Tag Archives: arachnids

Rainforest and Reef Reflections

Hey y’all!

After a few days to unwind and reflect on the trip, it has been really cool to think about the rainforest and reef and why they’re both so rich in animal biodiversity. From what I saw, it looked like a big reason that both of these areas had so many different types of animals was of how focused each species was in its lifestyle. Because each animal species has such a specific, narrow place it lives and small range of food it eats, this allows for a lot of animal species to live in the same space.  Another thing that might affect the high number of animal species is the ability of plants and animals to spread across areas with their seeds or eggs/offspring. This lets younger animals and plants move to areas where they would not have to compete with older members of their species for food and living spaces.

I personally noted how, in each ecosystem, you almost never saw the top predators and larger animals of either area on a typical hike or snorkeling trip. Predators of both ecosystems were really good at hiding and tended to mostly if not only hunt at night when it would be even harder for them to be spotted as well as easier for them to catch prey. I also noted how both the reef and rainforests had so many different potential hiding places for the animals that lived there, whether prey or predator.

(Walking through the rainforest at night)

I think that the course exceeded my expectations in almost every way. The hikes were longer than I expected, the projects took more work than I expected, and the pre-trip work (the presentations and taxon ID sheets) required a much higher level of preparation than I ad expected when applying for the course. But I’m glad they were because it helped make the feeling of adventure was even more thrilling and wonderful than I had expected. (Oddly enough, there were not as many encounters with venomous snakes as I had expected based on Dr. Solomon’s stories–not sure if I’m relieved or sad about that…)

(Marking Tape is the new Pink!)

I think my favorite part of the course was getting to see the animals of the taxa I had researched standing, walking, and swimming right in front of me instead of just sitting on the page of a book. The Damselfish in particular were so amazing to see in person, and it was always a lot of fun watching them chase off trespassing fish from their territories!

(Yuca Red Rump Tarantula on top of Caana at Caracol)

(Threespot Damselfish-juvenile)

It’s hard to choose a least favorite part of the course, but if I had to–and I do thanks to the professors–I would say my least favorite part was trying to take photos underwater for blogs and project data! Don’t get me wrong, touch screens are awesome, but really finnicky underwater! I would set my phone to take pictures or videos, but when I went underwater, the phone would sense the motion of the currents and treat said motion like a swipe on the screen. It was often the case where I would go down to video a Damselfish or something else for another project and by the time I tried filming said fish, the video setting would be changed to ‘Blur’ (I still question why that’s even a video setting)!

While there were so many things that I learned from this trip, the following three things really stuck with me:

  1. Conservation work involves more than just one group: In many of the presentations that leaders in conservation groups such as Friends for Conservation and Development and the Wildlife Conservation Society, discussed the work required work with so many people, including patrol personnel such as the Belize Coast Guard and rangers to protect the reserves and enforce the rules.
  2. Threats to wildlife threaten the health of local communities economically (for tourism and the sustainable harvesting of natural resources for trade) and nutritionally (for preserving natural food sources of fish and fruit)
  3. I learned how to look at our projects from another perspective to consider the potential errors and how they could be improved upon in future studies.

(Mr. Kenneth’s Presentation about the Wildlife Conservation Society)

I hope you have enjoyed these blogs as much as I enjoyed writing them and remember: Adventure is out there!

Sayonara, Las Cuevas!

Hey y’all!

We parted with the beautiful Chiquibul Forest yesterday morning, driving back over the Macal River and through the Mountain Pine Ridge. Though this is Cinnamon Tarantula territory, we sadly did not see any because they are nocturnal and we did not have time to stop and look for their dens.

After passing over the Roaring River–which was more like Snoring River since it is still dry season–we arrived at the ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) Cave at 10:14 am. We walked to the cave itself and then swam, waded, and climbed for about 4 hours through sparkling cave formations as our tour guide talked about the archaeological findings of the ancient Maya. We were not allowed to take pictures due to preservation concerns, so I’m sorry I can’t show you what it was like.

I also spotted a spider on one ledge with really longs legs, which makes sense because cave animals have longer legs and arms to help explore caves. I don’t know what this guy was, but I’ll work on IDing him.

After a lovely lunch, we drove to the Tropical Education Center, arriving by 5:30 pm. After dinner, we visited the Belize Zoo, a zoo that only houses local, rescue animals. Some of my favorites that we saw were Edgar Hill the jaguar, Princess the puma, and Fozzie the kinkajou.

I also spotted a tarantula in its den underneath the sidewalk! I’m working on identifying what kind of tarantula it is. I guess you really can’t take a step without finding another spider, above or below ground!

One Last Jungle Jaunt

Hey y’all!

I can’t believe we’re already at our last full day at Las Cuevas! We started the day collecting all of our camera traps (while having some styling fun with the marking tape) from our first project, and we’re gonna look through the photos when it is dark enough to tell what’s in the pictures.  Stay tuned!!

Along the way, we found a bunch of tiny pits under the station that belonged to antlions (the inspiration for Sarlaac pits from Star Wars) and even an adult on a nearby path! It certainly looked like something out of this world!

I couldn’t find any distinguishable spiders, though I did find a light brown spider that was hard to identify and webbing on a tree in a different path.

While I’m really gonna miss being surrounded by the deep rainforest’ plants and animals, I am super excited to explore the reef in a couple of days!

The Worlds of Light and Darkness

Hey y’all!

Sorry for being a little late posting for yesterday, but it’ll be worth it! We started the day early with a cool sighting of a Black Howler Monkey family group (after they had woken us up with their LOUD calls)! We then got special permission to enter the Las Cuevas Cave! The cave is a protected archaeological and cultural site, so we weren’t allowed to take pictures. The cave was enormous inside, with Maya steps, building foundations, and pottery. It is right below a temple that archaeologists think was seen as a special ceremonial place for the Maya.

We then hiked around the trails collecting our pitfall traps–and finding really cool animals like this Wolf Spider hiding in the leaf litter and the Basilisk that Dr. Solomon caught!

We worked as a group to write and draw our findings on our poster and present to the professors, and it was pretty cool to see it all come together with our team work!

After all of our presentations were done, we started probably the most tiresome but breathtaking hike of my life. We climbed about half an hour through and up a steep path riddled with Maya structures. My watch even said I got 2x, 3x, and 4x my stairstep goal in ten minutes! At the hilltop, we climbed up the Bird Tower and watched the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my entire life! Minus the station, there was no sign of any human life in the rolling mountains of the rainforest!

From there, the world changed as we climbed down from the heavenly sunset to the eerie world of the nighttime rainforest. The lights from our helmets were all that cut through the heavy curtain of darkness, and I had to remind myself that I needed to look out for all of the predators on the prowl.

Somehow, this hike was the most exhausting, spooky, and indescribably beautiful experience I have ever had, and I would do it all over again if I could!

Fungi, Ants, and Caves…Oh My!

Hey y’all,

Today was a bit different than the past few days because we spent most of it indoors for a bunch of reasons. First, we finished the trials with the insects in the leaf containers. After releasing the insects, we found that the leaves from the ant-guarded trees had been eaten less than the leaves from unguarded trees. I was shocked because I would have thought that the leaves usually guarded by ants would be easy to eat once the ants were gone, but what we saw indicates otherwise.

We then got two big surprises: The directors of the Friends for Conservation and Development talked to us about their work in preserving the wildlife of the Chiquibul Forest, especially the Scarlet Macaw, and the Chiquibul Cave System! This is the largest cave system in Central America with at least 40 miles of passages mapped out! We’re even gonna explore some of it tomorrow morning! I’m super excited because there are a whole bunch of different animals that only live in caves and a lot of sites with ancient Maya artifacts!

Our project for the day was to find fungi gardens inside Leafcutter Ant colonies. We first found a small one that was around one year old, and the fungi colony was about the size of a tennis ball with an enormous queen!

Then, we found a colony that we thought was between 10-25 years old. While digging for the colony, ant soldiers swarmed out of the hole like lava out of a volcano, and I was hopping the entire time to keep them off of my boots!

I did not see a bunch of spiders today except for a Wolf Spider and another bigger spider carrying babies on her back! Sadly, the mama spider crawled underground before I could snap a picture of her, but here’s a cool picture of the Wolf Spider below.

While I’m a little nervous for my arachnid presentation tomorrow, I think it should be pretty fun to finally share with my classmates what I’ve learned about arachnids!

Keep it Cool!

Serenity

Operation: Munch Time!

Hey y’all,

Today started pretty quiet with a relaxed time to watch for the beautiful birds of the rainforest, including a little hummingbird who was very tricky to take a picture of!

We then kickstarted our morning project to figure out how different the amounts of nutrients (namely Nitrogen which is REALLY hard to get for animals and plants) for animals living in trees versus those living on the ground. We used pitfall traps. This is where we dug two holes in the ground (one with water, one with Nitrogen) and tied two more of these tubes to a nearby tree. If the Nitrogen tube has more insects that have fallen into it than the water tube, this tells us that insects have a higher demand for Nitrogen than for water.

(Us preparing the tubes for the pitfall traps)

After lunch, we set up an experiment to compare the leaves of two  Trumpet trees: One that has ants living in it and one that does not. We think that Trumpet trees with ants have softer leaves than the trees without ants because the ants can defend said leaves. After getting the leaves, we collected six leaf-eating bugs and placed each into a container that also had one leaf from either tree to see which leaves the insects eat more of.

The craziest thing happened today! While collecting the Trumpet Tree leaves, we spotted a tarantula den and for my special project as the arachnid “expert” I used a long twig, ran it into the den, and just when I thought the den was empty, giant fuzzy gray legs lunged out of the den opening! I totally didn’t yell and dart backwards… But It was so awesome to finally find an active tarantula den. I’m gonna work on figuring out what kind it is!

Can’t wait to share how both these projects turn out!

Serenity

Into the Thick of It!

Hey y’all!

We started the day bright and early so we could spot the early birds of the Chiquibul forest and it was gorgeous! We saw a lot of birds including parrots, vultures, Flycatchers, and the most colorful turkey I have ever seen all while enjoying coffee, tea, and chill vibes from the deck of Las Cuevas Research Station.

We then got to start our very first big project in the rainforest! We attached 14 camera traps–cameras that take pictures when they sense motion–to trees around the station. Our goal is to see whether places deep in the forest have that many more animals passing through than man-made paths. One of the cameras we placed was close to a big cat scratch in the ground, so we’re really hoping we can catch a Puma or Jaguar!

While we were setting all of these cameras up, we found one of the coolest things under a log! When Dr. Solomon flipped the log over, we found over twenty baby Tailless Whip Scorpions! They aren’t actually scorpions and even though it looks like they just have three legs, their fourth pair of legs actually act to catch and hold food, and these chompers look pretty gnarly! Not to mention, the colors on these little guys were so vibrant and beautiful!

I guess the phrase “Leave no stone unturned” should really include logs too!

Ever since yesterday, I have seen a plethora of spiders I am fairly certain are Wolf Spiders! They tend to hide amongst the leaf litter and are very easy to miss if you aren’t looking closely. Seriously, I think I have seen almost ten in the last day alone!

Serenity

Crawling Back in Time!

Hey y’all!

Today was practically three adventures in one! We woke up bright and early at the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge to watch for the beautiful birds that call the area home. Some of the birds I saw were a hummingbird, a Social Flycatcher, and this fellow I still can’t identify!

We then travelled to the Chiquibul National Park and visited the amazing Maya ruins of Caracol! After walking amongst the ruins of former homes, we climbed to the very top of Caana, the Sky Palace,  which is the tallest building in Belize! The name was very fitting because I felt like I was ono top of the world!

The entire time, I was finding so many spiders, but the coolest had to be the one we saw on Caana: The Yuca Red Rump Tarantula! One of our tour guides had spotted the den (located above the tomb of a Maya Queen) and was lured it entirely out of its den for all of us to see! She was beautiful and I am so stoked we got to find her, much less that I got an idea for how to bring a tarantula out of its den for my special project!

We got to Las Cuevas this evening and made our first foray into the rainforest down Maya Path as there are multiple Maya buildings amidst the plants–not to mention a tiny Tiger Bromeliad Spider that was darting beneath leaves on the path! It was really cool to get an idea of just how much of a mark the ancient Maya left on the Peninsula and learn about their history!

 

Looking forward to the adventures in store for the nest few days!

Serenity

Adventure is Out There!

Hey y’all!

I guess it’s that time! This last week has been nonstop prep work in terms of completing coursework and getting all of the gear I need. Now I’m all packed and wrapping up some last-minute details before we hop on the plane tomorrow! I’m so excited to be travelling outside the country for the first time! The days are bound to be really long with a lot of stuff happening, but I know it is going to be amazing and can’t wait to see what exactly lies ahead!

I’m really excited to learn how to identify different species of animals. Hopefully, the ID cards I made for the arachnids and damselfishes will help. I just need to remember to keep on the lookout, and I should be fine. I’m also nervous about all the travelling logistics, not to mention the presentations I’m giving, but I’m just gonna try and have fun with it.

Dr. Solomon said that I will have a special project of luring a tarantula out of its den at Las Cuevas! The best way is probably going to involve making a disturbance in the leaf litter outside of its den to mimic a prey insect of some sort. I’m excited to figure out how exactly to do that! I don’t really have any previous experience conducting research in the field or observing wild animals in person, but this will be an amazing time to start!

 

Remember: Adventure is Out There!

Serenity (2025)

June 19th: Rainforest Experiment Results!

Today we concluded both our pee pitfall experiment and the camera trap experiment! This morning we made a short hike through the Maya trail, and collected each of our pitfall traps filled with urine and unlucky arthropods. Along the way I spotted some cool looking harvestmen climbing along a sharp give-and-take palm! We also saw some really cool examples of moths that were killed by the “zombie” fungus Ophiocordyceps which takes control of the nervous system of its victims. These moths were in various stages of decay so it was like we were seeing the process itself, which was super cool!

 

Once back in the lab, we sorted our pee pitfalls and removed all of our captured arthropods to tally which traps had the most visitors. We found that in general, the arthropods were more often found in the nutrient rich pee, and there were many more arthropods found on the forest floor than the canopy. But the canopy arthropods actually had more guests in the water tubes, but the sample size for this area was very small. I actually did fish out a few harvestmen and a small spider during our data collection, so I did get some arachnids in there! Check out our title for the poster aka our most despicable pun yet (Urine for a Treet).

Some of the students went out to go collect all of the camera traps we had placed on our first day in the rainforest, and during this spotted a really cool spider, I wish I had been there! I have tried my hardest to identify this fuzzy guy just from the awesome picture Elena sent me, but still no luck. Its leg morphology points to it being some kind of ground-dwelling spider rather than orb-weaving. The coloration, leg shape, and fang placement resembles that of both huntsman and wolf spiders, but none of the spiders I’ve researched in this area have such distinctive fuzzy legs. What a cool little mystery! Fun fact, the “hair” on spiders legs are actually called setae and can be used for grip when moving around, sensing chemicals, and so many other cool things!