Tag Archives: Camera Traps

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Day 7: Another Basilisk Lizard !!!

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Today was such an exciting day because I found and caught my first basilisk lizard!!! As I mentioned in my previous blog, basilisk lizards are nicknamed the Jesus Christ lizard because they can run on water. I have been wanting to see one all trip (it’s my favorite reptile), and while the one Dr. Solomon caught on day 6 was so cool, I did not get to see it in it thriving outside on its own. This one however I did see, and I caught it! 

(baby striped basilisk)

When I first saw this lizard I thought it was anole because it was about 4 inches long and brown, but I quickly realized it was the wrong shape. It had long hind toes and a crazy long tail compared to its body size. After picking it up and getting a closer look at it, I became confident it was a young basilisk lizard. Despite it having a vastly different coloration and size from the one Dr. Solomon caught and brought us yesterday, I was able to see the morphological similarities. I looked up specific basilisk species and identified it as a striped basilisk lizard. (I named it Tom in honor of Harry Potter if you know you know)

(Me and my lizard)

(Tom)

Today we also analyzed our camera trap footage, and we saw THREE pumas. The pumas (or singular puma since they are territorial) all took the trails as opposed to off the trail where our camera traps were. The excitement in the room when we sifted through the pictures and all of a sudden a puma was on the screen was infectious. 

(Puma!)

My camera trap was off the trail and it took 4 total pictures (the second lowest count of anyone; some ppl had upwards of 100 pics). I assumed it would all be pictures of me putting up and taking down the camera, and three of them were. However, one picture was not! My camera trap got a picture of a tayra! They are medium sized, weasel like mammals.

Overall day 7 was such an exciting day, and while I am so sad to be leaving Las Cuevas tomorrow, I can’t wait to be on the reef shortly!

Claire C

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Camera Traps and Campfire Stories at Las Cuevas

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Today was an exciting and rewarding day at Las Cuevas Research Station! We went back into the forest to retrieve the camera traps we set up when we first arrived on May 19.  It felt great to collect the equipment after it had been silently observing the rainforest for days. These cameras are key to helping us understand more about the wildlife here—especially the birds that are often hard to spot in person.

We spent most of the day working on presentations. In the morning, we wrapped up our rainforest presentations and then began preparing for our upcoming reef topics. It was a great opportunity to reflect on what we’ve learned so far and to practice communicating that knowledge clearly. Talking about the incredible biodiversity here made me appreciate just how much we’ve seen already.

In the afternoon, we gathered as a class to look through the photos from the camera traps. It was so interesting to see what animals had wandered by while we were off doing other things. One clear trend stood out: cameras on the trails captured far more activity than those placed deeper in the forest. This made a lot of sense—animals, including birds, often use trails as pathways, just like we do. Watching these patterns emerge really brought our research to life.

Later that evening, we had dinner outside and were treated to something incredible: fifteen scarlet macaws and two parrots flew overhead while we were eating. It was an absolutely surreal moment. Seeing so many brilliant flashes of red and green cutting across the sky was breathtaking—definitely one of those memories I’ll never forget. We ended the day gathered around a campfire deep in the forest, sharing stories and soaking in the sounds of the jungle. It was the perfect ending to a busy, beautiful day.

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Blink and They’re Gone – Birding in Belize

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Today was one of those days where I felt both lucky and completely wiped out. We’re based at Las Cuevas Research Station in Belize, and our group is working on a project to understand how man-made trails vs. natural, unmarked forest areas affect vertebrate biodiversity. Sounds cool, right? It is—but it also means long hikes, heavy gear, and navigating some seriously dense jungle.

We set up camera traps in different parts of the forest—some along established trails, others deep in the untouched areas where moving even a few feet takes real effort. The jungle is so dense in places that it gets dark even during the day. It’s beautiful, but it also felt a little eerie. Every snap of a twig made me jump just a little.

On the bird front, the day had its highs and lows. A crow near the station gave us a slow start, but in the forest, things picked up. I spotted a yellow-throated warbler—a flash of yellow that actually stuck around long enough for me to get a decent look. I also saw a woodpecker with a reddish head, but true to jungle form, it vanished just as quickly as it appeared. One of the biggest challenges here is that birds are so fast. By the time someone says, “There!” the bird is often already gone.

Even though it was tiring, today reminded me how much goes unseen in the forest—and how worth it it is when something reveals itself, even for just a moment. Between the birds and the camera trap work, I’m excited to see what we find. Who knows what’s passing by when we’re not watching?

Continue reading Blink and They’re Gone – Birding in Belize →

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Day 3: Lights, Camera Traps, Action!

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Beginning our first full day at Las Cuevas Research Staton (LCRS), we had a scrumptious breakfast before we began our first project. We were tasked to come up with a question and design an experiment, using camera traps, to collect data to hopefully answer it. We landed on the question “How does the presence of man-made trails impact the biodiversity of vertebrates in the immediate surrounding area of LCRS?”

To test this, we set up camera traps on small, medium, and large trails/roads along with undisturbed areas. I set mine up along the LCRS Access road, on a semi-cut down tree!

We also saw a lot of new and fascinating animals today. As I was about to set up my camera trap, we heard a really loud banging noise, and it turned out to be a woodpecker!! Here’s a (blurry) video I took of it: IMG_7122

We saw a fresh track of a large cat scratch, which was really exciting and hopefully a good sign for the rest of the trip.

There was also this really beautiful blue dragonfly that kept flying around us for part of our hike.

My favorite of the day, though, was this baby scorpion that was crawling along the road. It was my first time ever seeing a wild scorpion, and as far as wild baby ones go, they’re not as scary or intimidating as I thought. That being said, we still have to worry about them crawling into our shoes and boots every time before we put them on.

That wraps up our first full day in the field—sadly without any Orthoptera. However, I’m giving my Orthoptera taxon briefing today, so we’ll still get to “see” a few. Hopefully we’ll actually get to see some in the field tomorrow. Until then!

Ian C

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Day 3: Watching the forest

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Today we set up our first field experiment of the trip. We were presented with motion-activated camera traps and challenged to come up with a research question we wanted to investigate over the next five days. These camera traps would take photos whenever they detected movement, allowing us to look at animals when there aren’t any humans around. With these cameras, we were challenged to design a simple pilot study that we could carry out. We decided to look into the differences in biodiversity between areas with manmade trails and areas that hadn’t been disturbed. We had 14 camera traps, so we determined 7 different locations along trails and roads of different widths, and then decided to associate each trail camera with one deeper into the underbrush. By 9:45, we had designed our experiment and were ready to head out into the forest around Las Cuevas.

In the morning, we set up six of the cameras. It was a bit slow-going at first as we perfected the method, but by the end of the morning we were experts. We each took turns setting them up—I went third. It took some bushwhacking to set up the traps in the undisturbed areas, but that allowed us to see some impressive wildlife and trees. One of the earliest things we saw was a big cat scratch on the trail. Hopefully, with cameras nearby, we’ll be able to see some actual big cats by the end of the week. I also saw some massive leaves among the leaf litter, which I think belong to the Bigleaf Grape. We also saw the large, spiny outer shell of a seed pod of a palm tree as well as a bird of paradise plant.

Students head into a dense thicket in a single-file line.

Bushwhacking to place off-trail camera traps
A camera trap on a tree
A fully set up camera trap

After lunch, we did a different loop and placed the eight remaining cameras, including on the road leading to the research station. We were much more exposed in the afternoon, and as it grew hotter and hotter, I started to notice that my sweaty hands were partially erasing and smudging my field notebook. It’s a bit annoying, but now that I know about it I can mitigate the issue. It was also the first full day of field work, which was punishing but manageable. I’m staying hydrated and getting rest when I can and I think I’m managing it just fine.

The day isn’t quite over yet—this evening, I’m giving my topic lecture. I get to share what I learned about the biological history of the region. I got a preview of it today, when we saw trees adapted to fending off giant ground sloths, which are extinct now. I think it’ll go well. I’m interested to see what our cameras will pick up—I’ll be sure to update when we collect them again at the end of the week.

Protrusions with small thorns spaced out on the trunk of a tree.
These unusual thorns would have protected the tree from the now-extinct giant ground sloth.

2022

Smile! You’re passing a camera trap :)

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Day 1 in the rainforest was fantastic! It started bright and early for some morning birdwatching, and I saw and heard so many of my taxa! I saw a lot of black vultures, which are large black birds that can be seen perched in groups in sparse trees. I saw a plumbeous kite, some oscillated turkeys, and some type of parrot. There are so many types of parrots that can be extremely difficult to tell apart, but I knew they were parrots because of their frantic style of flying. I also saw keel-billed toucans and collared aracaris! These are both large-billed birds that can be spotted gliding into tall trees. The most spectacular sighting of all was seeing scarlet macaws! There were two pairs of them in tall trees. I could tell that they were the Northern sub-species because they had a blue coloration on their wings, as well as yellow and the dominant red. These birds were breathtaking, and I am so happy to have gotten a picture!

We spent the rest of the day hiking to set up camera traps for an experiment pertaining to mammal functional groups and their abundance in certain areas of the forest (trails, roads, dense cover). We each had a camera trap to place, and it took the whole day to set them all up. During the setup for this experiment, I experienced so many things!

I held a butterfly net in my jungle outfit and felt like an Animal Crossing character!

I climbed up the bird observation tower! I didn’t see any birds clearly, but the view was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

I briefly went into a cave and saw Mayan pottery fragments and cave spiders!

I also ate termites (they tasted like carrots), saw a huge leaf cutter ant nest, and found red-eyed treefrog eggs!

Today was a long day, but it was packed with so many unbeatable moments and sights. I am excited to see what our cameras capture!

In the meantime, I can’t wait to go on more jungle adventures. However, I can’t say that I’m excited to put my rubber boots back on. Though my feet are in a state of achy torment, my thirst for exploration gives me plenty of inspiration to tough through the more difficult parts. What I do for science!

– McKenna

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We Love Time Designated for Tick Removal!

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May 16, 2019

Today was our first full day at Las Cuevas Research Station, and we actually got to explore the trails here, as we set up seven camera traps (cameras strapped to trees that take photos when motion is detected – we’ll be checking the photos on our last day here). The crazy overgrown trails of the Chiquibul revealed some pretty interesting finds, including a group of curious spider monkeys and several blue morphos!

The sightings that really interested me (of course) were the beetles, my assigned taxon. Some of the more flashy beetles included a metallic wood-boring beetle (likely from the genus Euchroma) with a blue-green metallic body, as well as a large black beetle with a distinct red outline around its thorax and abdomen and vertical ridges along its abdomen only.

But there’s nothing like the feeling of finding a beetle that exactly matches a species from your taxon ID card, and I’m talking not just the kind of beetle, but also its exact position and proportions. This beetle was (drumroll please) Eburia pedestris, a longhorn beetle with four symmetrical yellow spots and long orange antennae and legs.

And believe it or not, all this was worth the ticks! After our hike, we spent around 30 minutes laboriously checking for and removing ticks. Many of us had to stop knowing the unfortunate truth that we may have missed one.

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Day 7: In Which I Do Not Catch a Blue Morpho

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Our last sunset from Las Cuevas

Our last day in the Chiquibul Forest started with a 5 am hike over some extremely steep paths that were still wet from yesterday’s rain. The leaves, tree roots, and mossy rocks were so slick, and I took two nasty spills – I landed on a tree root with my left butt cheek. Despite my searing leg muscles and the blossoming bruises on my butt, the view from the top of Bird Tower was worth the strenuous uphill hike. The sun was still low in the sky, and the forest still seemed to be waking up. Mist rolled in across lush montane forests as far as the eye could see. It was  breathtaking – both literally and figuratively.

View from the top of Bird Tower.

After breakfast, we set out for another long trek to retrieve our camera traps that we set on our first day at Las Cuevas. The hike was long, but the forest here is so inherently beautiful that I didn’t mind the sweat, sore muscles, and countless bug bites. I caught this strange goldenrod-colored butterfly that was bobbing along San Pastor road:

As per usual, every single blue morpho butterfly that we saw flew out of my reach. I’m very, very sad that I haven’t managed to catch Belize’s most iconic butterfly on this trip, but I guess it just means that I have to come back someday to finish my mission!

In the afternoon, we dug up a couple of leaf cutter nests to examine them from the inside. Scott, our resident ant expert, located the queen of a smallish nest for us, as well as the ants’ fungus garden in which they grow their food. The excavation was great exercise, but the ants that we uncovered were definitely not happy with us.

I got bitten by a mosquito right in the middle of my forehead as I was excavating the nest. Here’s Elena helping me put Cortisone on the largest bump in the history of ever.

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the checking of the camera traps. I don’t think any of us expected to actually find anything. Maybe a peccary or two if we were lucky. See, as loud, clunky humans that make huge amounts of noise as we travel along the trails, any mammals in the area were aware of our presence before we could even come close to spotting them. By this point in the trip, spotting large mammals in the Chiquibul seemed equivalent to seeing a unicorn.

But.

In the very first trap! A tapir! And a magnificent jaguar, in perfect profile! Right there in the first trap, we captured two of the mammals that we most wanted to see. It only got better and better as we opened the rest of the traps. Of course, not all yielded anything, but most captured at least one or two animals. We saw so many peccaries – nine total.

We also saw a few curassows, two pumas, a coatimundi (kind of like a mix between a raccoon and a red panda), a coral snake, and a 9-banded armadillo. It was truly wild. When the first jaguar appeared on screen, all of us started screaming our heads off – spotting a jaguar is like the mother of all animal sightings in the Chiquibul.

But that wasn’t all! We saw not one, but TWO jaguars in our traps. Practically unheard of!! The big cats were of stocky, muscular build, and had intricate rosette patterning on their hide. I’m still in awe of them and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at these pictures.

What a satisfying end to our stay at Las Cuevas and the Chiquibul Forest. It’s been an amazing, eye-opening experience. I can truly say that I’ve fallen in love with this place – chiggers, ticks, and all. I’m sad to leave tomorrow morning, but look forward to experiencing the reef.

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Day 7: 10 Miles and Several Mammals Later…

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Blog Post #7

Day 7: 10 Miles and Several Mammals Later…

Written May 22ndat 6:25 pm

This post was meant to be for yesterday (May 21st), but you are about to find out why I haven’t written it until now.

I think we were told to make a scary/confused face

We started the morning at 4:45 am. We wanted to wake up and reach the Bird Tower around early morning light, but the hike up there is extra steep. So we set our around 5:15 am and headed to the trails. Probably one of the steepest (and slipperiest) hikes I’ve ever been on.  I had hoped to see some amphibians since it had rained last night, but unfortunately, none were out. The rest of the day wasn’t successful either, so today’s blog post will just report on my general day.

But the view from the top was gorgeous–the pictures below don’t do it justice. We also climbed into two chambers of a cave along the way 🙂

Then we came back down for breakfast, then went on a 5 mile hike to collect our camera traps. We didn’t view the photos right away because we wanted to wait for nightfall to get the best contrast with the screen.

So in the afternoon, we went to excavate some leaf cutter ant nests (Scott’s favorite) and brought along a few of our new Southern Miss. friends. First, we excavated a one year old nest after much digging on Scott’s and Zach’s (Southern Miss student) behalf. They had a small fungi garden, and we were able to find the queen! (See pic below) She lives for 25 years and all her babies only live for about one, so think of all the millions of eggs she lays in her life (after just one mating flight with stored sperm nonetheless!)

Claire needs to become a hand model 🙂

Then we went to a 15-20 year old nest slightly off trail in the woods. Scott started digging and we all took turns trying to shovel, but the ants just couldn’t seemed bothered. Turns out, we had dug up a dead fungi garden chamber and dumping ground. It was super weird; this was only the second time that Scott dug that up in his entire 17 years of ant experience!

That night, we checked out our camera traps. It was so AMAZING. On the first card that we looked at, there was a tapir taken one night and a jaguar the next night as the immediate next picture!! The shouts and hollers were amazing. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to those pictures right now, otherwise I would include them. For the rest of the pictures, we snapped a coatimundi, a 9-banded armadillo, 2 puma, several peccaries, male curassow, female curassow, and a coral snake. Apparently, this was the best luck in all of TFBs history.

We went to bed pretty late for a 4 am wake up call to leave Las Cuevas… Stay tuned!

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Off Roading (Day 11)

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Today was the day I was looking forward to the least out of this whole trip, the day where we set up the camera traps. I had read some of the blogs from last year, and they said they hiked thirteen miles. Luckily, we did not go that far

We decided to use the camera traps to test whether there was differences in the abundances of big cats and of big cats’ prey on the trails versus in the forest. We did this by placing three traps on the 50 Hectare Trail and four on the Monkey Tail Trail. Also, for each camera we placed on the trail, we placed another one 300ft into the forest for a total of fourteen camera traps. Scott Solomon did not tell us until we set the last trap that no group had ever used that many before.

One of the fourteen (!!) camera traps we set.

As we were finding our way out of the forest after setting the very last trap we got a little bit turned around, and dusk was just starting to fall. A large portion of the trek back to Las Cuevas was really dark. We saw a small tommygoff snake in the dark, which was a little spooky because I would have not noticed it had Damien not pointed it out, and it is the most dangerous snake in Belize.

Other things we saw on the hike were a Mexican Porcupine, Scorpion Eater Snake, Blue Morpho Butterflies, a mantis molt, a wheel bug, and a mammal skeleton. We also saw some cat scratch marks near where we set the traps, which seemed like a good sign.

A cool Wheel Bug we saw this morning.

I saw a few Orthoptera species today. One was the same Leaf Mimic Katydid that I’d already seen. The other hopped away too fast for me to identify it.

We are all tired and ridden with ticks from walking through the forest, so these traps best capture some really cool pictures. I want to see a tapir the most. Out of the cats, I’d like to see an ocelot the most, probably.