The project begins!

I made it to QERC this afternoon after a bus ride up the mountain and hitch hiking a ride down into the valley with four old Canadian women :) One of them lives in Costa Rica half the year and owns a sustainable farm (www.orcharddelsol.com). I was so thankful that I didn't have to hike down!

When I got to QERC, I got settled in, then Dr. Cossel and I began setting up the testing arena for our experiments (pictures to come...). As we were setting up, two of the students brought in a lizard they caught, which happened to be one of the species I am studying! What luck :) We tested out the setup with an Emerald Swift (Sceloporus malachiticus), and all seems to be functioning properly. We'll begin our first tests tomorrow on "Rufus" (named by Genieva). Now all we need to do is find more lizards!

Tomorrow I'm helping with some of the student activities, then I'll be finding lizards and testing them. I'm excited to begin this project and get back into the forest!

Rufus, our first lizard (Norops pachypus)