Tag Archives: Serenity Stepanik

Uncategorized

The Worlds of Light and Darkness

Leave a comment

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!

Uncategorized

Fungi, Ants, and Caves…Oh My!

Leave a comment

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

Uncategorized

Operation: Munch Time!

Leave a comment

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

Uncategorized

Into the Thick of It!

Leave a comment

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

Uncategorized

Crawling Back in Time!

Leave a comment

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

Uncategorized

A Bird’s Eye View

Image Leave a comment

Hey y’all!

Man, has today been big first day! We met at Rice before the crack of dawn, drove to IAH airport, and hopped on a 2-hr plane ride over the Gulf (an amazing view, btw) to Belize City. After a lovely lunch and drive through multiple towns throughout the countryside, we arrived at our first stay of the trip: Crystal Paradise Ecolodge! This lodge perched in the mountainous country is reputed for its sheer number of colorful bird species visitors can see each morning at dawn. I only hope I can get myself out of bed early enough!

Though I did not see it, one of my classmates found a variety of tailless scorpion in their room on a toilet paper roll before moving it to the forest outside! The animal in question had eight, very thin legs, was gray, and had a squat abdomen and head. I am not sure what this is, but I am looking forward to figuring out what it could be! Sorry for the lack of pictures right now! Having some technical difficulties but hoping to resolve them soon!

The first round of presentations was very interesting, focusing on trees and birds as they will be the most likely things for us to see. Then came my presentation on Life in the Canopy. I was pretty nervous at first, but I started to really get into it and have some fun with the material and discussing chain reaction effects of disturbances to the rainforest on different types of plants reaching the canopy. I guess all I had to do was loosen up a bit and have fun with it!

We’ll be heading into the rainforest tomorrow and seeing some ancient Mayan architecture, so hopefully I’ll be able to find more arachnids and take pictures of them!

Until tomorrow!

Serenity

Uncategorized

Adventure is Out There!

Leave a comment

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)