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The Last Day at Las Cuevas

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May 20th, 2019

 

The morning was spent collecting camera traps that we set up day 2. While we were collecting our first traps on the 50 hectare plot trail, a troop of Central American Spider Monkeys were swinging in the trees and were at first trying to intimidate us by asking the trees near us. However, after a while, that initial intimidation turned into curiosity as the younger ones swung to trees right above us to get a closer look. The monkeys displayed great usage of the prehensile tails, with one of the littler ones at one point hanging completely upside down just by its tail. The monkeys also seemed to be communicating each other through quieter calls, and what seemed to be glances at each other.

Spider Monkey

After that, we presented our data that we collected yesterday regarding the Sapodilla tree and leaf toughness. We found that the uncolonized trees’ leaves required more force to puncture but our standard deviation was so large that we couldn’t validate this result. We then went to excavate leaf cutter ants, whom cultivate fungus to eat and survive, and got to see the fungus first hand.

 

Lastly, I presented my presentation on rainforest mammals in which I talked about 5 species of mammals in the Chiquibul, there are a total of 97, and common characteristics that mammals have. These characteristics being mammary glands, hair, a hinged lower jaw, and three middle bones in the ear. We then looked through the camera trap pictures and we were surprised with a tapir(a mammal)! It was most likely a Baird’s Tapir with its short legs, and barrel shaped body. They are the largest herbivore in Central America and are actually endangered.

 

Tomorrow we head to ATM Cave and stay the night near the Belize Zoo at the Tropical Education Center.

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The Ants Come Marching in (or really out in this case)

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May 19th, 2019

My day started off with the usual, morning birding the grey Plumbious kite was in its usual spot and the Social Flycatchers were chirping about. A lone Scarlet Macaw flew into view and started to preen itself, all I could see was it’s a large silhouette with its trademark long tail feathers. We also saw a Keel-billed Toucan today, with its blackbody, oversized green beak, and its yellow throat.  After birding and some much-needed breakfast, we set off on a busy day.

 

First, we investigated how hurricanes affected the biodiversity in the Chiqibul forests. We used the point intersect method, which is picking a specific length of trail, and a length off trail and counting and categorizing plant species that touch the tape measure. We did this in a hurricane damaged area (disturbed) and an undisturbed area. What we found was that the species composition of the areas were very different but the biodiversity levels were very similar. However, as a whole, disturbed areas add more biodiversity to the forest due to allowing different species to flourish. After presenting our findings and eating lunch, we went off on a trail to find sapodilla trees. These trees have a symbiotic relationship with ants where they provide shelter and food while the ants provided detection. However, it does take some time for the ants to colonize so the sapodilla may use leaf toughness to ward off herbivores (making leaves hard to make a hole into). We measured the grams of force needed to puncture a whole into 11 uncolonized trees and 11 colonized trees, data that we will be analyzing tomorrow. The ants came flooding out of the colonized trees and packed a small but very painful bite.

The biting ants

We then went on a hike to the bird tower, a metal and wood tower that is on a 400-foot-high hill. The view from up there was absolutely amazing, you could see the research station and the surrounding forest. You could even see the Mayan Mountains in the background. We walked back in the dark and I spotted a Jumping Pit Viper and a grey rat. Yes, rats are mammals as are all rodents. Rodents actually make up a large part of Mammalia and are found on all continents except for Antarctica.

 

We ended the day with dinner and presentation on reptiles, beetles, and: tropical diseases, parasites, and medicines.

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The morning Macaws

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May 18th ,2019

I woke up this morning not to my alarm but to the rumble of howler monkey calls in the forest. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if they were near Las Cuevas or not as their calls can be heard for miles. We had an absolutely spectacular display before going off to collect the pitfall traps we had set the day before. Two Scarlet Macaws were flying around the clearing, giving us. A good look at their red, yellow, and blue feathers. At one point of the macaws was feeding the other fruits and they even landed on the roof of our cabin!

 

While collecting the traps I spotted a Morelet’s Tree Frog, a critically endangered species of frog. They have all black eyes and have spectacular orange coloration on the sides of its limbs. Also on the way, we went past the same shaft that had the bats within it. One almost came right up to me. They seemed to be less active as it was around 7:00am and only one bat came up to me. A little fun fact is that bat’s echolocation is so precise that they can tell the shape, trajectory, size, and distance of an object just based off echoes. There are also 46 species of bats in the Chiquibul, 14 of which live in caves.

 

We then presented our findings of the experiment with a poster that took forever to formulate and make. The day ended with presentations on amphibians, ants, and Communication in the Rainforest.

 

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You Bat-ter Believe it

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May 17, 2019

Per usual, my day started at 5:00 am bird watching. It was a clear morning and the birds we saw were absolutely spectacular. The forest came to life as the Plumbious Kite took its regular perch and parrots flew overhead, two even landed in a tree right in front of us. The Melodious Blackbirds hopped onto the ground and the Social Flycatchers were chirping away.  The highlight of morning was the sighting of two toucans. Their bright colors were absolutely stunning, with red and white tail feathers and a green eye ring. Another exciting event was the Plumbious Kite soaring down and catching an unfortunate moth.

 

After breakfast we devised an experiment utilizing pitfall traps, traps that an arthropod can fall into but not get out of. We’re comparing the nitrogen limitation, limitation of an environment to provide useable nitrogen to its organism, of the forest floor and the canopy as well as the arthropod species abundance and diversity. At each site we placed four vials, which were vials containing nitrogenous liquid in a tree and the floor and vials with just water in them. On the way we came across a shaft that led into a cave system right in the middle of the path! Looking down and imitating bat calls (kiss the top of your hand to create a high-pitched nose) we saw bats fly up almost out of the shaft. Since I’m the mammal taxon specialist, I tried to identify but to no avail. I couldn’t get a good picture and they wouldn’t let us me them long enough to identify them. They had light brown bodies and large dark brown wings and seeing them was absolutely amazing.

 

We returned to the station for lunch and then went to explore Las Cuevas Cave. The cave has a large entrance and is covered in bat guano. The ground is littered with Mayan Pottery, and there is a cenote (sinkhole exposing ground water). There, we had three presentation. The first was on Butterflies and Moths, the next was about Crickets, Katydids, and Grasshoppers, and lastly I gave my lecture on Cave Life. It was a very cool experience, especially to see a few things (like stalactites forming) that I had researched in real life.

After exploring the Mayan ruins above the cave and dinner, we ended the day with a night hike. We saw so many spiders and small critters that we hadn’t seen before and it was very eerie to hear all of the noises in the darkness.

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A Spectickular Day

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Today, May 16th 2019, I had an early morning with 5:00 early morning birding. There was eerie mist surrounding the clearing and it was almost ominous to hear the jungle amongst suddenly come alive with bird calls. It started with the hoots of the Blue Breasted Mot Mots. The grey form of a Plumbious Kite flew into a tall tree and a pair of parrots flew overhead (flapping their wings rapidly and almost screaming) (this is completely normal and it looks like they’re panicking). Some Melodious Blackbirds and yellow breasted Social Flycatchers also made appearances. Perhaps the most surprising site was a Grey Fox slinking back into the forest at the edge of the clearing. The display that took the cake was the Plumbious Kite sweeping down from its perch to catch an insect and feed it to what I assume was its baby that was in a tree right in front of us.

Part of the 50 hectare trail

After, we had breakfast and an orientation and we started our experiment. In short, we’re investigating if the presence of the research station impacts species richness and abundance at different distances from Las Cuevas using images from camera traps (movement sensitive cameras). First, we hiked up a 50-hectare plot, a rectangular plot (50 hectares in area), and after 45 or so minutes we placed our first camera trap. On the way, we saw so much life such as beetles and crickets. Excitingly, we saw a couple instances of mammal scat (feces) and a game trail (a trail created by a large animal running through the forest to find food). A good indicator of a game trail is snapped vegetation with a compressed path through the forest. On the way back along the trail to place some other camera traps we saw a troop of Central American Spider Monkeys dwelling amongst the canopy. They shook trees, a behavior used to intimidate, and used their prehensile tails and great climbing skills to follow us until we exited their territory.

 

We then hiked up a longer trail called Monkey Tail Trail to place more camera traps and saw many ants (some of which bit people) and attracted the attention of a multitude ticks.

 

With a long day of hiking behind us, we ate dinner and ended the day with presentations on epiphytes, arachnids, and an overview on life in the rainforest canopy.

 

Tomorrow we have a project to construct in the morning and may go on to explore a nearby cave which is exciting beyond belief.

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Belize day 2

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May 15th, 2019

I had a nice 5:50 wake up to the sound of birds and a particularly loud woodpecker. We ate breakfast at 6:15 which consisted of eggs, papaya and pineapple, fry jacks (fried dough) with jam, and some beans. After a little more than an hour, we left the ecolodge to head to the Caracol ruins.

Caracol used to be a large Mayan city that flourished. On the way we passed into the Pine Ridge region of Belize where the dominant tree species are Caribbean Pines. We stopped for a swim at Rio on Pools, water pools that have been formed by flowing water whittling away granite. The rocks were slippery and treacherous but somehow I made it through the whole time, only falling once.

We left Rio on Pools and arrived in the Chiquibul region and reached Caracol. There were so many beautiful butterflies at Caracol and the calls of birds permeated the surrounding jungle. Once there we were given a brief overview of the Maya’s. Our guide went through a typical city layout, their religion, the cause of the abandonment of Caracol, and how excavations started. We explored the Caracol ruins, climbing up the tallest building in Belize (besides some small skyscrapers in Belize city), seeing temples and tombs, as well as seeing an original piece of painted wood supporting one of the temple archways.

As we were walking back from the Mayan ruins, we saw a troop of Black Howler Monkeys hanging in the trees above us near a reservoir. Black Howler Monkeys get their name from the loud and low call that they produce due to an enlarged Adam’s apple and the male’s black hair. Besides seeing them for the first time in person, one interesting thing is that I did not see any females in their troop despite seeing a juvenile monkey, the females have blonde hair.

After eating lunch, we set off to Las Cuevas Research Station. Not counting getting stopped at a military checkpoint for a few minutes, we got to the station without a hitch. Once we settled in we were greeted by intense but brief rainfall followed by a multitude of birds flitting about. There were several vultures, a grey Kite (a raptor), and the crown jewel a Scarlet Macaw.

Rio on Pools

We ended the day with dinner and lectures about trees, birds, and tropical soil. We’re going hiking to place camera traps and I can’t wait to see the rainforest first hand.

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Day 1: Better Belize it we’re here

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May 14th, 2019

After an hour on the runway (due to first class tray table problems) and as sometimes bumpy tow hour plane ride we’re finally in Belize!

Much of the day was spent driving with stops for lunch and to get last minute supplies,  even the did we observe a lot. For example, there was a termite nest in a tree at lunch, and hummingbirds flying around us.

I even saw a couple mammals today one was an agouti, a rodent species, that was darting into the brush, another were some dogs that hang around the ecolodge

The day ended with a quick dip into a river and dinner. Tomorrow we head off to Las Cuevas and some Mayan ruins as we slowly move out of a civilization.

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Pre-departure blog

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All of my snorkeling gear and the giant rubber boots

After the slog of finals its finally time to head on a two week trip to Belize to the Las Cuevas research station and Glover’s reef. I really hope to see first hand what research in these environments is like, as I’m very interested in eventually pursuing a career in Marine Biology. Furthermore, I’m really interested to see if I can identify rainforest animals with limited resources. I’d also like to learn how to quickly identify an animal in the field using the i.d cards, which I’ve never had to do because I’ve always had access to a database.

I’ve prepared by reading more about the biodiversity of the rainforest as well as trying to identify certain species of birds that I see in my backyard (most of which are house sparrows and robins).

The one thing that I’m nervous about is caving. I’ve never actually been in a cave before so I’m not sure how I’ll react to the confined space or seeing cave crickets. I’ve had some experience in the tropics, mainly snorkeling in the Cayman Islands which are very close to Belize.

 

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Still itchy

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The tropical rainforest and coral reef are similar in that they both survive on very nutrient-poor soil and ocean water respectively. This is because there’s very rapid nutrient cycling in the leaf litter of the rainforest and the mangroves near coral reefs.

I also noticed a lot of interesting interactions between species in these environments outside of simple predation. In the rainforest, there were organisms like ticks (which surprisingly don’t bother me anymore) that act as parasites and the Azteca ants that live symbiotically in Cecropia trees. And in the coral reefs, there were organisms like Christmas tree worms that extend deep inside the corals and stay there for life and clownfish that live symbiotically in anemones.

It’s hard to remember what I expected from the course after I already experienced it, but I guess that’s why we wrote our pre-departure blogs. In mine, I wrote that I was “anticipating a fascinating (but incredibly busy) two weeks.” I’d say this was pretty accurate to the trip, except it was even more fascinating and busy than I imagined.

One thing I certainly didn’t anticipate was our incredible experience at the ATM cave, which was most definitely my favorite part. I had no idea tourists were allowed to cave like that (i.e. swimming through small spaces and even scaling a small wall at one point). My least favorite part was probably running through the Mangroves of Death on our first day at the reef. The amount of mosquitoes there is unbelievable, and I was pretty impressed when three other students volunteered to go there for our marine debris collection.

One thing that I learned that I won’t forget is the Mayan history that we heard about. I was fascinated by the elaborate rituals performed by the priests. Another thing is that the only way to kill a tick is to sever its head from the rest of its body (which you can use your fingernails to do). The third thing that I learned and won’t be forgetting is to avoid fire coral!

Rainforest species seen: Homaeotarsus pallipes, Enema endymion, Pyrophorus noctilucus, Euchroma gigantea, Calopteron discrepans, Hegemona lineata, Eburia pedestris

Reef species seen: Millepora alcicornis, Millepora complanate, Millepora squarrosa, Kirchenpaueria halecioides, Dentitheca dendritica, Cassiopeia xamachana, Aurelia aurita

2019, Uncategorized

Post-Belize Reflection

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Wow! What an amazing experience! Our class of 11 was constantly at work hiking, setting up pit fall traps, collecting data with transects, snorkeling, collecting data with quadrads, interpreting data, putting together poster presentations among other activities. In total, we accomplished 6 research projects with poster presentations for each of them. For each research project, we learned something new and interesting about the unique environment that we were living in for half a month. The experience involved a lot of hard work both physically and mentally, but it rewarded me with knowledge, fun, friends, and a lasting appreciation for the beauty of this world. It is nice to be home, where there’s air conditioning, WiFi, warm showers, less mosquitoes, no sandflies, but I will be thinking about Belize and my experience there for a long time to come. Thank you Dr. Solomon, Dr. Shore, Las Cuevas Research Station, and Glover’s Reef Research Station—for this one-of-a-kind opportunity!

Lepidoptera:

  • Eurytides marcellus, Zebra Swallowtail
  • Morpho peleides, Blue Morpho
  • Ascalapha odorata, Black Witch Moth
  • Sphingidae genus, Sphinx Moth
  • Heliconius hecale, Tiger Longwing
  • Eacles imperialis, Imperial Moth

  • Papilio polyxenes, Black Swallowtail

Piscivorous Fish

  • Ocyurus chrysurus, Yellowtail Snapper
  • Pterois volitans, Red Lionfish
  • Sphyraena genus, Barracuda
  • Halichoeres bivittatus, Slippery Dick Wrasse
  • Hemiramphus brasiliensis, Ballyhoo
  • Ginglymostoma cirratum, Nurse Shark

Above is a list of the different species I saw from my taxons while on the trip. Below is a picture of a different species that I see at home. Glad to be reunited with my house cat (Felis catus) pictured below in his natural habitat!