Tag Archives: Reptile

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Day 5: Insects, insects, and more insects

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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

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Day 4: Doing P Tests (kinda)

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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

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Day 3: Adventures Deploying Camera Traps!

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“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

2022

Canopee!!! (Day 11)

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Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 11 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we had another round of early morning bird watching, and it seems we keep adding more and more coffee to our cups. Because of the fog, we didn’t see much, so we had and nice morning chat.

After breakfast, we went over to the classroom to watch Micheal’s presentation on soil (specifically soil, not dirt). After the presentation the professors told us we had to pee in vials to put out in the rainforest… and then count the arthropods that are attracted to it. I wasn’t happy about it, but sometimes you have to pee in the rainforest in the name of science. This is actually one of our experiments.

We hypothesized that arthropods would be 1) more attracted to the pee vials than the water vials, 2) more arthropods would be on the forest floor than canopy over all, and 3) that a higher ratio of canopy arthropods would be in the pee vials than the water vials than the ground arthropods. After filling the vials, we set out to place 16 stations in the forest, at least 10 feet apart. One of each vial type (water and pee) were placed on the ground and in the trees at each station. We plan on checking them tomorrow to collect our findings.

Even thought this experiment was…. Something else … I was glad we went on the Mayan trail because I saw a jumping pit viper (Atropoides mexicanus)! Phoenix was walking and happened to notice it shuffling through the path leaves. It was nearly identical to the deal leaves’ color, and it was unusually small. We got plenty of pictures. After seeing it, I asked the professor if they had ever seen an elusive eyelash viper on the trip, to which he said “we’ve never seen one on a Belize trip.” I had figured that would be the case since these vipers are hard to find. Literally as he said that, Elena yelled that there was another snake. You guessed it, sitting on a log about 1ft above the ground was a lichen-colored eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii). I was almost afraid to identify it as one because I was in disbelief! Of all the reptiles to find, this was one of the best. Later on, we got to show the lead park ranger the viper because he hadn’t seen a wild one even after working here for 12 years! This was only the begging if of our luck…

After lunch we searched around the research station for leaf cutter and mounts. We found a few by the far cabins, and we began to dig them up! We started with a small 1 yo mound and eventually found the fungus growing room and Queen! After becoming ant finding experts (not really lol), we tried digging  up another nest and got nothing but spiders! Nevertheless, Prof. Solomon convinced us to keep digging saying that the ants would get here eventually. Instead of ants, however, we duh up a Mexican burrowing toad!!! He was so gelatinous!!! He was defiantly one of the trips coolest finds.

Since today ended kind of early, we did presentations before dinner, I presented on reptiles!

I’ll update you for our next hike, till then!

QOTD: “mark is real” no

“Ohhhh tomorrows day is father day!”

Mexican Burrowing Toad
Eyelash Viper (Bothriechis schlegelii)
Tiny jumping viper (Atropoides picadoi)
The horrific vials *shudder*
2022

Trapping a Jaguar!!! (On camera, hopefully) (Day 10)

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Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 10 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we woke up extra early (mostly on accident) to birdwatch from Las Cuevas Deck! We didn’t see any macaws, but we saw two- four toucans flying across the sky. They were gorgeous!

Then we went to plan out next research project. For our question, we chose “which area (trails, jungle, roads) will each animal group (large predators, small predators, large prey, small prey) use the most measured by relative abundance?” Our hypothesis was that big cats would be the dominant animals using paths and roads whereas small prey and mammals would stay under forest cover. We planned on using trap-cameras to get photos of animals as they cross the trails. By the way, while we were planning, we saw 4 scarlet macaws flying around!

Then we set off to se tho the cameras. Our first trip out we ran into our first of three white lipped turtles (Kinosternon leucostomum). This one was easy to identify because of its white lip, it looked just like one of the ones on my taxa sheet, and we found it swimming in a muddy puddle after the morning rains. After we saw the turtle, I set up my first camera on the “shortcut path” back to Las Cuevas. Because I went first, I was deemed the “camera soldier” and had to fix/ mess with lots of peoples cameras.

We did so much in this hike: set up cameras, use gps markers, walk through the jungle, eat termites, climb a bird tower, trip on Mayan stairs, see huge cave spiders, the list is endless.

I didn’t see my taxa again until after a light evening rain, and they were two mud turtles swimming around in mud puddles. I’m finding that these turtles vary greatly in shell appearance and patterning. The last two turtles lacked the classic white lip coloring, which caused me to misidentify them at first. However, their “bridge shell pattern” between the carapace and bottom shell indicated their true species. Plus, they were found in the same environment as the other white lipped mud turtle!

I’m hoping to see other types of mud turtles, like the Tabasco turtle. The wet season is proving to be good for turtle hunting but bad for reptiles and snakes. I’ll let you know what we see next!

Til’ Tomorrow!

QOTD:

“ if you leave me I’m signing up for an online orphanage”

Giant Cave Spiders
The view at Las Cuevas
One of the three white-lipped mud turtles! (Generously picked up by Caio)
Scarlett Macaw!

 

 

2022

The Ruins of Caracol!!! (Day 9)

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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
The Giant Ceiba Tree!
THE BAT!!!
Morelet’s crocodile sunbathing!
2022

The Reptiles of Belize Zoo (Day 8)

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Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 8 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!I dropped my phone in a line of lead cutter ants!!! But, a lot happened before that, so let me tell you!

This morning we woke up and had to say goodby to Middle Key, it was really sad, but we knew it was coming. The boat ride back to the the mainland was 3.5 hours, and then we waited at the Calypso restaurant for 2.5 hours trying to get lunch. What a chaotic start to traveling…

After stopping at a convenience store to restock on snacks, we arrived at the Tropical Education Center and Belize Zoo! The cabins we stay in here are so cute!!!

We quickly set our stuff down then headed up to the classroom for a presentation from Dr.  about his research on Scarlett Macaws. He was super informative about the species, and explained to us how important the Chiquibil is to their breeding and how crucial the red band area is for their foraging. His research clearly has many practical applications for conservation biology and informs us about were we should allocate preservation efforts.

In between dinner and the zoo, I noticed a few reptiles at the TEC, but none of them were living. The TEC classroom has Hickatee shells (Dermatemy mawii) , and two preserved snakes on display. The two snakes are a fer-de-lance (Borthops asper) and a jumping viper (Atropoides nummifer). Additionally, a sign in the kitchen gave me hope: 2 Hickatees were seen last week in a pond. I might get to see one of the critically endangered Central American river turtles!

After dinner, our group took trucks to the Belize zoo where we got a taste of the Belizean forest’s biodiversity. We saw “nomming” ocelots, rolling jaguars, climbing ant-eaters, Mexican raccoons (coatimudnis), and a tapir! We got to feed the tapir, and as I was grabbing the carrot from our guide, I dropped my phone into a trail of leafcutter ants! I was terrified. (Thankfully Dr. Correa kindly retrieved it for me).

The Belize Zoo also provided me the opportunity to see many reptiles that I might not get to see in the wild. The first reptile we saw was the American Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus); he was a massive 13.5 feet! This crocodile was older than me, and he was relatively calm. He laid unbothered in the water until our guide tossed a piece of chicken for him to munch; he moved very fast in pursuit.

Later on in the reptile cages, we saw a live tommygoff (Borthops asper), Boa constrictor, and a Chicken/rat snake (Spilotes pullatus). The tommygoff was curled up in a ball inside a dark log, so I couldn’t get a clear picture of it. However, the boa constrictor and chicken snake were both out on top of logs, so I have added their pictures below. This boa constrictor was actually quite small, but his patterning was the perfect example with dark and light brown spots. Likewise, the rat snake had a beautiful pattern, and the lack of red scales indicated that he was a Chicken/rat snake and not a Yellow-red rat snake.

Now that we are away from glovers, we won’t see any more echinoderms. I’m just glad I got to post a sea star for you all.

Till Tomorrow!!!

QOTD: “It’s like edgy sprite”

The internet here won’t let me upload photos, so I’ll have to add them at Las Cuevas. :'(

Chicken Snake at Belize Zoo, Spilotes pullatus
Boa Constrictor at Belize Zoo
Crocodylus acutus (American saltwater crocodile) at Belize Zoo!
2022

Today we ate a Snack, Appetizer, and Main Course!!! (Day 7)

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Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 7 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we woke up and gathered our last non-mpa reef data. The waves were brutal; McKenna described them as, “being thrown in a washing machine.” The reef was about 5 feet deep, and it was mostly sand. The winds made this data collection positively  horrendous! It was really hard to keep our quadrats in place, and the transect tape kept coming undone. I EVEN GOT FIRE CORALED (or “fire hydroided” since fire corals are actually hydroids). Nevertheless, we powered through.

The urchin collecting went surprisingly well. Today we collected 177 E. viridis (Reef boring urchins). per usual, we found them burrowed in tight niches of branched hard corals and under rocks. We found some exceptionally large ones today being 1.25 inches + !!! Even though there are always urchins we can’t grab, I usually notice more species variation on the reef. However, this patch reef only had E. viridis; there were no pencil slate urchins or boring urchins in sight!

Outside of the urchin hunt, we didn’t find any other echinoderms. I’ve really enjoyed being the urchin- identifier on the urchin counting team for the past few days. I realize I haven’t described it much, but that is because we usually only find Reef urchins and the occasional sea egg. Today, however, I got to throw the urchins back into the sea. They look like little soot sprites as they float to the bottom.

After the data dive, we went on a recreational snorkel. I was also fire coraled here, but I’ll forgive it. This reef had significantly less urchins than the non-mpa reef we had snorkeled earlier. The ones I saw were E. viridis and they were burrowed in coral crevices. Even though we didn’t do a formal collection, the reef had a visibly lower urchin count.

This reef also surprised us with 2 Caribbean reef squid (the only squid in the Caribbean), 2 spiny lobster, and a lionfish! (I found the lionfish btw)

Back on land, Caio showed me how to catch lizards so that I would be prepared for seeing them in Las Cuevas. (I think he likes me more now that he knows I’m the reptile taxon). According to the Caio technique, you have to cup the lizard with your hands when they can’t see you. Then, you let the front legs perch on two fingers while you press (lightly) on their torso with your thumb. I put a picture of me holding one below! The lizards we caught we brown anoles (A. sangrei), and they were climbing the trees behind the kitchen.

Later in the day, we analyzed our data about corals and urchins, answering the question, “how does the sea urchin population correlate with the live coral count, and how does this change across mpa and non-mpa reefs?” Our data was mostly inconclusive because of our improved ability to find sea urchins and environmental factors.

Last but not least, we dissected the 3 lionfish we hunted! Liliana got to dissect the big one; meanwhile, Maegan, Michiel, Ava, and I dissected “Snack,” the small 23.6g immature female. We didn’t get much data besides that, but she did eat a tiny fish in her limited years. Snack, Appetizer, and MC (main course) made a great ceviche. Also MC was a giant lionfish weighting 680g!

Anyways I’m about to enjoy some ceviche, till tomorrow!

QOTD: “Surchin af”

“BRB I’m gonna go rub this book on my head”

E. Viridis from urchin hunting!
Ceviche Prep!!!
Dissecting Snack, the small lionfish
Me holding an Anolis sangrei, brown anole
Caribbean Reef squid I found
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Turtles can glide

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Daily Blog Entry 5:

The cool interesting ant find of the day was the Cephalotes that Sam found! He said that the Cephalotes ant just glided onto him, which is what the Cephalotes are known for, giving them the common name ‘gliding ant;. Although Cephalotes are supposed to glide onto trees and not to humans, to the ant’s credit, Sam was wearing a green shirt and dark pants. He was basically dressed like a tree. Cephalotes have a very flat head, abdomen, and thorax, which gives them a second common name go ’turtle ant’, so it was pretty easy to identify the ant as a Cephalotes because it too had an incredibly flat, rectangular head. I wanted to see the ant to exhibit their turtle-like behaviour of retracting their legs when they were scared, but it didn’t seem to be scared by people’s presence. Sam wanted to see it glide, so dropped the ant to test if it would glide back onto Sam’s leg. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the ant anymore. I was so excited with finding the Cepahlotes and testing its interesting behaviour that I forgot to take a photo of it. Dang it.

In other news, I walked right into a vine that was right on my eye level, so now I have a cut above my left eyebrow. To be fair, I was on the lookout for ants for I was only looking at the forest floor. Speaking of critters, I am now very paranoid about chiggers. I’ve picked off a few tics from my body and it doesn’t bother me too much because I have the satisfaction of crushing it with my fingernails and killing it. Meanwhile, chiggers can cause so many bites on the body before its death, and you can’t even see it!

To end on a positive note, WE SAW A TOUCAN TODAY! It was smaller than I expected, but I am so happy I got to see one!

The toucans were too small to take a photo of, and I didn’t take a photo of the Cephalotes, so enjoy a photo of a cute baby leaf cutter ant’s nest that we saw:

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Red and Yellow Kill a Fellow

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Daily Blog Entry 4:

We are on a lucky streak with animal sightings. Sam spotted a coral snake, and we all watched it slither in front of us and out of a log. It was very nice to see that the most venomous snake in the Americas is actually a very gentle snake that doesn’t want to bother humans.

Today I learned that soldier ants have the behaviour of just swarming in one direction as a colony looking for food and that they don’t have a formal nest for their colony. That is pretty wild and against my understanding because I’m most familiar with leaf cutter ants who are very organised (task partitioning) and have incredibly complex nest structures.

While walking in the rainforest while securing our nitrogen urine viles, Scott pulled a large plant leaf down to show us something. I initially had no idea what it was, but I saw that it was actually a very loosely constructed ant nest, and the disturbance actually caused the ants in the nest to hurriedly rescue the larvae of their colony- there were a lot of ants carrying white specs heading to the stem of the plant.

The most interesting ant finding of the day was cave ants. I was too busy looking at the bats and admiring the geological structures in the caves for me to even be looking at the ground. I didn’t even know that ants were in caves. When we found the ants in the cave we called Scott over and he excitedly joked “oh new opportunity for a grant” with Pedro, who guided us into the caves. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the cave ants, but I did take pictures of my art work we left in the most remote chamber of the cave.

pictured below: TFB handling important limiting nutrients