Tag Archives: anole

Day 5: Insects, insects, and more insects

My day started by being woken up to someone shouting “SCARLET MACAW!” Naturally, I woke up and went outside to see the macaws. I also ended up seeing a toucan and many different species of parrot in the surrounding trees too. 

During the middle of the day, Dyllan spotted a stick bug on the side of the cabin we were in. We picked it up, and it crawled all over us! We passed it between people and the stick bug kept wanting to climb to the highest spot it could reach, meaning it was going up and down our faces and hair. I loved this little guy (we named it Stella). He hung around on my water bottle as we watched presentations, and then he got released back outside. I’m happy to see him thriving outside, but sad to see him go.

(Stella)

This afternoon, we went out into the field to observe young and old leaf cutter ant colonies. Dr. Solomon found us a 1 year old colony (~6 in deep, ~6 in wide). Leaf cutter ants sustain themselves with a mutualistic fungus that they cultivate. Our goal was to extract this fungal garden. After about 20 minutes of digging, we found this fungus and Dr. Solomon pulled it out of the mound with a spoon. The queen ant was also on this fungus and she was HUGE. 

(Leaf cutter ant fungal garden with the queen on top)

We then moved on to trying to excavate fungus from the large, old colony. This colony was multiple feet out of the ground, and is speculated to be many feet deep (10?). It had an impressive surface area with holes to intake O2 and exhale CO2 from deep in the colony. When Dr. Solomon started to dig, it took a few seconds for the soldier ants to come out, but after about a minute, they started to SWARM. It was super cool seeing how many ants could come to the colony’s defense. Eventually, Sam and Dr. Solomon dug deep enough to excavate the fungus inside which was very impressive (though super scary with so many aggressive ants trying to crawl up our boots). 

The last thing we did was we went on a night hike. On this hike, we saw multiple tarantulas and large spiders, a large scorpion, many beetles and cockroaches, highly active leaf cutter ant highways with many leaves being transported, an incredibly camouflaged bird called a pauraque, and 2 anoles (one of which Dr. Evans taught me how to catch and I did!) This hike was fascinating for seeing how different a jungle ecosystem can be at night vs the day. Though we did not see any mammals, we smelled a smell likely coming from a large cat in the same area that I heard the potential puma last night!

(the silky anole Dr. Solomon caught)

(Night hiking!)

Next up… caves!

Claire C

Day 4: Doing P Tests (kinda)

Day 4 started by being asked to find the differences in nitrogen limitations on the forest floor and in the canopy. We wanted to make a trap that insects could be attracted to and fall and get stuck in. That means we needed some nitrogenous liquid. One might think finding this is simple, and it was, BUT it’s not pretty. We used our pee in vials, hung them on trees and dug the vials into the ground, and are now waiting to see what is attracted in each location. While it is not a glamorous lab, the look on everyone’s faces when we were told to pee in vials that would be used in the project was hilarious. 

  

(Nitrogen experiment setup diagram)

(Swinging like Tarzan on a water vine!)

After lunch, we set up a second experiment where we tested how the colonization of the cecropia tree with ants vs an uncolonized young cecropia tree varies in defense mechanisms (chemical and physical). Cecropia trees and ants have a mutualistic relationship where ants form their colony in this tree in exchange for protecting the tree from herbivores. We wanted to know if leaves would potentially be thicker, gross, or poisonous before having the ants  colonize the tree. We tested this by collecting herbivorous insects in boxes and adding leaves from colonized and uncolonized trees to see which got eaten more. 

(Inside of colonized cecropia tree; looks like a ant high rise apartment building)

While hiking to collect the insects and leaves, I saw a large brown skink (lizard) that I have not identified yet. It was about 8 inches and had a long tail. I also saw a silky anole while hiking for setting up the nitrogen lab. Both were on the side of the trail in the shade. 

The last two exciting notes about today are potentially the most exciting. First, I got a great look at a toucan in the tree right out front of Las Cuevas! It was not too close, but I used my binoculars and saw the red tail and the large yellow beak very clearly. 

Additionally, I heard something loud making screaming sounds from inside the jungle after it got dark. I have been made aware that one animal is known for making a screaming noise, and that is the puma. Hopefully our camera traps catch a picture of it walking by! 

See yall soon!

Claire C

Day 3: Adventures Deploying Camera Traps!

“GOBBLE GOBBLE” That’s how day 3 started at about 4 am when I got woken up by a LOUD turkey under our building. I quickly learned just how active a rainforest can be before the sun even comes up. 

Today we were tasked with coming up with a research question to ask about camera traps. Camera traps are motion sensitive cameras set up outside that take pictures of any movement (animals) in their range. We wanted to know how species richness of vertebrate animals varies on human constructed paths versus pure jungle areas. Our day was spent hiking along paths setting up cameras on the trail and then bushwhacking to get to a spot in the forest that was further off the trail. 

Planning our camera trap locations

Flagging our camera trap 🙂

While we were on the trails with the intention of setting up the camera traps, we saw many cool unexpected things too. We saw a large cat footprint (jaguar or puma), some huge leaf cutter ant mounds, and multiple reptiles. I saw a pink-throated lichen anole, a silky anole, a rose bellied lizard , a neotropical green anole high in a tree, and the coolest part of today: a snake! While I did not get a great look at this snake as it quickly slithered away from the trail when we rounded a corner, I still observed some identifying features. It was about 4 feet long with a slender monochromatic brownish grey back and reddish belly. The scales were flat on its back and it slithered into grasses on the side of the trail. This all leads me to believe it was a racer of some sort, though I will never know for sure. 

Rose bellied lizard

Silky anole

All in all, today had some really cool jungle sightings, and though it is HOT, I am loving the sticky rainforest. 

See yall later!

Claire C

Day 5: Creatures in the Night

Today started off with a spirited morning hike that was less than successful for me in my mission to catch a blue morpho. Sad. But, Elena did spot a helmeted iguana casually clinging to the side of a mossy tree! He/she/it was so cute, with little red eyes that casually watched us as the 12 of us bumbling humans oohed and aahed as only true TFBs can.

Helmeted iguana

Adrienne also spent the whole morning peeling bark off dead trees to look for scorpions and finally managed to find a couple hiding out in a lichen-covered log! I also snagged three butterflies in my net as we headed back to camp. Two were small orange and yellow sulfur butterflies, but one was a large golden butterfly that I’d never seen before. I found all three floating in the lower branches of understory brush.

Today marked the completion of our first full project. Belize is a tiny country flush against the ocean, making it vulnerable to hurricanes that periodically sweep through the country and flatten areas of the forest. Two years ago, Hurricane Earl was no exception.

Our project today aimed to understand the effects of these areas of hurricane-caused tree fall on the regrowth of understory plants. Since every tree that falls exposes a rare patch of sunlight on the forest floor, we thought that maybe there would be more plants growing in the fallen areas to suck up all the sunlight!

Unfortunately, we didn’t actually find any real difference in plant growth between fallen and non-fallen areas. It’s probably because all 10 of us are fools when it comes to identifying leaves – maybe we’ll have better luck once we actually learn how to identify plants.

After an afternoon of making a poster to display our non-data and listening to lectures, we ate dinner and headed out for the first night hike. We stopped by the frog pond, which is usually dry at this time of year, but to our happy surprise, there were actually a few inches of muddy water and dead leaves in the pond! The water teemed with tiny turtles. Scott picked one up, but it didn’t seem to be too happy so we let it go soon after. I caught an anole with an orange scale pattern on its back near the edge of the lake. He was also quite angry with me, so I let him go after he flashed his red neck flap a few times.

Here’s one of the mud turtles!

Can’t really see the anole in this pic, but he’s there, I promise! Also, don’t I kind of look like Jane Goodall? #goals

Overall, the night hike was filled with creepy crawlies of the night – plenty of katydids, one banded gecko, and a super strange gray moth that, when we lifted its wings, turned out to have a bright orange and black-striped furry body. It was resting on a broad leaf hanging into the trail and wasn’t even remotely disturbed by the annoying humans prodding at it.  Sadly, I couldn’t get a great photo of it because the lighting was so dim.

The Lepidoptera front was otherwise quiet today because we spent so much time inside on the poster, and butterflies didn’t seem to like the hurricane fall areas.

Tomorrow, we collect our pee traps. Yay!

5/29: Camera Trappin’

I awoke this morning with the sinking realization that today would be our last full day in Belize. Today would be a day full of hiking, as we set out all of our time to retrieve our camera traps that we had scattered far and wide a few days ago. Today, though, we got through the first half of our hike much faster than we did last time, retrieving all of our traps from the bush with relative ease. On this hike, we saw a Golfo Dulce Anole (Norops polylepis) among the leaf litter, easily distinguished by the diamond pattern on its back.

Golfo Dulce Anole

We then returned a little early for lunch, so we knocked out our lectures before eating. After a nice lunch and relaxation time, we went back out to collect the rest of our traps from the Monkey Tail Trail. These were a bit harder to find in the denser vegetation, and it took us a total of five and a half hours to cover about six kilometers because some of the camera traps were harder to find than others. I didn’t manage to see any more reptiles on this leg of our retrieval.

Our trap results were eventful. Most of the traps came up empty-handed, but a few of them showed us a large bird, some mammals, and even two ocelots! What a great way to top off an amazing trip. It won’t be easy to leave tomorrow.

5/26: I Would Walk 500 Miles

We started our day early today for birdwatching, but the hazy morning made it difficult to spot much of anything. After a late breakfast at 7:30, we designed our first project of setting out camera traps to monitor predator and prey, hoping to spot a big cat or two when we collect the traps again in a few days.

We may have bitten off more than we can chew though; we set about half of our traps before lunch, and then went back out at 2:30 to set the rest of them. This involved going deep into the bush, though, and we did a little bit of accidental meandering that led us to return to the field station a full five hours after leaving and a bit after dark. This made for an interesting, dark, spider-filled walk back to the station. This means that we spent the high majority of today walking, something I haven’t done in a while.

A camera trap with a makeshift fastening rope

We managed to see a lot of reptiles today. This morning we spotted a Norops biporcatus, a green tree anole, and a Degenhardt’s Scorpion Eater snake, also known as Stenorrhina degenhardtii. In the afternoon we spotted a Plestiodon sumichrasti, a Sumichrast’s skink, a Norops lemurinus, or canopy anole, and even a small Bothrops asper, the notorious Terciopelo snake. Upon returning to the station, another group had found a Turnip-Tailed Gecko, also known as Thecadactyla rapicauda.

Canopy anole

5/25: Termite Honeymoon

Our last consecutive day of travel finally led us to Las Cuevas, but not before some fun first. After departing from our nice lodgings and all internet access, we stopped at a nice river and waterfall area for a dip in the water. On the way there, we spotted a brown basilisk (Basiliscus vitiattus) from the van. The scenery was beautiful and the water was nice, and none of us wanted to leave. I spotted some kind of ameiva lizard there, but I didn’t have my ID card so I couldn’t pinpoint the species. We also enjoyed eating a soursop together, which was many peoples’ first time having one. This is one of the many perks of having islanders on this trip.

Rio-on

After swimming, we got back on the bumpy road to Las Cuevas, playing card games to pass the time in the van. We arrived at Las Cuevas around 1:15pm and were greeted by a delicious lunch. After settling in, we got a brief orientation and went for our first hike in the Chiquibul forest. We spent two hours walking through the forest, seeing lots of spider webs and even the vegetation-covered stones laid by Mayans over one thousand years ago.

Crested anole

We spotted a Crested Anole (Anolis cristatellus) in the forest, but that was it for reptiles. We returned at 5:40, and spent time unwinding at the station. Since the rains have just started, we witnessed a termite nuptial flight, which some of us took as a chance to eat termites.

A Visit to the Maya (by Maya)

Though we’ve finally settled in the heart of the Chiquibul Forest, I may have been too hasty in my previous assessment of our luck on this trip.

DSCN3959
Silky anole (Anolis sericeus).

The morning began with little sleep, some unidentifiable (but delicious) fried bread, a blue-crowned motmot sighting, and our departure from the Crystal Paradise and San Ignacio. Just as we set off, I caught this silky anole (Anolis sericeus).

Our first stop was a step 2000 years back in history, to the ancient Mayan city of Ozhuitza at the Caracol Archaeological Site. The great city now stands in ruins, with only the largest structures of the ancient city center excavated today. I became a momentary archaeologist, traipsing through the remains of a metropolis that once housed 150,000 people. We climbed 43 meters with many, many steps to the top of Caracol’s “Sky Palace,” the tallest structure in Belize.

DSCN3976
Caracol Archaeological Site.

The day’s reptile sightings remained sparse compared to yesterday’s excitement; Caracol only yielded a few stray skinks, darting among the ruins. The morning’s greatest surprise was the sight of the odd hanging nests characteristic of the Montezuma’s oropendola. As we entered what can best be described as the suburbs of Ozhuitza, I caught a glimpse of the birds’ bright yellow tails. We watched the intricately woven nests swing like pendulums in the breeze to the tune of the oropendula’s strange mating call.

However, as soon as we left Caracol, the Mayan gods appear to have left our side. Our journey to the Chiquibul was cut short by an unanticipated lack of oil. In true field biologist fashion, we halted our journey outside a military checkpoint and seated ourselves on the dirt road for a lecture on the termite species of Belize. But in just a few short hours, two pickup trucks with a bed full of TFBs finally found their way to Las Cuevas Research Station. For the next five days, we’ll make our home here in the forest—hopefully, with a little more luck this time.