Category Archives: 2017

2017

Day 13 – From the Mayan underworld to the skies of Chiquibul

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Hi friends,

When we got to Las Cuevas, we were told that we won’t be able to do caving as the cave was closed for archaeology excavation. However, of course nothing deters Scott and he was able to arrange for us to visit the caves, albeit only the entrance of it.

We spent the morning collecting our vials that we placed in the forest the previous day. We then analyzed the data and made a poster for it. After lunch, we checked out the Las Cuevas caves. The entrance was beautiful and apparently the cave was used in the past as a sort of temple where Mayans go to undertake a spiritual journey. There were supposedly nine chambers in the cave, each leading to another through a small opening that requires crawling through. As the individual crawl through the opening, they were supposedly bowing in humility to the Mayan gods and I found that the engineering of the hole to achieve this effect was pretty cool.

The hole to the next chamber of the Mayan underworld.

We explored the caves and entered the first chamber which was completely dark when we turned off our headlamps. We took some time to soak in the atmosphere and it felt weird to be deprived of my most important sensory organ but at the same time it was quite calming too. We then had our daily taxon lectures in the cave chamber which was a fresh change of environment. On our way out, we saw a green snake which was slithering in and out of the holes in the cave and that was interesting too.

In the late afternoon, we went on a hike to the bird tower which wasn’t that long by distance but it was a steep climb. The tower was a sketchy simple tower that looked like construction scaffolding with a wooden platform on top. However on closer inspection, it looked pretty stable on the bottom which gave me a peace of mind. At the top of the tower, the view was spectacular! Pictures below:

Bird’s eye view of Chiquibul.

We had a lecture by Therese at the top about her graduate research and it was interesting to listen to her stories of being in Gabon and the field work she had done there. The environment was also great for the lecture and the sun was setting as she spoke which hilariously made it look like she talked for a really long time. On the way back to the camp, some of the group saw a Desmarest’s Spiny Pocket Mouse (Heteromys desmarestianus) which escaped before I could take a look at it. That’s all I have for today.

Till tomorrow,

Damien

2017

Day 12 – Ant man and Spider woman

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Hi friends,

Today before breakfast ended, Scott handed us two vials and told us to pee in them. What a great start to the day! It turned out that we will be using the vials as traps and we will be studying the preference for nitrogen and the abundance of organisms on the forest floor and the forest canopy.

We went out to put half of the vials into the ground and another half of them on trees. It went pretty quickly and we didn’t really get to see any organisms around that area because most of the trees had fallen from last year’s hurricane damage and the canopy was sparse.

In the afternoon we spent some time on the lectures before going out to dig for leaf cutter ants’ nests. This is Scott’s specialization so I was really excited to see what’s in store. He first brought us to a small nest that was about a year old. We quickly dug down to its fungal garden which Scott extracted using a teaspoon. The fungal garden looked unlike what I was expecting and it was cool seeing all the larvae being carried around on it as the worker ants try to rescue them as the fungal garden was being carried away.

Fungal garden on a servery spoon.

The second ants’ nest was slightly bigger, about 4-6 years old, and it wasn’t that difficult digging into it either. When we got to the last one however, the first thing that surprised me was the size of it. From Scott’s description, it was about 10-15 years old, seemed to be about the size of 8 parking lot spaces, and it had multiple entrances. We started digging down from near the tree roots, as the nest was sloping from there and it was easier to dig. The soldier ants came out in no time to defend their home and they were significantly larger and greater in numbers than the previous two nests. It was a constant battle trying to excavate the nest and I was glad to have the rubber boots on as I could just shake the ants off as they tried climbing up my boots. I did get bit by an ant on each knee but the pants protected me well. It was a testament to their mouth grip strength that their heads stayed on attached to my pants even after I pulled off the rest of their bodies. Eventually Scott took charge and dug out the rest of the hill, but still did not find the fungal garden. He told us that it was probably because they decided to place their fungal gardens deeper to protect them, having their fungal gardens removed annually by Scott in the past few years.

Turiez chilling on a branch away from the leaf cutter ants.

At night after the presentations, Jordan, Deepu, Ellie and I decided to go tarantula hunting. We managed to find a couple of medium-sized tarantula holes and saw a few tarantulas that quickly disappeared back into their holes. We also found a roosting Common Pauraque through its eyes which reflected in our headlamps. That was pretty cool as it was camouflaged well in the leaf litter that it took us a while to figure out what it was.

After looking around for a while, we decided to go back to our rooms. However, we met Aimee from Loyola University who was just about to go find some spider specimens and asked us if we wanted to help her. Naturally, being the helpful and caring students we are, we volunteered to help. Before we did however, she decided to show us a couple of tarantula holes that she found. THEY WERE HUGE!!! And she showed us a technique to fish out tarantulas which was really awesome. We managed to get out some of them and took close-up photographs of them.

Fished out this big boy!

We then went into the forest (at night!!) and looked for a certain species of spiders under palm leaves. I managed to find a couple and I hope that this small contribution will help her out in her research work to document this new species of spiders. I want it to be named after me thank you!

As a side note, I didn’t see any mammals today which was disappointing. Maybe tomorrow!

Till next time,

Damien

2017

Day 11 – Snake it off

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Hi friends,

WE FINALLY SAW SNAKES TODAY!!! We saw a fer-de-lance snake too, and I recognized it!

We started the day getting our camera traps ready for our big experiment here in Las Cuevas. We decided to walk through two different trails, the Hectare Plot and the Monkey Tail Trail, and place camera traps periodically on- and off-trail to hopefully get footage of animals passing by.

Hiking the Hectare Plot was a pain because it had to enclose a set area, and so some of the trail ended up going over steep hills and we had to hike up and down a lot. I saw a Mexican porcupine (Coendou mexicanus) on the way down from a hill which was awesome! First mammal in the wild that I spotted! We also managed to find a lot of other organisms on the forest floor and in the canopy which was nice. We saw a scorpion eater snake and a few interesting lizards too.

We placed a total of 6 camera traps around the trail, and headed back to LCRS for lunch. After lunch, we went into the Monkey Tail Trail, which was a much flatter terrain and thus easier to navigate. We placed 2 cameras every 1km, and so ended up hiking a considerable distance. However, most of the time spent was going in and out of the forest to place an off-trail camera, and we took 40 minutes just to get out of the last one. It was exciting stuff as things could have been bad if we didn’t get out before dark but we managed to do it so it’s all good. On the way back, it was dark and we had to use our headlamps. Halfway back to LCRS, I was walking with Jordan when she suddenly yelped out in excitement. As she was walking she had spotted a snake and just about stepped past it. We looked more closely and it was definitely a poisonous snake, and the markings on the back of the snake seemed to indicate that it was a fer-de-lance. I got to say I got plenty excited for that as it was the snake that I really wanted to find and so I stooped low to take a shot. But Scott pulled me away as it apparently was able to jump backwards to bite. The only picture I have was quite out of focus but here it is!

Really out of focus picture of the fer-de-lance. It’s the wiggly thing in the middle.

I wonder how we will be able to find our off-trail cameras as they are pretty far off the track and we took so long getting in and out of the areas where we placed them. But that is a problem for another day.

Till then,

Damien

2017

Day 10 – A Ruined Day

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Hi friends,

After the adventures through ancient Mayan territory yesterday, we inadvertently ended up visiting some Mayan ruins again today.

Beautiful view from the pool!

We spent the whole morning driving to Las Cuevas Research Station, stopping at a natural pool to cool off in the summer heat. The natural pool was beautiful and really awesome. Together with Sarah G, I ran up along the river, jumping on rocks trying to cross the streams at different points. We then got into the pool and slowly followed the river flow down. At several points we got to slide down some rocks from one pool to another which was fun. There was also this huge waterfall at one point where we can stand underneath it and get a good natural water massage. Going along the river, we reached a point which overlooked a valley, which was really scenic and we took a bunch of pictures there. Isaac also brought a soursop with him and shared it with the class which was refreshing. I enjoyed myself greatly at the pool and didn’t really want to leave but all good things come to an end.

It was another two hours of riding the van, where we entertained ourselves with a game of King’s Water Cup and it was great way of passing time. We finally reached Las Cuevas Research Station (LCRS) which was in the middle of the Chiquibul rainforest and my first thought was, “I NEED TO PEE!!!” followed by, “I wanna explore this place!!!”

Looks like a natural mound? Nope, it’s a Mayan ruin underneath.

 

We were able to squeeze in a trail hike right before dinner and we took the Mayan trail which led us around the edge of LCRS. As we walked down the trail, Scott stopped us at a point right beside this huge steep mound covered in vegetation. Pointing to the mound, he explained that it wasn’t a natural formation but a Mayan temple covered after long periods of disuse. We climbed to the top of the ruin which turned out to be a bad idea as it was indeed a well-covered ruin and there was nothing much to see. It was still cool though, to think about the fact that we were stepping on an unexcavated Mayan site which was probably teeming with activity back in the Classical Mayan period but now just lies forgotten deep in a rainforest.

We walked more around the trail, seeing a couple more mounds, a rectangular ruined area which was supposed to be the Mayan ball court, and a line of neatly stacked rocks that looked to have been a plaza leading to the entrance of the Las Cuevas caves. Unfortunately, I did not get to see any mammals today which is a bummer. Nonetheless, I really loved the hiking and I can’t wait for the next few days of it!

Till tomorrow,

Damien

2017

Day 9 – Damien-a Jones and the Cave of the Stone Tomb

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*Cues Indiana Jones music*

Damien dives into the pool at the cave entrance! The water was surprisingly cold, and definitely a refreshing respite from the heat. He edges his way into the depths of the cave, darkness certain to engulf him completely if not for his headlamp cutting through it like a hot knife through butter. He treads cautiously through the cave, careful not to slip on rocks or bump his head on the jagged stalagmites hanging down everywhere.

After climbing a particularly steep cluster of rocks, he reached the main cavern of the cave, and he was astonished by what he saw around him. Many clay pots of different shapes and sizes, some shattered and some untouched, laid calcified on the cave ground. Several skeletons could also be seen near the pots, lying in various positions. Damien wondered to himself, “There doesn’t seem to be a standardized way of laying out, at least to the untrained eye. An archeologist might be able to see something that I don’t.” With that, Damien kept going, eager to push as deep into the cave as he could get. After climbing a steel ladder to an even more elevated platform, Damien finally caught a glimpse of what he was looking for – the Stone Tomb, which the cave, Actun Tukichil Maknal (ATM), was named for. The individual in the stone tomb looked very much like he or she was sacrificed, lying spread-eagled on the cavern floor. He or she probably had the heart or other important organs removed as part of the sacrificial ritual, and died a painful death. Standing over the skeleton, Damien pondered the sacrifice process, and wondered about activities that people still carry out till this day which future mankind might find meaningless.

Having seen most of the important aspects of the cave, Damien decided that it was time to leave. He looked around for mammals in the cave as part of his taxon group but he couldn’t find any. He was expecting to at least find a couple of bats but it wasn’t to be.

Travelling back where he came from, he eventually reached the cave entrance and was greeted by the pouring rain. He ran back where he came strolling from initially, crossing 3 rivers with nimble quick feet that prevented any crocodiles from thinking of even attacking. Upon reaching his initially drop-off location, he found shelter and was greeted by a sumptuous lunch which included nachos and salsa, chicken, rice and beans. All was well.

Till next time,
Damien-a Jones

2017

I can’t Belize it’s over!

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One of the most striking similarities in between the Rainforest and the Coral reef, is the sheer number of microclimates that each organism has specialized into. Both the rainforest and the coral reef have such wide levels of biodiversity because each organism has adopted a tiny niche. Both environments also exist in a nutrient deficient state. The rainforest has low nutrient enrichment in its soils. The coral reef also exists in a low nutrient environment. Both exist in states of nutrient deficiency due to a high turnover rate and the sheer number of organisms that need those nutrients.

The rainforest and the coral reef seem to have very similar structures. I have observed that the canopy of the rainforest is similar to the hard coral structure of the reef. Both the canopy and the hard corals support large amounts of life. However, there is even more life teeming underneath in the crevices of the coral and in the understory of the rainforest. By setting pitfall traps and shifting the dead coral pieces while looking for urchins, I got to see a whole new side of both environments. I learned that there is a huge diversity of invertebrates on the forest floor and that for every organism I see on the surface of the coral reef there are ten more underneath.

One of the major differences that I have noticed in the rainforest and on the coral reef, is that the rainforest appears to be more stratified. The organisms in the rainforest that exist in the canopy are rarely found on the forest floor. On the other hand, the fish that are swimming above the coral reef at one moment can be found in a crevice the next. I believe that the water filled environment of the reef allows for greater movement of organisms between the different sections of the coral reef.

I expected that I would really enjoy EBIO 319, but would prefer the marine part of the course! However, I ended up loving the rainforest section equally as well as the marine. Furthermore, I didn’t really expect our class to click as well as it did. I think that by the end of the trip, we all had become good friends. On a side note, I expected that I would leave the rainforest as one giant mosquito bite. However, I didn’t get a single mosquito bite while in the Chiquibul. Similarly, I didn’t expect the rainforest to be so cold. I had to put on a sweatshirt most mornings in the rainforest.

My favorite part of the course was the ATM cave. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done! I also loved designing our own experiments and applying them in the field. I loved that we were given the freedom to see what worked and didn’t work in each study. My least favorite part of this course was of course leaving. I wish that I could stay in Belize forever. I also didn’t love the Christmas tree worm study, but that was primarily due to the very low density of worms!

While I know that I won’t remember won’t remember the details from the presentations or taxon briefings five years from now, I will remember some of the most important guidelines to being a TFB. Rule number one: When you are in the field, things will inevitably go wrong. You must always be prepared for a change in plans and to think of a way to fix a problem like using a vine to tie a camera trap to a tree. Rule Number 2: Always carry a headlamp, a snack, and water! You never know when you will be making it back to base camp and should always be prepared to spend the night in the woods. Rule number 3: always bring plastic bags! There were countless times on the trip that I found my self wishing for a plastic bag to hold wet clothes or to organize equipment. The most important thing I learned is that I love doing field work and want to pursue become a tropical field biologist in the future!

2017

Leaving Belize* cries* (May 30th)

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Today, I woke up at 5 am to watch the sunrise and listen to the birds. I didn’t see many birds, but it was nice to drinking coffee and watch the sun come up. It was a bittersweet moment in which I got to reflect on everything we had done on the trip and everything I had learned. I can’t believe that we are leaving Belize today. This trip has been quite the adventure and has passed by so quickly. Hopefully, I will get to come back someday!

We left Las Cuevas Research station around 8:20am and drove to the Golden Grove, a souvenir shop. Then we got back in the car and continued on our trek to the airport. Along the way, we stopped at a restaurant called Cheers for lunch. They had really good watermelon juice!

I did not see any amphibians today. The closest I got to an amphibian sighting was a painted frog on a plate in the souvenir shop. However, I saw more frogs and toads on this trip than I expected.

We made it to the airport shortly after! Sarah Glovers and I got selected for extra security clearing and got to get on the plane first! We saved seats for the whole group which was very stressful. We made it to Houston around 7:40 and passed quickly through customs. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I know that I will see everyone around campus.

2017

LAST FULL DAY IN BELIZE (May 29th)

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Today, we are recollecting our camera traps. After breakfast, we set off on the 50-hectare plot. It took us way less time to collect all of the traps this time. While on the trail, I saw another Mexican tree frog. This Mexican tree frog was clinging to a small plant and had slightly different coloration from the others I have seen on this trip. This frog had slight green markings on its arms. After we got back, we completed all of our presentations for the trip.

After lunch, we hiked along the Monkey Tail trail in order to collect the remaining camera traps. It was really fun trying to find all of the cameras again deep in the forest. Unfortunately, the GPS wasn’t working perfectly, so frequently we had to use the sun and look for signs of our previous journey into the bush.

While in the forest, I saw an Dendropsophus ebraccatus (The hourglass tree frog) for the first time! This frog was much smaller than I realized. He had very unique coloration pattern. He had dark brown lines that contrasted with his bright white color. He was sitting on a small leafy plant.

After dinner, we looked at our camera traps! We saw peccaries, pacas, great curassow bird, and a brocket deer. The biggest catch of the night was 2 ocelots!!!! I really didn’t think that we would see anything on our traps! Today was a great last day!

2017

The pitfalls of EBIO 319 (May 28th)

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This morning after breakfast, we picked up our pit falls from the forest. There were a surprising number of ants and beetles in our traps. We sorted all of the organisms from each site into different morpho-species and measured overall diversity in the forest canopy and on the forest floor. We concluded that there was a greater nutrient abundance on the canopy and forest floor.

After lunch, we went into the cave just outside of the research station. This cave was used by the Mayans for religious ceremonies. We could see some of the old platforms and stairs built by the Mayans. While in the cave, we saw a giant green snake scaling the wall of the cave. I got to give my last topic lecture in a secondary chamber of the cave. I think it is safe to say that that will be the coolest place I ever give a talk!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

After dinner, we hiked out to the bird tower to watch the sunset. The view from the tower was amazing! As far as you could see, there were rolling hills with no visible human presence. On the way back from the tower, we got to do a night hike. The forest totally changes at night. It was really incredible when we turned off our head lamps and just listened to the forest. We saw cockroaches with a glue like substance on their back and phosphorescent scorpions hiding in a log. We also got to see a tailless whip scorpion which is actually not a scorpion, but is in the arthropod family.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Immediately once we got back, I found another Smilisca baudinii (Mexican treefrog). This frog was a much darker color than the other frogs I had previously identified of this group. This frog also did not have the yellow running down its side. This difference in color may be due to the frog’s ability to change its coloration between the night and the day. The other frogs were found closer to dusk than at pitch dark.

2017

THE AMAZING ANT MAN AND HIS COLONIES! (May 27th)

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After breakfast today, we designed a study to test arthropod diversity and nutrient levels on the forest floor and in the forest canopy. We placed pee and water filled vials on the trees and on the ground in order to create pitfalls for the arthropods. I saw a Blue Morpho butterfly while placing my vials.

After lunch, we did the infamous leaf cutter ant colony excavation. We looked at colonies that were 1, 5, and 10 years old. It was super interesting to see how the ant colonies changed as they matured. The year-old colony was very small and had very few soldier ants. As the colonies matured, more soldier ants appeared and the fungus colonies got bigger and bigger.

We dug up ant colonies until about an hour before dinner and played card game in our free time. Then, we completed our presentations for the night. After the presentations, I saw another Smilisca baudinii (Mexican treefrog). This one had a very dark coloration.

After dinner, a small group of us went on a tarantula hunting adventure. There are a lot of spiders located in the clearing around the station. We saw a Red Rump tarantula and a Livingston Stony tarantula. We learned how to draw the tarantulas out of their hole. While we were searching, we saw large glistening eyes on the edge of the clearing. As we got closer, we discovered that it was a bird, Pauraque, roosting on the ground.