Category Archives: 2016

2016

(Nakian) May 24: Departure x Connection x Zoo

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Today we left Las Cuevas Research Station to return to San Ignacio and depart to Glover’s Reef tomorrow. The departure was not so smooth as the van came 5 hours later due to miscommunication. The van was hot but spacious so not so much to complain about. As we passed the Tapir Camp and the familiar road we came through I remembered the excitement and concerns on the way to LCRS.
When we arrived at San Ignacio, I connected to the internet with my phone for the first time. It was a race of information and connection that I had forgotten for a whole week. After spending much time replying to worried messages, I found myself submerging into that waves of information and not living in the world I am sitting on. I was returning to myself before the trip I hoped to change.
Finally, we arrived at the Belize Zoo to have a night tour with nocturnal animals. With the humorous guides we saw the big cats of the rainforest that we had hoped to see ourselves in the rainforest. They were beautiful creatures and their story of how they ended up in the zoo saddened me for the ignorance and greed of men.
Also I saw leaf-cutter ants in the zoo. It seems that they are everywhere in Belize.

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2016

(Nakian) May 23: Tapir x Ocelot x Bye LCRS

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Today is the last activity day at Las Cuevas Research Station. We finally retrieved the camera traps we set on the first day. I was not expecting much because I have heard how cautious wildlife are especially near human presence. But what are the odds, the cameras caught a curassow, a tapir, an ocelot, and a weasel looking animal that was hard to identify. The last camera trap was a blast with a big cat species we all hoped to see. The ocelot’s beautiful pattern was indeed mesmerizing.
The past several days at the LCRS I must say was extraordinary. The morning choir of the distant and closely birds, nocturne of the night insects, occasional cries of the howler monkeys, bustling processions of Leaf-cutter and army ants’ parade, and shimmer of the neighboring planet beside the tropical moon. Having the first-hand experience of the field biology on the crisp bed of fallen tree litters, rejoicing with the unexpected encounter with amazing species, I have never been so one with the nature before.
I still am not sure what my passion in the ecological field will be in detail. But I learned in LCRS that studying to approach ecological conservation of this biodiversity haven in the light of social, political, cultural, and economic perspective that I aspire to take could be a valid path, even one that could be healthy for me. I do not regret my decision to spend my time here.

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2016

Day 8: A sad day

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We left Las Cuevas today. I wasn’t ready to this place. I spent the morning talking to Lauren the grad student and Bill the professor from the University of Florida, asking them about the equipment that they use and brainstorming ideas to improve the technology. I’ve decided that I’m going to ask my academic advisor if I can work with them as for a senior design project. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to see this place again. Our transportation was really, really late. So that gave us an extra couple of hours at the station.

We spent most of the day on the road in the bus. Today was probably one of the least exciting days. Because the bus driver was so late we didn’t get to visit the ATM caves. I’m slightly disappointed, everyone seems to think it’s an awesome visit.

In the afternoon, we arrived at the Belize Zoo lodge and had dinner. After dark we got a special night tour of the zoo. We saw all of their nocturnal animals including: a Black Jaguar, a Spotted Jaguar, an Ocelot, a Margay, some owls and crocs, and a Tapir. The zoo tour was a lot more exciting than I was expecting. I can’t remember the last time I went the a zoo to see animals.

-Randy

2016

Day 7: Oh my gosh a cat

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The people from the other school caught two birds in the morning. One was a Slaty Antwren and the other was possibly a Red Throated Ant-Tanager. Both were very pretty birds.

After breakfast we went out and collected our camera traps. We did the whole 13 mile hike again, and like Scott and Adrienne promised, the second time around was much easier. After lectures, we opened up our camera traps and looked at the images they captured. In the beginning, everyone was super hopeful. There was a small bird that appeared on two close locations. And a Great Curassow on another. Other than that we just caught a lot of pictures of the other group that is here. People. Some more people. We were becoming less and less optimistic. But alas, on one of the last few traps we managed to get a picture of Tapir, which is extremely rare and endangered. Scott seemed really happy. On the last trap, which was mine, there were pictures of an Agouti and an Ocelot. That was really awesome. Scott confessed that he didn’t think the spot I picked was going to yield any good pictures. So i was pretty happy to prove him wrong.

Almost forgot. On the way to collect the traps we actually caught a glimpse of a Great Curassow on the Monkey Tail Trail. it was a lot bigger than I was expecting. All in all, pretty awesome day. Saw some cool birds, got an elusive cat picture. And of course, we got a picture of an endangered animal. How great is that?!

–Randy

2016

Day 6: Birds getting it on

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There were Plumbeous Kites mating on the tree in front of the main building this morning. It was kind of interesting to watch the ordeal. The male performed a mating dance where it would stand face to face with the female bird and spread its wings. When the started mating the female would actually hang upside down on the branch.

After breakfast we went out to collect our urine traps and counted the number of types of insects there were in the vials. We created some posters and presented our finding.

In the evening we had a guest lecture from Lauren the grad student that’s been here for 9 months. It was very interesting to hear about her research and perspective on being here. I was especially interested in the technology that she used to conduct her research. I tried to come with a couple of different ideas in my head that would potentially help her with her research, specially the data collection and or implementing machine learning in her data processing process. I thought about potentially using her camera trap stations themselves as a communication network and relay the images between stations and eventually onto her computer. I thought about maybe applying image recognition algorithms to help her sort false triggers from images that actually have animals in them. Maybe this could turn into a senior design project. We’ll just have to see.

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After the talk we went on a night hike and saw some pretty amazing stuff. We found an interesting species of cockroach that can hiss and spray a sticky substance. There were a bunch of really larger spiders. But the thing that was the most exciting for me was at the end of the hike we found a mother Pauraque nesting on 2 eggs. That really made my night.

-Randy

2016

Day 8: The bus saga continues…

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This morning, we got up early for a final hike before our 7 AM departure. At 7:30, the bus still hadn’t arrived. We called to discover that the bus hadn’t left yet, and was 4 hours away. We were scheduled to tour the ATM cave in the morning, but by the time we arrived we had missed our spot and wouldn’t have made it out of the cave until 7. To make matters more exciting, our bus driver decided that he was dropping us off with all our bags at the cave, and wouldn’t drive us all the way to our hotel as we had originally thought. We got a new bus driver, and stopped at a souvenir shop and ate lunch at a restaurant. I tried tamarind juice for the first time and it was delicious!

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Then, we drove to the Belize Zoo. We went on a night tour of the zoo, which was amazing. All of their animals are native to Belize, either rescues or animals in rehabilitation. We got to see jaguars, ocelots, pumas, and margays that we’ve been living with all week in the forest, but never actually seen. We got to feed a tapir named Indie, who was confiscated as a baby from the pet trade. We also saw an adorable pair of pacas, which are large rodents with similar size and coloration to baby tapirs. Pacas are hunted for their skin and meat, and hunters often accidentally shoot baby tapirs while hunting pacas.

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We didn’t do much hiking today, and I didn’t see any termites. Tomorrow I’ll be giving termites a rest and searching for red algae!

2016

Day 7: Our final chiquibul adventure

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Chiquibul

Today we collected the camera traps that we set out on the first day. It took us 10 hours to set out the traps the first time, but today we were done by 3 while taking a substantial lunch break. It’s amazing what a week in the jungle will do.

I didn’t see any new termite nests today, as we were walking a path we had travelled several times and didn’t stop much to poke around. We did, however, see some amazing species on the camera traps!

The first photo we looked at contained a bird, but most of the following pictures only captured leaves moving and people walking by. After sifting through hundreds of photos from 11 traps, we had seen 2 birds and a tapir. The tapir was awesome, but I think we had all been hoping to see more than 3 species. We weren’t expecting much from the 12th trap, which we had accidentally set up on top of a massive leaf cutter ant nest. To our surprise, this trap caught an agouti and an ocelot!! Those last photos definitely made the 26 miles of hiking worthwhile. We’ve heard about all of the species in the Chiquibul, but it was so incredible to see these species (almost) in person, and know that they crossed the same path that we did sometimes only an hour before.

Tomorrow morning, we will leave Las Cuevas. I’m covered in heat rash and I’ve been perpetually sleep deprived, but I feel so complete when I’m here. I have loved waking up to the sound of the howlers and being surrounded by the buzz of the jungle. I’m going to miss this place, but I know many amazing adventures await us on the reef!

2016

When vans are less reliable than big cat sightings

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This trip has seen a variety of transportation mishaps, but today took the cake. After a final morning walk, we were all set to leave for ATM cave at 7am. However, the van was not, as it had not even left its starting point, which was hours away. So we had some nice time to talk with other group members, get a presentation out of the way, and have lunch.

Finally the van appeared around noon and drove us to Georgeville, where we were to meet our tour guides for the ATM cave. However, upon arriving at the town, it became clear that it was too late to go to ATM cave (plus the bus driver wanted to drop us off and leave), so we instead stopped for lunch at the Orange Gallery, and then headed off (with a new driver) to the Belize Zoo.

The outlook was grim
The outlook was grim

The night tour of the Belize Zoo was one of the coolest things we have done so far. We got to each feed a tapir named Indy, and see two pacas, a Morlet’s crocodile, and many other species.

However, the best part of the zoo tour for me was the cats. We got to see four of the five species of cats that inhabit Belize (the jaguarundi is diurnal and thus was not out). We met a black jaguar named Lucky Boy, a very vocal ocelot, a small puma of the Belizean variety, a margay with ankles that can rotate 180 degrees to climb down trees, and another jaguar who did tricks. The Belize Zoo is an amazingly natural place that not only rescues individual animals, but also uses these individuals as ambassadors for conservation. Their pride in their natural heritage was truly inspiring!

Lucky Boy the jaguar
Lucky Boy the jaguar

2016

Final Forest Feels

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Today we took on the 14-mile hike to pick up the camera traps that we put out on Wednesday. We picked up seven traps before lunch, and five traps after. This time the trek went significantly faster and was much easier, though my full-leg red rash reappeared. I’m really hoping this won’t be a recurring issue in the future.

A strangler fig surrounds its host tree, eventually killing it and standing on its own
A strangler fig surrounds its host tree, eventually killing it and standing on its own

A few different species of mammals were seen today, most of which were caught in the camera trap images. Though I did not see it, apparently an agouti was seen by others in the group during morning bird watching. Some really exciting species were caught by the traps. Another agouti and an ocelot (!!!!) were caught by the same trap in a naturally open area, at different times. We also got a great picture of a tapir (endangered species) along a human path. Though the sample size of species in our camera trap images was small, all of this was still super exciting for me, especially the ocelot capture.

I also gave my mammal taxon briefing in the evening. This was my favorite of all the presentations to make and give, and I really enjoyed watching others using some of the information from my presentation in attempting to identify species in the camera trap images.

It’s pretty sad to have to leave this place. The rainforest is magical in the amount of life it holds, and even though I’ve barely slept all week, I’ve felt as strong as ever here. Hopefully I can return some day!

2016, Uncategorized

Change of Plans

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Today was another travel day, and yet again we had mishaps with vans. Our driver and van company were not properly communicated with and were 5 hours late to pick us up from Las Cuevas. Therefore, we did not get to go to the ATM Caves.

The van ride was long and hot, and the fact that we didn’t get to go to the caves made it very hard to be patient. However, we stopped for lunch at the Orange Gallery and got to cool down, eat some lunch, get some refreshing drinks, and buy some souvenirs.

View at the Orange Gallery
View at the Orange Gallery

Tonight we are staying at the Belize Zoo Lodge, and we got a fabulous tour of the zoo after dinner. Scott was very proud of us for being more scared of the leaf cutter ants than the jaguar. We got to touch a black jaguar’s paws. His name is Lucky Boy, and he was rescued from a resort.

We also played with the other jaguar (Junior) and he ran up and down the cage after us. We fed a Tapir, saw a huge American alligator, and heard an ocelot make some weird noises while jumping for treats. The ocelot was making some weird noises that sounded like it saying “nam nam nam”.

Oh, also this morning I saw 4 or 5 golden orb weavers. One of them was huge it was almost two inches in body length!

I’m very excited for our boat trip to the reef tomorrow and getting to see some amazing things there.