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!)
[[[[insert was picture]]]]]]
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!
Today we opened leaf cutter ant colonies and laid out pitfall traps for Arthropoda in the canopy and on the forest floor. While laying out our pitfall traps, we were able to see two moths which had been infected with ophiocorticeps fungi! This fungi infects the host, hijacks its nervous system and causes it to move to a preferable location, then kills it and sprouts out of its body to release its spores!
[[[[[[zombie moth pic will be inserted later]]]]]]]]]
Near the research station, we opened up two leaf cutter ant colonies and were able to see the fungus farms on the inside! The first colony we opened was only about a year old, and we were able to take out the queen. She had a massive swollen body and was around 2 inches long. I learned how to pick up the soldier ants in the second colony and was able to capture a few. I let one bite my nail and a callus on my hand to see its biting power. I also let it bit a small hole in my shirt for a souvenir!
Between the two ant colonies, while digging, Michael came across a Mexican Burrowing Toad. This toad is quite difficult to spot, as it is generally burrowed underground. Its body is wide and flat, with red spots. It had pretty short appendages and basically no neck – making it look both incredibly goofy and cute.
After dinner, we went on a night hike to the dried up frog pond. This was the coolest experience I have had in Belize so far! We were able to see 2 endangered Morrelets Tree Frogs, one of which hopped onto my shoulder! We also saw a snake climb a bush and find and eat a clump of tree frog eggs! Elena spotted a second snake behind this one while we were watching it, which led to us finding an additional 5 snakes in the canopy above us!!
We had our first full day in the Chiquibul today, and it was action packed! I started off the day birdwatching at 5 am. I saw a group of 3 wild ocellated turkeys, a pair of plumbious kites (predatory birds), many black vultures, and several toucans! The morning chorus is nearly deafening and occasionally accented by the black howler monkeys.
We spent the rest of the day laying out camera traps to try and see some mammals, and got to hike many of the surrounding trails in the process. On one of the trails, we ran into a large termite colony. After advice from Scott, several of use ate a few termites, which shockingly taste just like carrots!
This afternoon, I got some practice catching butterflies and was able to successfully capture 3! The most common butterflies around were sulfur butterflies, but I also found some other more rare and interesting ones! At the bird watching tower nearby the station, I caught a moth/butterfly that had a black body with iridescent blue spots, and wings that had orange borders and clear centers! Maybe related to the glasswing butterfly (due to the shared clear wings), although this is very vague speculation on my part!
[[[[[ insert moth pic]]]]]]]
At the end of our day, we visited a seasonal frog pond (fills up with water through the rainy season) that was currently muddy but not yet pond-like. Hanging from a branch above the center of the ‘pond’ was several clusters of red-eyed tree frog eggs! These eggs slowly develop, and when the pond is full of water they will hatch and the tadpoles will drop into the pond.
Today we traveled from the Tropical Education Center into the Chiquibul! I saw a ton of butterflies and moths today, starting on the road to the Caracol Mayan ruins in the Chiquibul. There were a ton of light yellow butterflies (which our guide said were called ‘sulfur butterflies’) as well as bright yellow ones, white ones, and many others! Once we got to the Caracol ruins, I was constantly distracted by every new butterfly that passed me (and there were a lot). Another cool one I saw was light green with black bands on its wings! Although I saw a bunch of butterflies, I haven’t been able to identify any yet, as there are so many species! I only got a picture of one small brown moths on the steps of one of the Caracol ruins:
(I will insert my pics when I have better WiFi!)
The Caracol ruins were also very cool. We saw several large pyramidal temples, as well as a court where the Mayans used to play a ball game. This area is massive, yet only about 1% has been excavated so far. One of the buildings we climbed to the top of is currently the tallest building in Belize!
In the car today, we saw two Scarlet Macaws! We also saw lots of other cool birds today, including Montezuma Oropendolas and the Blue Crowned Mot Mot.
After leaving the Caracol ruins, we drove to the Las Cuevas Research Station in the heart of the Chiquibul. At night at the research station, I saw an overwhelming number of moths (none being very distinctive) of all shapes and sizes. I can’t wait for our first full rainforest day tomorrow! Excited to hopefully see some snakes and confidently identify my first Lepidoptera (butterfly/moth).
Today was a long day of travels that began with a four hour boat ride that I thankfully slept through the majority of, with no seasickness! After having a leisurely lunch at a restaurant on the dock and making a much needed pit stop for more bug spray, we took a van to the Tropical Education Center just about an hour outside of Belize City. This place is so amazing I almost wish we could stay more than one night here! Watching the landscape change from coastal areas, to savannah, and now seeing the beginnings of a rainforest environment is so exciting and the TEC is such an enticing preview of what’s to come!
While here, we got to hear a wonderful guest lecture from Dr. Boris Arevalo, one of the experts on the ecology and conservation of the scarlet macaw, which is an endangered species here in Belize. He told us about his doctoral research into the nesting behavior and habitat selection of this species and his experiences as a biologist doing conservation work.
The highlight of today was undoubtedly our guided night tour of the Belize Zoo, just a 2 minute drive down the road! The zoo itself was so different than what you might typically expect from a zoo experience in the states, with plenty of rainforest wildlife existing inside and outside the cages, forming a more cohesive picture of these animals in their habitat. We saw so many cool nocturnal animals including Belize’s national animal, the tapir which has a very weirdly flexible snout. But my favorite animals we saw were the cats they had there! We got to see jaguars that knew how to roll over for treats, a grumbly ocelot, a puma, and some margays (one of the smallest wild cats!). I wish we could stay longer, but I am so excited to get to Las Cuevas tomorrow!
Today was sleepy. I took a dramamine to help with the 3+ hour boat ride from glovers reef back to Belize City, but the drowsiness side effect ended up meaning I slept most of the boat ride.
When we got back to Belize City I got to experience some very nice local snapper at a dockside restaurant, before we went to a convenience store where I restocked on bug repellent and other goodies.
After that we took a bus ride to the tropical education center, a lodge and education center attached to the Belize Zoo. We heard an amazing lecture from one of the leading Scarlet Macaw experts both about his work studying the nesting range ect of scarlet Macaw’s his experience trying to conserve them, and also his experience with the intersection of science and politics and public opinion which was perhaps the most interesting part!
Finally, that night we got to see all the nocturnal animals at the Belize Zoo on a tour! We saw everything from Jaguar’s to crocodiles, with one of my favorites being the Bairds Tapir (Belize’s National Animal) that had a very drippy and long flexible nose that it could wiggle every which way to try and get at the carrot in my hand!
We didn’t see any cockroaches today, probably because we stayed on relatively paved areas and did not get into any leaf litter or natural floor covering. We did see what someone thought was a cockroach in the bathroom, but I could tell it was not a cockroach as it did not have a pronoun (the head covering of a cockroach.) The beetles person thought it might be a type of Scarab!
This morning after breakfast, we had to say goodbye to Glover’s Reef (and Ruth). I had really started to get comfortable at Glover’s. The food, the views, the reefs, the hermit crabs and blue land crabs, the pelicans and frigate birds, iguanas, the snorkel shed, poster sessions, Clivus, and even the mosquito mangroves of death…. I’m grateful for it all.
After a 3.5 hour boat ride, we (quite fittingly) made our transition from ‘surf’ to ‘turf’ by dining on the shore at Calypso, a restaurant on the marina. After lunch, we all piled into two white vans and hit the road for the Tropical Education Center (TEC). On the drive, we passed a couple Police Security Checkpoints and got to see the dominant landscape features shift between developed cities, thick twisting mangroves, karstic mountains, and savannah peppered with palmettos.
At TEC, we received a lecture from Dr. Boris Arevalo, a conservation biologist who studies northern scarlet macaws. These macaws are a flagship species for several countries in Central America, so Dr. Arevalo wanted to better understand their nesting preferences on local and regional scales. The main points that I took away from his presentation was the importance of having a holistic understanding and management of BOTH breeding and foraging habitat, and that collaboration and communication are the most important tools for scientists. Some of my favorite quotes from Dr. Arevalo’s presentation:
“Conservation is a human issue”
“Scientists are professional beggars”
“Conservation is a business”
After dinner at TEC, we got a night-time tour of the Belize Zoo! We saw more animals in an hour than I can recount here, but I’ll try to list as many as I can remember. We saw three types of owls (spectacled, mottled, and barn), four types of cat (puma, jaguar, ocelot, margay), coatimundis, a paca, white-lipped peccaries, a tapir (which we got to touch), a four-eyed possum, a termite nest, an anteater, and most importantly…. I finally saw leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes)! My excitement at simply seeing their little nocturnal parades across the paths bodes well for this trip. I’ll probably fully lose my mind when I get to see their fungus gardens.
Today we finally finished our sea urchin/coral health correlation study. Unfortunately the last reef we surveyed was not the healthiest, with very little reef structure or live coral. However, there were Sooo many urchins. We collected over 170 of them. I remember turning over a rock and seeing both the rock and the sand under it simply covered in urchins. I had to get someone next to me to come help me collect them because I couldn’t carry them all.
We also saw reef squid for the first time. There were seven of them right off the boat, and they seemed to be all in a straight line in the middle of the water column. I didn’t see any new species of green algae, but I did see some very unique looking individuals. One was a a green bubble algae (dictyospaeria cavernosa) that looked way more yellow than any I had seen before. When I lifted it up it looked like the inside of the bible had been completely filled with sand!
I also saw a Ventricaria ventricosa (sea pearl) that looked like a deep shade of blue that really stood out from the dark green I usually see. I am not sure what caused this appearance but it was really pretty!
When we finished collecting and analyzing our data, we found a that more sea urchins were correlated with a lower percentage of coral cover being alive. However, our conclusion was highly suspect as for example, we got better and better at finding urchins each time we collected data.
Finally, at the end of the night we dissected the lion fish we had speared over the course of the week. It was a little gross, but it was also really cool to open up the stomach and find the little fish the lion fish had been eating still inside!
I’m sure you guys already know that the day started with everyone waking up and getting breakfast by 7. After waking up this morning and getting breakfast, everyone quickly put on their snorkel gear, got their transects, quadrats, and clipboards, and boarded the boat to go out to a non-MPA reef. There, we collected data for the research question I talked about on June 11. The reef was a pretty good depth, not to shallow or too deep, but it had a lot of fire sponge and fire coral. Thankfully, I managed not to touch any while I was there. It also had a lot of dead coral and there were very few fish. I remember seeing two Cocoa Damselfish (Stegastes variabilis), but I can’t remember seeing any other fish I could identify. After, Ava and I laid out our transect and counted alive and dead coral in our quadrat, the entire class began collecting sea urchins for 10 minutes. This place was full of sea urchins; I ended up getting 11, but some people were able to find a lot more. We ended up with 177 sea urchins after only 10 minutes.
After this reef, we went to a much nicer, deeper reef where the class had a chance to snorkel without the pressure of collecting any data. This was our last time to snorkel on the trip, and I’m really happy with the reef they ended up taking us too. The coral in the area was beautiful, and I saw so many fish. In terms of herbivorous fish, I saw a bunch of Cocoa Damselfish (S. variabilis), some really large Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis) – they were about 20 cm – Threespot Damselfish (S. planifrons), and Bicolor Damselfish (S. partitus). I also saw a Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) and a male Bluelip Parrotfish (Cryptotomus roseus), both of which I followed for a while to get a good picture. I got some fine-ish pictures of the Blue Tang, but I couldn’t get any good ones of the parrotfish because the parrotfish kept going all over the reef, moving through coral so fast that I could barely keep up with it. All of these fish were really hard to get pictures of because they tend to hide within the coral whenever you approach them.
Huge Abudefduf saxatilis
After we left that reef, we compiled all of the data we’ve collected over the past couple of days. We were able to conclude that there is a correlation between a high percentage of live coral coverage and less sea urchins. However, we didn’t see any correlation between the amount of urchins and whether we were collected at an MPA or a non-MPA. We think this may be due to our ability in collecting sea urchins improving as we went from reef to reef. This would explain why we collected so few sea urchins from the first non-MPA site we went to, which probably skewed our results. After determining all of this, we put all of our information on a poster and presented our project to Scott and Adrienne.
Later in the day (after lectures and dinner) we dissected lionfish. My group was given a really tiny lionfish, which was challenging, but my confidence in my dexterity skills skyrocketed after I saw how well I did on the dissection. The most interesting part of the dissection was opening its stomach to examine its content. We were able to see some invertebrate organism within it that measured about 2.1 cm. After dissecting the fish, Scott took them, fileted them, and made ceviche. The ceviche was delicious, and we were all happy that we were simultaneously having a wonderful snack and contributing to the betterment of our marine environment.
After the ceviche, we worked on our assignments and got ready for bed. This was the last day of the reef! I’m sad it’s over – I had so much fun snorkeling – but I’m excited for everything I’m going to learn in the rainforest.
The best photo of the blue tang I could take : (A photo Sophia took of the blue tang!
Today marks our last full day at Glover’s Reef Research Station. Tomorrow morning we will be all packed up and piling into a boat back to Belize City after breakfast.
This morning, we fittingly started our last reef day by snorkeling and collecting our last data points on the patch reefs. The data collection went smoothly enough, but I think the real highlight of my day was seeing TWO Caribbean Reef Squid (during our last for-funsies snorkel). Huge shoutout to Ruth for calling them to my attention.
After dinner, we dissected the three (invasive) lionfish that were speared during the week. I never thought I would be excited about digging through fish guts, but I was actually giddy about seeing three tiny in-tact fish in our lionfish’s stomach (lionfish engulf their prey whole)!
Even though these fish are invasive, and removing them from the reef is a positive service, we still can’t be wasteful. So, of course, we made lionfish ceviche for a late-night snack! The fish is currently curing in the lime juice, and the taste is TBD. Will update soon. 😉
