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Belize Day 6: Monkey Mayhem

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2:31 am

  • Lily: ZZZzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzz
  • Howler monkey: HUWAOOOO (the phonetic spelling of howler monkey calls)
  • Lily: *wakes up halfway*

3:48 am

  • Lily: zzzzzzzzzzzz
  • Howler money: HUWAOOOO, HUWAOOOO, HUWAOOOO 
  • Lily: *puts pillow over head*

4:?? am

  • Howler monkey: HUWAOOOO
  • Lily: ……

IMG_0298 (Video of Howler Monkey Calls, taken by Sam – 05/21/25)

We’re in the howler monkey’s territory. In fact, an adorable family of howler monkeys roams these grounds. Last night, they claimed the tree next to our cabin for the night and made it known. When we woke up and saw the baby hanging by its tail in the tree, we forgave the family instantly for the few nighttime disturbances. We spent our pre-breakfast birding session watching the monkeys feast on some leaves instead.

We had an eventful day ahead – exploring caves, analyzing our pee traps, and hiking uphill to catch the sunset. After breakfast, we took a quick stroll to the cave across from our cabin (we’re living on top of a cave network), filled with cultural remnants and cool geological formations. As we ventured in, the bright, green, warmth of the rainforest quickly changed to damp, cool, stillness, with dripping water and flitters of bats from above. The landscape in front of us looked like an alien planet. The cave floor was filled with muddy grooves and slimy, translucent, blob-shaped masses (stalactites). They’re so blobby they almost look like they’re a living creature. The ceiling, on the other hand, had bell-shaped holes and icicle-shaped masses (stalagmites). Stalactites and stalagmites form when acidic water from the ground above dissolves the limestone of the walls and deposits the calcium carbonate precipitate (https://sciencenotes.org/stalagmites-and-stalactites-how-they-form-and-more/). Although we couldn’t venture far (access was restricted by the research station to protect the cultural ruins within), it was incredible to see a new pocket of the world and the nature within.

Nice reflection of stalactites in very quiet water in a cave. Luray Caverns in Virginia

(Stalagmites and Stalactites – livescience.com) 

Post-class group pic in our caving helmets, we geared up for the rainforest right above. The most important piece of gear we needed was tube caps. Today was the day we collected our pitfall (pee) traps, and we definitely preferred having lids on our vials filled with a mix of urine and insects. The retrieval process went fairly quickly, and we even saw an epiphyte arrowhead plant on the way back! Dr. Evans was able to identify it after I discussed it in my epiphyte taxonomy presentation the day before.

Upon reaching the lab, I realized my pee tube had been dripping. But the spill was totally worth it because the nitrogen in my pee (or its location) might have successfully attracted a blueberry-sized grasshopper into my tube. After compiling all class data, we found that the tubes buried on the forest floor had the greatest number of organisms and species, suggesting that there is a greater availability of nitrogen on the forest floor than on the canopy. This was a super cool mini-study (a pilot study) to better understand our test system and data trends to see if we want to continue the project on a greater scale.

Feeling proud of our project’s success, we regained the energy to hike up a steep, winding trail to the top of one of the rolling hills for a peaceful, glorious sunset. When we reached the hilltop panting, drenched in sweat, and chugging water, we breathed. The sun was just beginning to set, and rays were peeking in through the canopy. We climbed the ladder up the bird-watching tower, and once we reached the top, our view was rolling green hills as far as the eye could see. We took turns getting “golden hour” pics up on the deck and then took moments to breathe in the sounds and beauty of the jungle. I couldn’t think of a better bonding experience.

(Dr. Solomon Takes on Bird Tower – 05/21/25)

Hiking back in the dark, we were buzzing (like the insects) with excitement and eager to put our recently developed field biology skills into practice. We passed around cicada skins to wear as matching accessories, ate some carrot-flavored termites, tapped on trees to check for ant inhabitants, chased after neon-green glow-in-the-dark Click beetles, and even spotted upon the entrance to another cave system. The day unfolded like a nature-themed sandwich with caves at both ends and layers of discovery about organisms and their habitats in between.

Peace,

Lily 🙂

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Belize Day 5: Inspidering and Antastic

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It’s pitch black outside. You look up, and the stars illuminate the tree silhouettes and snake-shaped vines surrounding you. You flick on your headlamp, scan the ground, and see thousands of tiny, glimmering emeralds. Dr. Solomon tells you they are spider eyes, and the realization hits you: It’s a spider’s world, and you’re living in it. My new favorite hobby is night hiking.

Today, we saved the hiking for the evening and spent the morning learning about what really goes on at Las Cuevas Research Station, the site we are staying at as we study the rainforest. It is owned by Friends for Conservation and Development, a non-profit centered around environmental protection, but their work extends far beyond a single initiative. They started as a group of passionate teenagers who cherished the environment and wanted to protect it, and bloomed into an organization that hires rangers (forest monitoring), runs research stations, restores endangered species (including macaws, jaguars, game species, etc), maintains and protects cultural richness (ex. They protect Mayan remains in the caves), and help local communities. Their work and growth as a grassroots group is absolutely inspirational, and I now have my heart set on working as a ranger for them. I just need to practice carrying 80-lb weight bags places and train my knees for the steep inclines.

The FCD focuses the majority of its time and resources on protecting scarlet macaws. It is estimated that there are only 350 individuals in Belize due to extreme poaching. To protect chicks from poaching, FCD members extract chicks from the nest, raise them, and release them once they are more capable of defending themselves. We’re incredibly lucky to be staying in the only region of the Chiquibul Forest where they are found, and we see a couple fly overhead almost every day.


(Scarlet Macaw Feather – 05/20/25)

After lunch, we went on a hunt for leaf-cutter ant colonies–more specifically, the prized fungal gardens inside. I mentioned in an earlier blog post that leaf cutters are little gardeners who cultivate this fungus, which they eat by feeding it leaves and other materials. We wanted to see their rich harvests for ourselves.


(Fungal Garden with Queen Ant – 05/20/25)

In our search for ant hills, we set out to find both a young and an older, more mature colony. We examined how colony structures differed and changed with age. Right by the cabin, out in the open field, we saw a teeny ant hill, and Dr. Solomon started digging around the nest on the spot. New colonies are often found in open spaces or edge habitats (between the rainforest and open clearings) because the Queen ant needs to find cover asap to avoid predation, and these spaces are the most accessible. New colonies are started when a preexisting colony produces another queen, and this queen takes a chunk of fungus with her and flies high into the air to mate with a male. Once she’s fertilized, she’s set to lay eggs for the rest of her life. (She’s ___, meaning she only needs to mate once and can store the rest for the future). From there, she burrows into a new spot on the ground and starts cranking out eggs. The workers that hatch will continue digging new chambers until the hill is giant.

We walked down the trail to a massive ant mound the size of a shed aboveground that was fully mature and could have been anywhere from 15-25 years old. Underground, it easily could have been 3x more voluminous. We saw a ton of tunnels burrowing down from the surface and learned that the whole colony breathes as one unit; the tubes take in oxygen and exhale CO2.

Then, Dr. Solomon popped the question, “So do we want to rile up the ants first or start digging first? Either way, they’re going to come out.” Rile them up? These guys are no joke – they can reach the size of a thumb (from what I’ve seen) and have zinc-lined, vibrating saw-like pinchers that can draw serious blood. We all looked around at each other with big eyes, and Sam, our ant expert, volunteered to be our first digger. 30 seconds later, Sam had a battle wound (bite), and these massive guys started streaming out like a broken fire hydrant. We all started tap dancing to flick them off of our rubber boots, but with their intense pinchers, they latched on and began to chew through the rubber. In the meantime, Dr. Solomon bravely spooned some exposed fungus out of the colony. Fungus acquired, mission accomplished, and lesson learned – don’t disturb shed-sized ant hills.

IMG_7296 (1) (Ants Swarming – 05/20/25)

After a dinner watching the sunset from our cabin deck, we embarked on a night hike to see more of the incredible creatures that call this jungle home. We breathed slowly, listening to the sounds of the jungle at night. Our our way back, we had the unexpected pleasure of seeing Belize’s National Flower, the tiny black orchid (an epiphyte!), sitting on the tree out front of our cabin. Feeling fortunate and at peace, we ended the day lying on top of the picnic and gazing up at the stars, making shapes with the stars. There is so much life out there to cherish and discover.


(Black Orchid: Belize’s National Flower – 05/20/25)

 

Peace & Love,

Lily 🙂

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Belize Day 4: Buggin Around

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This morning, Elise and I discovered that there was definitely maybe a jaguar (or some other feline-y mammal) strolling around our cabin. Last night, when we were frolicking around the clearing of grass around our cabin, trying to spot stars whenever the stubborn clouds parted, we smelled a bold whiff of something like cat pee. As soon as our nostrils made us suspicious, we fell silent. Then, we heard a few twigs snap and RACED back up the stairs to our safe cabin deck, saving the jaguar spotting for another night. Debriefing with Dr. Evans this morning, we learned that he also heard a deeep mammal exhale right outside of his room around that time. 

With coffee and tea in hand, sitting around the picnic tables on the deck, we listened to our reliable grackle friend (he’s there all day, every day) squawk and put on a scene for the ladies. Down on the grass, Lonesome George (a flamboyant, wild turkey, who doesn’t mind being alone so that all eyes are on him) was roaming around. He’s extra flashy with an undercoat of black and white checkered feathers, some iridescence on his top coat, and quite a few more patterns. Also, we found a bunch of turkey feathers in a spot along the trail and think a jaguar got to his friend. 

(Lonesome George – 05/20/25)

Today we would be designing and executing another research project, this time, using our pee for an experimental treatment. Often, most of the rainforest’s nitrogen is stored near the forest floor in the decomposing leaf litter and nitrogen-fixing bacteria (organisms that live in the soil and convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms usable by plants). As you climb higher, nitrogen becomes harder to come by. Therefore, plant-available nitrogen should be more available and more evenly distributed on the forest floor than in the canopy, where occasional, limited nitrogen sources would be more concentrated around the few sources and less common. To test this, we set up pitfall traps, which were just tubes filled halfway with liquid, camouflaged so that insects would stumble in and stay trapped. We would compare the differences in species richness (the number of species), species abundance (the total number of species), and total biomass in the treatments. To make the control and experimental treatment, we filled tubes with water (no nitrogen) and pee (yes nitrogen) hidden in the forest floor (in the soil) and on tree trunks. We peed in tubes, put on our boots, and headed out for the rainforest.

(Tree Pee Tubes – 5/19/25)

Before we headed out, we were given 2 pieces of advice for the field:

  1. Dr. Evans: “Make sure you guys bring your childlike whimsy with you.” 
  2. Dr. Solomon: “Watch out for killer ants.”

About the killer ants, apparently not too long ago (around the 90s), scientists decided to breed the European honey bees (with low honey production and low agressiveness) with African Honey Bees (with high honey production and high agressiveness) with the hopes of creating a high honey and low agressiveness phenotypic combination and a winning bee vareity for market honey production. Instead, they created the opposite–a low-honey, high-aggressiveness bee. Not only is this meany more aggressive, but it also has a lower threshold (it will react with less disturbance/irritation) for sending a warning call back to the hive to bring the other bees over. So, contact with one hybrid bee could summon the killer bees. 6 of these hybrids (specifically queen bees) escaped the lab, and now, 30ish years later, they’re taking over the rainforests. 

While setting our traps, we stopped to chat about some more insects that can do some damage. We walked on top of this humongous leaf-cutter ant hill (literally hill-sized), and some of the pinky-sized, pinch-armed soldier ants (the specialized protectors of the colony) came out to greet us. One of us turned around and saw a soldier making its way up Ian’s back. While everyone was panicking and working together to whack it off, Dr. Solomon popped by and said, “So guys, that was a great example of social grouping in primates. All you have to do now is eat the ant.” Yep, classic Dr. Solomon. Learning by doing, ya know?

(Leaf-cutter Soldier – 05/19/25)

After this little morning project and a delicious lunch from our exceptional chef Angie (nothing can compare to the plantains here), we strategized for rainforest study 3, which did not involve urine, but rather catching crickets and ravaging ant colonies :(. There are these trees called Cecropia trees, which are layered with chambers like a “high-rise apartment complex” that mutually host Azteca ants. The ants protect the tree from predators, and the tree excretes sugary, nutritious meals for the ants in return. 

DSCF1315 (Cecropia-ant Mutualism – 05/19/25)

In our project, we were examining how the presence of the ants changes the tree’s physical and chemical composition (specifically its defense systems) in its leaves. We would collect leaves from two Cecropia trees–one with ant symbionts and one without–and compare the strength and herbivory amounts of the leaves. We had a fancy penetrameter to measure the force it would take to break through a leaf, and Dyllan brought out her butterfly net so that we could catch some herbivorous insects to consume the leaves. 

You know us, and we stopped many times during the search for Cecropia trees to poke sticks in freshly webbed-covered tarantula holes. When finally one popped out, the whole class exclaimed “OH!” and jumped back in unison. Also, did you know spider hairs are also irritating in addition to their venomous fangs? Their hairs are barbed and urticating, meaning they cause irritation and discomfort upon contact (https://enviroliteracy.org/animals/are-tarantulas-hair-poisonous/). 

Today was a bug-heavy day, completed with a scorpion sighting in our classroom drawer. My takeaways: insects are very diverse, have a few defense tricks up their sleeves (their 6 or 8 sleeves), and are mind-boggingly complex. Tomorrow, we’re learning more about leaf-cutter ants, so stay tuned for more insect lore. 

  • Lily 🙂
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Belize Day 3: Jungle Explorers or Fruit Ninjas?

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DCIM100GOPROGOPR0251.JPG

Now that we’re all situated in our jungle abode, we are really able to maximize the rainforest surrounding us to do field work. After a peaceful wake-up, sipping coffee and watching birds on our cabin porch (we saw scarlet macaws and yellow-bellied flycatchers!), we spent the first half of our morning cooking up a research project in the lab for our week at Las Cuevas Research Station. 

Dr. Solomon gave us these guidelines: We were given 14 motion-sensor cameras (one for each student) to place around the jungle to measure something. We decided to look at the impacts of human disturbance on biodiversity in the area, asking how the presence of man-made trails (hiking trails and roads) affects vertebrate diversity (mammals, birds, anything with a backbone). We would look at the number of species and the number of each individual within that species recorded by camera shots. 

(Motion Sensor Cam – 05/18/25)

 

In our comfortably shaded cabin, our class gathered together around a giant map and pointed to ideal camera locations, totally underestimating the amount of steps and sweat that would go into actually setting these cams up. We decided to pair each “human disturbed” camera location on the trail with another “undisturbed” camera off-trail nearby, keeping both cameras within the same general vicinity for consistency. So we had 7 different general locations to hike to in order to install our 14 cameras. With project methodology in our heads and recorded in our little field notebooks, we slid on our boots and set out for the trails.

While hiking to placement locations, we turned over quite a few logs to reveal pretty cool (and tasty) treats. Did you know that termites taste like carrots? Genuinely just like carrots; if you ever have an infestation, just cook them up for a little protein snack…that tastes like carrots. It’s because they contain some carotenoid compounds like carrots, giving them a sweet, earthy flavor. Ooh, also! I need to add a few more pages to my epiphyte identification card. Vascular epiphytes (the ones with stems) are estimated to make up to 25% of all vascular plants in tropical rainforests (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-3606-0_5), and we saw a few more epiphytes than the 20 listed on my sheet today. We spotted this tiny bromeliad I need to run through Inaturalist to identify. (Update: I think it’s a Tillandsia schiedeana). 

(Tiny Mystery Endophyte – 05/18/25)

(My Epiphyte ID Sheet – 05/17/2025)

 

We were out all day scouting for ideal camera placement locations. This involved cutting through vegetation off the main trails to put cameras in “undisturbed” areas, 50 paces into the forest from each trail camera location. We recorded GPS coordinates for all camera locations and marked them with neon yellow tape for easy retrieval. 

Because Dr. Solomon had a “professor-only” policy for using the machete, he was the only one slashing through the forest. By camera #11, we began to imagine Dr. Solomon as a video game character, from either a fruit-ninja/jungle-explorer game. We called out point values based on the satisfying-ness of his chops. A clean chop of a thick stem earned him 20 points, but a thin, easy chop would be something like +5. 

There was one site off the trail that had particularly dense, unpassable vegetation, and as soon as my friend Sahana saw the thick green barrier in front of us, she exclaimed, “Wow, it’s giving undistributed.” We laughed and cheered Dr. Solomon on by shouting out points as he cut through. 

This day was super tiring (we got our steps IN) but super funny. We found ways to joke about our work while stopping along the way to learn about species and their interactions. With a tan and new inside jokes, I feel content and excited to get back to the field tomorrow. 

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0190.JPG

(Our Hikey Day – 05/18/25)

  • Lily 🙂
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Belize Day 2: Epiphytes and Flights of Stairs

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Hi guys! Today felt like 3 crazy, wonderful days in one. Beginning with a nice 5:30 am shower, the day was filled with bird and critter identification and a stair-master tour of the Mayan mounds dotting the rainforest. 

(Caracol Ruins – 05/17/25)

After breakfast, we hopped aboard our iconic bus and took cat naps as we chugged up the mountains to the Caracol Maya Ruins. On our route, we passed through an area of the mountains known as Mountain Pine Ridge, featuring pine evergreen trees that were not very rainforesty. Our guide explained to us that this seemingly out-of-place pine vegetation was due to the fact that the soils in this region were different, composed of reddish (from the iron within) granite soils. We drove right through a ghost town that once flourished with the logging industry but has since been abandoned due to Belizean regulations shutting down the export of timber (though the export of timber products like furniture is legal). In the same area, baby pines had been planted as part of reforestation efforts. Human abandonment of the area allowed for pine restoration. It really makes you think about human/natural ecosystem competition. In this case, it was either the humans or the pines, not both. Is there a way they can coexist sustainably without edging each other out? 

Later down the road, we passed a beautiful, but squashed bright green vine snake in the middle of the road :(. Everyone disembarked to marvel at the pretty but gutty creature. Right when we got back on the bus, Sam coincidentally pulled out a green gummy worm and started munching on it. 

(Sam’s snake – 05/17/25)

A little while later, we arrived at Caracol, a site of Mayan ruins. We learned that the Maya built their houses and buildings on mounds of soil that contained previously used buildings – sometimes with deceased loved ones inside. They hopped on the “build up, not out” concept way early on. In fact, their tallest mound had 11 other layers of structures buried underneath. Boy, was that a climb. We climbed the stairs on this massive mound to reach the top, and by the end, we were on our hands and knees crawling up. From the top, we could see Guatemala in the horizon. Also, there were stray pieces of ancient pottery dotting the ruins, and we can all now say that we touched pieces of ancient Mayan pottery – pretty neat I think. 

(TALL Mounds – 05/17/25)

Throughout the day, I’ve seen so many of my glorious epiphytes (my taxa group, the dudes that live on trees without parasitizing them) and have been to successfully identify quite a few of them with the help my handy dandy taxon ID sheet and INaturalist (in the rare case that we have internet). We also saw a strangler fig, which is super neat because it begins its life cycle as a harmless epiphyte high up in a host tree, benefitting from the direct sunlight, but then, it grows down and around its host tree to establish its roots in the soil and strangle its host to death, taking over the space. I also was able to identify beautiful arrowhead plants with bright red fruits and winged peperomia from the pepper family, both quirky, unique epiphytes. 

(Epiphyte Friend – 05/17/25)

Amongst the epiphytes in the tree canopy (the highest part of the tree), we spotted quite a few beautifully patterned birds with some interesting behaviors. In the morning, we saw a social flycatcher with a long, bright-yellow tail, and at the ruins, we admired the hanging, bag-like nests of the Montezuma oropendola. These guys create hanging nests that serve as extra protection for their young and from nest parasitism by cowbirds. Nest parasitism happens when unrelated birds lay their eggs in the nests of different birds, forcing the nest owners to raise and nourish young that are not their own. On our way out of the ruins, we watched a toucan hop from leaf to leaf and a turkey vulture scouting the area for fresh meat. 

We are now established in our final rainforest site, the Las Cuevas Research Station, which is also built upon Mayan ruins and a cave system. Also, there are epiphytes of all shapes and colors EVERYWHERE that I’m dying to identify over the course of these next few days. I have a few more bucket list items for these next few days: (1) go birdwatching, (2) explore the underground cave system, (3) see a Scarlet Macaw (the beautiful, iconic red parrot).

Today I’ve learned SO MUCH about Belize’s history, geology, and some of the plant and critter behaviors that make up ecology. 

I’m ending my Blog today with these lovely and super true quotes from Dr. Evans: “The more you know, the more you notice” and “the longer you stare at it, the more things you see.”

  • Lily 🙂
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Belize Day 1: From the Runway to the Rainforest

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(Inside Crystal Lodge! – 05/16/25)

 

Here we are, winding down and typing up our day 1 recaps, appreciating the night’s breeze and tuning in to the chirps of insects all around us. After a long and hectic day of travel, it feels fulfilling to finally be writing from our destination in Belize. But even though today featured extra security lines and bus trips, we were able to experience Belize’s ecology, learning about (and seeing!) neat species and trying delicious foods. 

As we hopped off the plane and entered the Belize airport, we were surrounded by wall ads featuring casinos, birdwatching, liquor, and river tubing. As we filled out our immigration form, we had to choose between “student,”  “tourism,” “honeymoon,” and some other options as our purpose for travel. Yes, honeymoon was an option, and considering all of the couples surrounding us, I bet it was checked off by the majority. The wide variety of activities to do in Belize, from lying on the beach to researching in the rainforest, reflects its diversity of habitats and just how vital ecotourism is to the country. 

(Da Bus – 05/16/25)

Our class’s focus is on learning about Belize’s species and ecosystems. When we hopped on the bus, Dr. Solomon reminded us to keep on the lookout during the ride for the species we were each assigned to study and later present to the class. My topics are rainforest soil, epiphytes, and sponges. Sam had extra trouble spotting ants (his assigned topic) out of the bus window, but I was able to observe the soil pretty well from my seat. It looked like there had been some landslides that revealed the natural layers of the soil, and I saw that the layers looked pretty rundown and weathered. While nutrient-rich soil has clear layers, the soil here looked chalky and blended. This makes sense because this soil has been here for a while with plenty of time to naturally break down, and the heavy precipitation has leached it of its nutrients, so its layers are extra scrambled and indistinguishable. 

(Nutrient-sufficient, layered soil horizon – edukemy.com)

About 45 minutes into our drive, we stopped at a local restaurant called Cheers. While we were waiting for our food, we took a lap around the outside to explore the wildlife, and I saw more signs of the poor soil. I tripped over a root sticking out of the soil and realized that all of the trees in the area had shallow roots. This wasn’t a coincidence; often, trees in nutrient-poor soils have adapted near-surface roots to more effectively capture nutrients from the atmosphere, like those that fall down with the rain. Sam was also successful in finding his topic in real life. He tracked down some lines of ants! Now, whenever anyone spots an insect that looks the slightest bit like an ant, we shout Sam’s name to ask him to identify the species. We also watched lizards dive from high up in tree crowns (the leafy parts of the trees) to a little pond underneath. This is likely because they needed a way to cool their bodies off in the hot Belize sun. As cold-blooded animals, they rely on the environment to regulate their body temperatures.

(Shallow root system – 05/16/25)

We came back to our tables to enjoy the most delicious, freshly squeezed soursop fruit juice and some giant tamales and burritos. With full bellies and ready to nap, we reboarded and rode to our lodge for the night. 

(Yum Burrito – 05/16/25)

 

The Crystal Lodge was an absolute tropical paradise. Stepping off the bus, we saw such an array of tree species with tons of epiphytes (nonparasitic species without root systems that live on trees). I was most excited to identify the nitrogen-fixing epiphytes on some trees’ leaves. They look like little splotches of white, blue, and green and inhabit plant leaves, converting nitrogen gas from the atmosphere to a form usable to the plant.

(Nitrogen Fixing Epiphytes – 05/16/25)

Today was filled with car naps and seeing ecological concepts in real life. Tomorrow, we are heading deeper into the Maya Rainforest, and I can’t wait to tell you about the intriguing, wonky creatures we see. Peace out!

  • Lily, 2025
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Snorkel, Boots, and Bucket Hat Packed and Ready to Go!

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Hi everyone! My name is Lily Hestjean, and I’m an ecology and evolutionary biology major at Rice currently anticipating this exciting trip! This is how I image our Belize trip will go: Our class will be gathered together in front of this infinitely high tree surrounded by vines and epiphytes (the plants without roots that latch on to trees for structural support), and as Dr. Solomon explains how to measure trunk diameter, my eyes wander away, following the leaf cutter ants marching by. Just today, in our Belize textbook, I read about where this endless line of ants is headed. They’re on their way back to their fungal gardens. Yes, they are little gardeners who cultivate their own fungus as a food source, tucked away underground and out of our sight. While the ants bring the fungus a leafy food source, the fungus returns the favor by producing special, nutrient-rich portions of itself for the ants to eat. This is mutualism at its finest, the species relationship where both parties benefit from one another. https://discoverwildscience.com/the-symbiotic-architects-leafcutter-ants-and-their-underground-fungal-farms-1-296417/ 

(The Ant Farm – biointeractive.org)

 

In Belize, I can’t wait to see all of the fascinating ecological concepts I read about in real life. I can’t wait to wake up to the sound of birds chirping from all directions and maybe a couple of howler monkey calls. I think that this course (BIOS 319: Tropical Field Biology in Belize) is my idea of heaven – spending the day out in the rainforest doing ecological field work, spotting cool trees and insects, and bonding with my class through shared sweating and learning. In this 2-week-long course, we will be spending five days at Las Cuevas Research Station in the Maya Mountains (the rainforest) and five days at Glover’s Reef (the ocean!), gaining hands-on researching skills. Though I don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing day to day at the sites, I am so ready for all of the one-of-a-kind experiences the days will hold. 

While I will have to get adjusted to the 5 am wake-up calls, I can’t wait to put eco-gear and training to use. I’m ready to rep my new bucket hat and green rubber boots–my protection from all of the biting critters on the forest floor. A few weeks ago, our class walked over to the Houston Zoo’s reptile exhibit to learn how to identify and react to poisonous snakes we might encounter in the rainforest. Then, we jumped into Rice Rec’s pool to practice using our snorkels and fins. We laughed at how, while we were snorkeling on one side of the pool, we got strange looks from the other side of the pool, where people were just trying to get some laps in. 

(Snorkel Practice – 04/28/25)

 

Besides my training in Houston, last summer, I was able to gain tropical researching experience at EARTH University in Costa Rica during a two-month plant science internship. The most fulfilling part of my experience was immersing myself in the rich, dynamic ecosystem and sharing my appreciation for nature with friends. I am certain I will be able to do the same in the rainforests of Belize. 

I’m also very excited to dive around reefs in search of sponges. My job as a part of the class is to be able to identify the different sponges and explain more about their living strategies, from the way they eat (by filtering little particles out of the water) to the way they reproduce (by releasing clouds of sperm into the water). While I am slightly nervous about my identification skills, especially underwater, I am looking forward to sharing some sponge fun facts with the class. Did you know scientists have discovered carnivorous sponges in the deep ocean? Look up harp sponges, trust me. 

(Harp Sponge – mbari.org)

 

While I’m there, I hope to learn how to quantify human impact on these rich, biodiverse ecosystems, like calculating deforestation rates and the impacts of elevated CO2 levels. I hope to better understand the challenges these ecosystems face and sustainable solutions. 

Thank you for checking in! Over the course of these next two weeks, I will continue updating you each day about the cool, interesting things I learn! T-minus 12 hours until our flight to Belize boards!