Tag Archives: Ceiba

Journey to Caracol and Las Cuevas!

June 20, 2022 mrn3 Leave a comment

Hey guys! Once again, it’s Michiel : )

We woke up this morning at the TEC (one of the most beautiful places ever) and quickly got ready for breakfast at 6:30. After breakfast, everyone gathered their luggage near the side of the road and got into vans for our journey to Caracol. On our way to Caracol, I got to sit in the front seat, where I prepared for my topic lecture that would be happening later that evening (spoiler alert). I read a bunch of papers with tiny letters while we were traveling on very bumpy roads. I may have gotten a little carsick, but it was only a little headache, and I was committed enough to presenting a wonderful lecture that a headache wouldn’t stop me. I managed to read everything I needed to by the time we got to Caracol. There, we saw a HUGE Ceiba tree, Mayan middle-class homes, and a beautiful pyramidal temple. We climbed to the top of that temple, looking in ancient bedrooms and tombs on the way up. Once we finally got to the top, we got a truly amazing view of the Chiquibul Forest. While we were there, we also saw white lined sac bat. After the pyramidal temple, we saw their place of astronomical observation, an area where they played a ballgame, and an aquifer. After all this, we had lunch, during which we were able to hear Black Howler Monkeys (Alouatta pigra) screaming throughout the forest. I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to get any pictures of these monkeys, but here is a picture of us on top of the temple and me next to a Ceiba tree!

After lunch, we left Caracol and continued our journey to Las Cuevas Research Station. On our trip, we saw three turtles crossing the road, two scarlet macaws, and a toucan! Once we finally reached the station (around 4:30), we were shown around. The station is really nice; I think I’m going to really enjoy it here. After our orientation, we began catching up on lectures that we had fallen behind on. After two taxon lectures, we had dinner, then I presented! I presented on life in the rainforest canopy, and I think I did really well, but we’ll see. After I presented, there were a couple more lectures, then we worked on our blogs and field notebooks and went to bed.

I’m really excited for everything to come. I’ll be sure to keep y’all updated!

2022

The Ruins of Caracol!!! (Day 9)

June 20, 2022 fah3 Leave a comment

Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 9 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we left the TEC to visit Caracol, one of the largest Mayan cities. I got kind of car sick on the way there, but it was OK because we sighted a Morelet’s crocodile (crocodylus moreleti). While I couldn’t get the exact size, it was obviously a younger crocodile. It even had the black tail bands that characterize young morelet’s. We saw it sunbathing on a rock near a freshwater river in the Chiquibil. What an exciting find!

After that, I fell asleep and awoke at Caracol. This ancient Mayan city was home to over 200k people at one point and spans over 7 miles. The temples are in a pyramidal shape and come in groups of threes and sixes. The property had a wide variety of trees. One of them produces fruit that are locally called horse balls, and the fruit have a sticky glue-like sap. We also saw a gumbo limbo tree wrapped in a strangling fig. The last cool tree we saw was a Ceiba tree. They can live for over 200 years, and they dominate the emergent layer of the rainforest (highest portion of the canopy). We all looked so small compared to the twin ceiba trees! The highlight of Caracol, for me at least, was seeing a bat! I love bats, so I was the first and last person out of the Mayan cave-room! He was so small (pictured below)!

After Caracol we made the 2 hour drive to Las Cuevas research center. On the way it began to rain, and the gravelly- dirt roads became faint puddles. In those puddles, we saw three turtles! One I identified as a red cheeked mud turtle (K. scorpiodes). I determined his species by noting his habitat and appearance. I even saw a glimpse of his bright red cheeks! Because of the speed we passed them with and their small sizes, I wasn’t able to identify the other two turtles we passed. They were also living their best life in road ponds. I also couldn’t get pictures of these turtles because of the moving car 🙁

Las Cuevas seems cool for now, but I guess I have all week to figure that out. I’ll let you know what happens next!

Till Tomorrow!

QOTD

““You guys are gonna make me touch the horse balls?”

“Micheal pees! How could he?”

This is the site we saw a morelet’s crocodile! It is in this picture I will add a close up of the crocodile once I receive is from Dr. Solomon

2022

Mayan Ruins + Welcome to the Jungle

June 20, 2022 McKenna Castleberry Leave a comment

Today marked day 9 of the trip. The overarching goal was to travel from the TEC to Las Cuevas Research Station. However, we made a stop to tour the Caracol Mayan ruins along the way!

The tour was 2.5 hours long, and I enjoyed every single minute! Leo (our tour guide) taught us so many Mayan/Belizean history facts! We saw Ceiba trees, and they were huge! The most impressive part of the tour based on the monumental size was climbing the temple/palace of the plaza. The stairs were incredibly steep, but they were so worth it! At the top of the stepped temple, I stood at the highest point of Belize!

On the rest of the tour, it began to rain. When I was taking cover, I got to see some Oropendola montezuma! These are a large species of bird that have black bodies, yellow tails, rufous wings, white cheek patches, and a pointed orange beak. Scott described perfectly how their songs sound like video game noises. I also saw their nests, which they weave themselves, and they look like sacks hanging from branches.

I also saw many other birds: blue-crowned motmot, great-tailed grackles, melodious blackbirds, a type of vulture, a type of hawk, a pileated woodpecker, and (only heard the calls) red-lored parrots.

During the drive from Caracol to Las Cuevas, I very briefly saw scarlet macaws! They were in the distance in tall, sparse trees high in the canopy. I hope to see more!

I gave my rainforest taxon lecture today on birds! I was excited to get to fangirl over my taxa, but sadly, the audio files didn’t work. Even though people didn’t get to hear the bird calls for the species I presented, we will push through TFB-style and still test out our abilities to bird by ear regardless (at least I will)!

Liliana and I are staying in room “Jobillo” at the station. Early tomorrow morning, there will be an optional birdwatch. Since I am extremely tired and am aware that tomorrow is going to be a long day, I plan on going only if I’m naturally awake by then. If my internal timing of waking up allows me to make the morning birdwatch, then I will have so many more sightings to add to my taxon log!

The jungle puts my Belizean ecosystem count to 3 (atoll, savanna, rainforest)!

– McKenna

2019

Day 2: Tour of the Caracol ruins

May 21, 2019 amr20 Leave a comment

On the way from the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge to the Chiquibul forest and Las Cuevas Research Station, we stopped in two different places: Rio on Pools (in the Mountain Pine Ridge) and the ruins of Caracol, and ancient Mayan city.

At Rio on Pools I took several pictures of trees that I want to identify when I get a chance (during daylight hours, when I can read the field guide). Of course, we saw the Caribbean Pine, which characterizes the Mountain Pine Ridge. For anyone reading this who does not know the regions of Belize, a ‘ridge’ is a description of a general area/ecosystem and not an actual landform of high elevation. I spent most of the time taking pictures, alternating between the trees and my classmates.

The Caracol experience was more notable in terms of learning about the region. The first time Scott came on this trip, he did not go to the ruins, but local people told him that it was entirely unreasonable to be this close to the ruins and not see them. The palace at the ruins of the ancient Maya city is the tallest building in Belize, and from the top (of course we climbed it!) you can see Guatemala. We learned quite extensively about the Maya for a few hours (religion, culture, social structures).

Caracol, from the top of the tallest palace/pyramid

We also saw tons of trees. Our guide pointed out the Kapok or Ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra) and the fluff that comes from the seed pods that I think he said was used as padding, for example in a mattress. The tree also has huge buttress roots extending from the sides that serve several purposes, including structural support and nutrient absorption. [insert picture here]

We also saw today:

A few more trees at the Maya site: Cohune palm (Attalea cohune), Fishtail palm (Chamaedorea sp.), more Trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata), relationship with guarding ant species, a Strangler fig (Ficus sp.), and some Montezuma Oropendolas (Psarocolius montezuma).

At Las Cuevas: a Cedar (Cedrela odorata), A Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) and a Social Flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis).

We don’t have internet today because of the weather. It appears that the rainy season has started early this year. We will get to see how that effects the visibility of our focus species.

2017

Day 12: Social Interactions (5/27/2017)

June 2, 2017 mjf10 Leave a comment

I wake up in the middle of the night and step outside to something I have never felt before. It is the rainforest night. The air is rich with animal sounds. The sky is pitch black but adorned with countless stars, creating the illusion of a deep indigo-gray. Heartbeats of lighting illuminate the sky, but there is no rain. An unmatched sense of awe comes over me, something I could only feel being alone before nature’s grandeur.

Many hours later, my class and I are in the forest. Tall kapok trees (Ceiba pentandra) along the path form islets of intense shade, and yellow prickly trees (Zanthozylum spp.) sporadically flank the path with yellow-brown adornments. Some of the yellow prickly plants were speckled with tiny crawling ants. These leaf-cutter ants chisel and delivery circular sheets of leafs to their colonies, advanced eusocial communities that mature over time.

We say three ant colonies: one year old, four years old, and ten years old. Similar to an individual organism, the colonies aged, growing larger and more advanced with time. Leaf-cutter ants sustain by cultivating fungus on leaf pieces concealed in underground chambers, and thus colonies must have increasing number of chambers to grow enough food to feed their growing numbers. With time, colonies supported more types of workers and had longer, deeper, and wider tunnels.

Late in the afternoon, I saw five scarlet macaws (Ara macao) fly across the sky in unison. Although macaws lack a complex social structure like leaf-cutter ants, they still cluster for social interaction and increased protection from predators.

It is interesting how human social interactions relate to those of other organisms. Some people have clearly defined senses of duty, like worker ants chiseling leaves for their colonies. Some exhibit altruism, like a scarlet macaw rearing her chicks. Even if there is no evolutionary relationship between the social interactions of humans and other animals, it is interesting to see the common elements.

However, sometimes it’s preferred to forgo my social role and be alone. The sky is much more powerful that way.

Uncategorized

Day 5: Null Hypotheses and Spelunking Adventures

May 22, 2016 Sasha Leave a comment

Today we started off by summarizing the results from our experiments yesterday about Cecropia and ant interactions. My group ended up with negative results. We didn’t find any evidence of young Cecropia mimicking other plants. We did notice some differences between juvenile and adult trees, such as red petioles (the stems of leaves) and slightly longer trichomes (the tiny hairs on plants). However, we weren’t able to conclusively determine that those differences had an adaptive role. One group tested the toughness of juvenile and adult leaves and found that juvenile leaves were tougher. This could be adaptive because it would make it more difficult for herbivores to eat the leaves. If the project was continued, it would be beneficial to see if herbivores preferred younger or older leaves.

We also were able to visit the cave at Las Cuevas. The cave was a part of Mayan ceremonies, and there is still evidence of their presence. There are pottery shards throughout the cave system and the cave is built up in some areas. Platforms were built near the entrance and some spaces between chambers were made to be narrower. The whole history behind the cave is extremely interesting. The caves also had some wildlife. We saw at least two species of bats, millipedes, and a species of scorpion with long legs and no tail. One of the best aspects about the cave was how undeveloped it was. I’m not used to visiting preserved caves that haven’t been commercialized. It was cool to feel like I was one of the first to visit the cave, even though many, many people have visited it before me.

Entering the cave — Entering (taking pictures of) the cave

My favorite trees today were the big trees that we commonly see around the Chiquibul. The cedar (Cedrela odorata) can be 20-30m tall. Right now it doesn’t have leaves, but it has some wooden seed pods that are still attached to the branches. The seed pods look like 5-petaled flowers – they’re very pretty. Another big tree is the ceiba (Ceiba pentandra). When it is mature, its bark is very smooth and it can reach 60-70m. It has been difficult for me to identify ceiba from their leaves because the trunks reach so high into the canopy.

We only have two more full days at LCRS, so we’ll have to make them count!

BIOS 319: Tropical Field Biology