Woke up to a brand new day in paradise along with the Blue Crabs, Hermit Crabs and Spiny Iguanas that call Glover’s Reef home!
Today, we got to work together to make a poster and present what we found about what Parrotfish prefer to eat in the coral patches around Glover’s to the professors. It was really cool to see the poster come together with such excellent illustrations (credit to Emily and Zoe).
We then waded around the seagrass beds by the dock and mangroves to see what kind of fish, crabs, grasses, and other cool organisms we could find. We found a bunch of hermit crabs, a really cool red and purple crab, and even a Box Jellyfish (this guy has a really nasty sting and is super hard to see, so I’m glad we found him and walked away unscathed!). And don’t worry, we put them all back in the water close to where we found them!
After lunch, we walked to a coral graveyard on one of the island’s beaches. Coral graveyards are areas where dead coral pieces get washed up and left in the sun as calcium gets into the coral tissues and makes them to hard and gray that they look like rocks.
We then walked to an open beach being built up by young mangroves, which are called “Island Builders” because their roots are really good at holding onto sand and other sediments.
I find it so amazing how, as small as Glover’s Reef is, there are so many wondrous things all around us!
Bonus Bit: We put a night light into the water this evening at the end of the dock to see the kinds of fish that would come by. We caught three anchovies, a herring, and a shrimp by 8 pm, which is when I turned in. But almost an hour after I left, the group caught two glass eels (fish larvae) and a Reef Squid! They totally squealed when it squirted ink in the bucket before we released him.
Up bright and early today for a nice head start along with all of the resident hermit crabs and Spiny Iguanas!
We planned our first project after breakfast: following different kinds of Parrotfish (fish that actually do have beaks to eat algae and coral) and keeping track of what they eat.
We headed out in the morning to the patch reef closest to us for the first study site. I saw a whole bunch of the Striped Parrotfish swimming in groups while eating at the coral algae and the seagrass. I have to say, filming and taking pictures underwater is a bit trickier than I thought, so I apologize for the videos and pictures to come, but I think I am getting a bit better at it.
(Striped Parrotfish: Black and white stripes with yellow mouth; Beaugregory: Yellow body with purple top)
We continued this study into the afternoon in two more locations off of Glover’s Reef. While I did see a lot of Striped Parrotfish, I was finding so many Damselfish of different kinds! I think I saw mostly adult Threespot Damselfish (brown with a yellow eyebrow above either eye), Bicolor Damselfish (which are actually three colors–black, white, and yellow–in Belize), and young Threespot Damselfish (yellow with big black spots on their back and tail). I’ll work on getting more pictures of them.
(Threespot Damselfish)
After dinner, we got special presentations from Mr. Kenneth–the manager of Glover’s Reef station– about the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), as well as the marine biologist of the team from the Fisheries Department for Belize, and the Belize Coast Guard. It was really cool to learn how they all work together to protect and learn about the wildlife in the islands around Glover’s Reef!
(Left to right: Mr. Kenneth, Dr. Kory Evans, and Dr. Scott Solomon)
I have never woken up to a more beautiful view than this! It was a very windy night–it’s still windy–but the water looks like it’s filled with diamonds! We got to snorkel for the first time today, starting slow to make sure there weren’t any problems with our equipment. I’m carrying my phone in a sleeve, but I didn’t figure out until after the practice swim how to take pictures underwater, so I didn’t get any great coral pictures this morning.
We then swam out to the patch coral, clumps of coral the size of a van or a bit larger in the middle of seagrass beds. I saw a bunch of cool corals, a baby Barracuda closer to the dock, and a few juvenile Damselfishes that I think were either Longfin Damselfish or Cocoa Damselfish because they had yellow bodies with dashes of blue across the head and back. I gotta say, the currents were a lot stronger than I expected!
After lunch, we hopped on the boat and rode out about ten minutes to a couple of patch coral reefs and were tasked with taking as many pictures as possible of our animal groups. I had a hard time using my phone in the waterproof sleeve to get pictures of Damselfish, but I’m pretty sure I saw a few adult Dusky Damselfish protecting their reef patches and chasing off trespassing fish. The second site had so many Damselfish! I saw some young Threespot Damselfish, young Beaugregory Damselfish, a bunch of Sergeant Majors, and even an adult Yellowtail Damselfish! (My phone was almost dead at this point, but thankfully Emily helped me to video some of the Damselfish I saw!)
One last shoutout today to all the hermit crabs lining up for the nighttime beach party…all except the lone sand crab.
Today was another big travel day! We left the Tropical Education Center in the morning after a lovely breakfast and hit the road heading to Belize City. Along the way, we saw the landscape change from dry savannah to boggy mangroves, trees that have really tall roots that help them live in brackish (between salt and fresh) water.
We stopped at Old Belize, an marina just outside of Belize City that functions as a water park, museum, and inn and restaurant spot. After we ate our lunch in the cafeteria area next to the pool and checked out the gift shop, we boarded the van and drove to Princess Marina, where our boat, the Manta Ray, awaited. The boat ride was absolutely stunning, and I have never seen water so blue! When we got to the reef crown, the ride got so rocky I lost contact with my seat a few times!
We arrived at Glover’s Reef at 4 pm and got an orientation about the station from the manager, Mr. Kenneth. He told us about how Glover’s is a heritage site that is used by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Belize Fisheries Department, and the Belize Coast Guard. He showed us to our dorms, which are literally a beachside dream! Tomorrow, we’re gonna snorkel for the first time this trip, so hoping to get some really great pictures, especially for my animal group: Damselfishes!
Our second-to-last LCRS day. A lot of people went birdwatching, but not me! It was really cool today though 🙁 they saw a howler monkey family and some really fun birds, but I’ll get ‘em next time. After that though, I had some bread rolls with our classic eggs, beans, and fruit (thank you Ms. Angie!).
And then it was time for some caving! Not our regularly scheduled program, but so so cool. The cave was off of the station, and newly being researched by FCD’s Karst Management Unit. Immediately walking in there, it was ten times cooler (both temperature-wise and experience-wise). Given my topic lecture on life in the caves, it was so surreal to see. We saw stalactites and stalagmites, beautiful columnar speleothems, and the classic multi-chambered characteristics of the caves. And my favorite part, the cenote in the middle, featuring some groundwater as well. Cenotes don’t need to have water in them, so it was cool to see that this one did have some in it. Watching droplets of mineral, calcium carbonate polymorphs forming what in millenia will be curtains upon curtains on speleothems, it was surreal to see the potential of it all. Also, the cute bats flitting around were to die for. I kinda wish I’d been able to see some of the deeper chambers, potentially finding some troglobytes or troglophiles, but it was amazing nonetheless.
Interesting lichen from the day because we are not allowed to take pictures of the cave
After cave exploring, it was time to collect our pitfall traps from two days ago. I think the worst part was the heat along the pathway–it was such a contrast to moments before, and really trying for that reason alone. I did get to collect my nitrogen samples though, and I’m slightly proud to say that I caught a super big cockroach in one. Not that that beats Claire’s 66 ants in her groundwater, but still kinda impressive. Post-lunch (rice and beans), it was time to analyze the data and make a poster. Sam was our ant man once again, because that formed the majority of organisms we caught. Additionally, we did find some spiders, beetles, crickets, and some unknown species! It ultimately told us that the ground had much more resources like nitrogen, while the canopy had a greater difference between its water and nitrogen sample, hinting at resource limitation there. We made this really beautiful poster (Emily’s drawing for our methods section is actually a masterpiece oml). But after that, it was time for an evening hike to Bird Tower.
Pee-roll: featuring big cockroachData collection and tallying up the species!An arrowhead orchid midway our collection!
An uphill climb for sure! My feet still ache as I write this up. And through the hike up, Dyllan was definitely in need of a hiking pole. I think Ian needed one on the way down. Obviously, though, I was fine because I’m actually a super good climber and have the dexterity of a mountain goat and the climbing skills of a person who’s hiked the Himalayas. (JK but imagine if I actually believed that lol). To be honest though, delusion kept me going. That is, until I saw the beautiful sunset. It was worth it. Fiery, red ball in the sky, golden sky ablaze with colors, and dense canopy below, it was amazing to see all that we’ve previously hiked. It felt like such a surreal rundown, encompassing all the work we had previously completed.
The Great Potoo on our uphill climb–can you spot it?
Just because of the time we spent not directly in the forest, I didn’t get to observe much fungi and lichen past some white mold on a tree and a log. It was still very cool to see. And I’ve learned about a couple more fungi over this time, which I’m really happy about. I’ll be going up to Bird Tower again tomorrow though for sunrise, so I’ll compare that and y’all stay tuned!
One thing about living in LCRS during the dry season is that the mornings are HOT. Sweltering, with sweat running everywhere—which is why I was so grateful that we spent our morning indoors instead of in the forest.
We started off by analyzing our results from the Cecropia project yesterday. We collected the masses of leaves now that the grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids had been in their boxes a full day. As we soon realized, we would need to dry out the leaves and take out any potential excrement as well, which I wasn’t expecting to be the case. But that was the easy part. The harder part was reconciling from some of our previous miscommunications. Some had thought the colonized Cecropia leaves would be less likely eaten (myself included) while others had thought the opposite. For the former, I had thought that any chemical presence the ants had left, along with the physical resistance of withstanding ants for so long, would have meant a tougher leaf that insects would not eat much of as a result. In contrast, others had thought that the ants themselves, being the Cecropia’s main defense system, would cause the colonized leaf to be eaten more now that the ants were gone.
Soon enough, we tallied the masses and we got some numbers that matched up with my prediction! The total biomass of leaves before was pretty much the same after for colonized leaves, while the biomass of the uncolonized leaves decreased! Between individual leaves though, there were some differences that made this a bit weirder, where some leaves even gained mass! Maybe they just got super wet and really absorbed water? Or maybe some secret third thing happened. Who knows… unless we do a full-fledged experiment in the future!
After that though, it was time for a series of lectures! Every day, we do two taxon briefings of organisms in the rainforest, and a topic lecture about concepts in the forest. Right after our first taxon briefing on ants, however, we were in for a surprise! The director of the Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), Dr. Rafael Manzanero, made a surprise visit to LCRS. FCD is one of the largest Belizean nonprofits focused on protecting wildlife in the area. He described the various strategies they employ as rangers, mentors, researchers, and tour guides to elevate the status of the forest. It was so amazing to hear, especially understanding how the forest has transformed in his time here. We also learned more about the caves underlying the Belizean system with Ms. Yasmini Manzanero, who heads the Karst Management Unit for FCD. Having understood the natural importance of caves in my own topic lecture, it was especially eye-opening to learn about the cultural significance of the caves, and what they meant in Maya religious culture. With its 60 sinkholes and 65 km of passages, it’s no wonder there’s so much to document!
Ms. Manzanero describing the caves!Mid-day stick insect shenanigans.
And a couple more amazing lectures on epiphytes and plant-insect interactions later, we were off to find some leafcutter ant fungal colonies! I’d been really looking forward to this because the Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, the fungi grown within the garden has a really interesting hyphal swelling mechanism that I’d read about earlier, digesting food for the ants to eat. I will say, digging the ant colonies up was really hard. I haven’t yet developed that arm strength, I realized, but hopefully at some point! Looking at a young colony (1 yr) and an old colony (15 yr), it was interesting to see the difference in structure based on colony width, worker count, and more. At that 15-year-old point, the nest was also almost breathing, with channels selecting for oxygen inflow and CO2 outflow. The porosity of these hills was also amazing to observe.
Tiny fungal garden from young ant colony.
Lastly, we went on a cool, night hike with a ranger on LCRS, Steve! Using our headlights, we saw glowing spider eyes all around us. We also saw a nocturnal bird, some tarantula, and a line of ants. I think the best part though, apart from all the cool critters we saw, the best part was watching the stars and hearing the nightlife. Chirping crickets, whistling birds, snapping twigs, and shining stars, wafting along a cool breeze. What better place to be?
A cool cricket (Top) and the forest canopy (Bottom).
And… some mushroom updates! On the way to Las Cuevas Road, we saw some white-brown fungus that I thought could be some Turkey Tail. And on the night hike, I got to see this really cool red, fleshy mushroom that might have been a Ganoderma. These reishi mushrooms have been found in certain areas in Belize like in Cayo, so really cool to see here as well. Hoping to see a bioluminescent one next #manifesting #fingerscrossed #puttingitoutthere
Being in the rainforest feels like living out the Snow White dream. You wake up at 4 am to some howler monkeys, before being woken up for good at 6 am by grackles, macaws, and parrots. So maybe the birds didn’t really fold my clothes up for me or anything, but it was definitely a good start to the day.
Waking up bright and early, I was excited to some of the birds that woke me–bright green parrots on the tree past the porch of the Las Cuevas Research Station (LCRS) residential area. This vine and epiphyte-covered, maybe 50 ft tall tree holds so much life, roosting tired birds flying vigorously from clearing to tree. Within the span of 20 minutes, we saw so many other birds, including the iconic Montezuma’s Orapendula, with its bright yellow tail. We also saw some social flycatchers, distinguished by their yellow belly. And if not for the birds, stingless bees (aka the Drunken Baymen) were always ready to fly around us.
After this quick look at the forest, we had a delicious breakfast cooked by Angie of tortilla with eggs and beans, along with some pineapple and banana. And then it was time for our big research project of the day. Into the lab we went to learn about camera traps! They’re activated by motion to capture footage of wildlife movement, a useful trick in the remote portions of the Chiquibul Forest. With 14 camera traps for the 14 of us, we now had one big task—what research could we perform? Ultimately, we decided to understand the influence of manmade trails on biodiversity in LCRS. Scoping out the map, we decided to split our camera traps to encompass seven “disturbed” or direct trail areas and seven “undisturbed” areas adjacent to the trails.
The tree of (bird) life
We would place two traps on the smaller trails: the Maya Trail to 50 hectare plot track and the Bird Tower Shortcut. Two more would be placed on the medium-sized monkey trail. The final three would track movement across the recently closed San Pastor Road (one camera trap), and the typically used Las Cuevas Road (two camera traps). With a game plan in mind, we set off to the Monkey Tail trail. As we marked our path with direction coordinates, set up the camera trap, and marked the pink tape, we would go off into the forest right behind… with a machete! Dr. Solomon chopped and chopped the thick foliage, and we walked about 50 paces in before setting up the next trap. With a pattern established, we made quick work of the trails, marking the Maya Trail-50 Hectare Loop stretch as well. And after a delicious lunch of rice and beans, we set off to finish the Bird Tower shortcut and the bigger roads.
Trail mapping time!!
In my unbiased opinion, we saved the best spot (mine) for last. I was tasked with setting up the fourteenth camera trap on an undisturbed location past the Las Cuevas Road. Looks are deceiving– what we thought was a simple clearing turned out to be so much more arduous. Mounds of bamboo, sharp palms, and extended vines encircled the expanse, making the 50 paces all the more laborious. And yet, so worth it. We heard, and then saw two (2!) red woodpeckers, a promising start for what might be out there. And Leo, our tour guide yesterday, did mention seeing 16 jaguars through the open Las Cuevas road. So who knows what we’ll see.
The spiny give-and-take palms in our way.Working hard or hardly working? We’ll see what the trap captures…The coordinates of my marking, deep in the forest by Las Cuevas Road.
Nature in LCRS is elusive. There are signs of life all around, but it requires patience standing and squatting, peering closely into the flora. Doing so, we saw a big cat scratch, distinguished by the bare patch of soil, untouched by anything but the most recent leaves. Walking out further, we saw some leaves on a palm, regularly bit, in distinct, rectangular holes. Maybe a Honduran White Bat in its new roosting spot? Curious and curioser… Past the termites, butterflies, tailless scorpions, and ants—it was insect paradise. And that was just the tip of the iceberg: uncovering mossy logs, the microniches were teeming with life. Logs hid red nymph beetle hills, roots exposed termite mounds (fun fact, termites taste like carrots!), and elongated black beetles squirmed around, secreting chemicals to scare us away. Larvae hid in leaves and debris, and leafcutter ants cut perfectly semicircular holes into waxy leaves. It was sights upon sights to behold.
Red nymph galore
And I’m saving the best for last: the diverse fungi and lichen I glimpsed all across the forest. We started off strong with some dark green Common Greenshield attached to live trees, alongside the classic Powdery Medallions and epiphytes atop leaf expanses. But then well into the Monkey Tail trail, I spotted lichen growing atop shelf-like structures that I could only think were once shelf fungi. The unique structures and colors were a sight to behold, making the tree bark a mosaic of green. I have a feeling it was more Dirinaria, but jury’s out there. Further out into the Maya Loop, we saw a mossy, dark green lichen, only distinguished from moss by its powdery feel and radial growth pattern. Reaching LCRS again, we saw a light brown-white mushroom with white gills, likely a pearl oyster with its concave, fan-like pileus. In a fallen log after lunch, I saw a brown shelf-like mushroom, with brown striations on its pileus, most likely a Turkey Tail mushroom perched gracefully. Others also peaked out, with white borders around. Some even had mold growing atop it, fungus on fungus. Along the path, I saw fungi camouflage as leaf litter, with a yellow-white pileus.
The lichen atop fungi complex, along with classic Powdery Medallions. (Monkey Tail)A dark, green, mossy… lichen? (Maya Loop)
Two of the different Turkey Tails with different striation patterns, across logs.
One of the weirder, fuzzy fungi, with mold atop it.
Ultimately, it’s the little things that take over: quiet, patient, biding with life. It can be seen in the soft, white mold that covered a log’s underside today, and the plethora of insects, chirps, and smells everywhere. Today was an immersive experience into the forest, minute factors coalescing to develop the rich ecosystem around us.
The different fungi (white mycelia) and white mold, silently growing on the logs.
Hey y’all, my name is Emily Stanford and I’m a rising junior majoring in Cognitive Sciences and minoring in Politics, Law, and Social Thought. I’m writing this while triple-checking my packing list and trying to convince myself I don’t need to bring a fourth notebook (I probably do). T-6 hours until we’re Belize-bound!
I’m really looking forward to just being out in the field: mud, bugs, weird smells and all. I think I’m most excited for our time at Las Cuevas. I’ve spent a lot of time reading about tropical forests, but never actually been in one, so I feel like it’s going to blow my mind. I’m also so curious to see how my understanding of ecosystems shifts when I’m seeing them up close, watching ants build bridges or hearing frog calls in the middle of the night. Glover’s Reef sounds amazing too. I’ve snorkeled a few times before, but never over a living reef, so I can’t wait to see what that’s like.
To prepare for the trip, I’ve been reviewing our readings and putting together ID cards for cockroaches (which I now have a weird appreciation for?) and piscivorous reef fishes. I’ve also been trying to build some observational habits, bringing a notebook on walks, slowing down, paying attention to plants I’d usually ignore. I’ve done some traveling in the tropics before (I lived in Indonesia for five years growing up…I’ve included an image from the last time I was in the Monkey Forest in Ubud) but this will be my first time doing formal fieldwork, and I’m excited to see what that feels like as a student.
I’m a little nervous about keeping up with the physical demands of the trip, it’s one thing to hike, another to hike with a soggy notebook and binoculars while covered in sweat. I’m also slightly anxious about making mistakes or missing obvious things in the field, but I think that’s part of the learning curve. Mostly, I’m just excited. I’m hoping to come back from this trip with better field skills, a more intuitive sense of the systems I’ve studied, and some great stories to tell.
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!
