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
