During the day, we went to a tree plantation that is working on developing sustainable timber production. As we were walking, someone spotted a Black and Green Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates auratus)! They are really uncommon on the Atantic coast, so that was a big surprise :) We also saw some Red and Blue Dart Frogs (Oophaga pumilio), which was cool. We also went to an organic pineapple plantation and got to eat a lot of pineapple!
That night, since everyone had heard about the hike we had the night before, we had about 15 people! That was definitely the biggest non-mandatory night hike we have had :) First, we went down to the river. We saw some cool smooth sided toads (Bufo haematiticus) on the way down. When we got to the river, I could hear glass frogs calling all over the place! Everyone split up and stared looking and we found so many of them! One was the most common glass frog here in Costa Rica, Fleischman's Glass Frog (Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanii). The other species we saw was Cochranella spinosa, which is actually pretty uncommon! We even saw some in amplexus, which is the term for frog mating (new vocabular word!). Someone also spotted an Annulated Tree Boa (Corallus annulatus), which was an awesome snake! It was just a little one, but it had a really interesting coloration.
We left the river and headed down to the pond. This time we were able to find all of the frogs in about 5 minutes...we felt like pros :) Everyone loved seeing the frogs, especially the Red Eyes. It was a lot of fun getting to semi-lead a night hike and show all of these cool animals to everyone! After everyone left, Dan and I headed back out into the pond, but ended up with the same results. However, as we were getting out, we saw three Red Eyes hanging out right next to each other! We just stood there and watched for a few minutes taking in the sight. That was a great consolation for not catching a caiman :)
Dan holding the Dendrobates auratus
Happily hopping away :)
The other, more common Poison Dart Frog
(Oophaga pumilio)
A picture of the pond during the day...who's
up for a swim?!
Smooth Sided Toad (Bufo haematiticus)
The Tree Boa (Corallus annulatus) we saw...in a tree!
Really cool snake :)
Glass Frog! (Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni)
The other species (Cochranella spinosa) in
amplexus!
Ahora te ves biologo. El biologo con quien camine por el bosque se llamaba Jorge y tenia una barba igual! ...la marca de biologos y el gran cazador de lagartos!
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