve greatly enjoyed the process of researching in these areas thus far and have learned (what I would consider) some pretty interesting facts. Here are a few:

1) There is an amphibian called a caecilian that gets around by feeling with a tentacle region on its head. Its appearance is in between a snake and a worm and it lives in the moist forest undergrowth. I am desperate to find one and I will promise you now that if I do, I will write the longest blog entry you have ever seen about how cool it is.

2) Some of the angelfish species that we may see in Belize (like the gray angelfish) can be up to 2 feet long (60 cm)!

3) Certain species in the plant family Rubiaceae (which encompasses many medicinal plants) can produce products such as quinine and coffee.

I fear I may have made one mistake as a result of spending too much time learning about caecilians and other cool species: I have not focused on packing nearly as much as I should have. The scattered clothes and gear across the floor of my room serve as a testament. Tonight will be a long night, I’m sure…but spending the time learning about caecilians will be worth it (I hope). I leave for Houston tomorrow afternoon and will stay the night before meeting with the group on Friday morning.

Overall, I am most excited to hike around in the rainforest and swim in the reef and encounter some amazing species! I am a bit nervous about the snakes, but I’m sure that we will be fine as long as we stay alert and [leaf] them be : ) This will be my first time doing field work (outside of the BIOS 213 Intro Lab to Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), snorkeling, and visiting the tropics, and I’m looking forward to learning as I go. I hope to learn as much as I can while I’m there and enjoy this adventure of a lifetime!