Costa Rican ramblings...

It's been a while since I updated this, but I've been fairly busy lately...I took an unexpected trip down to Dominical with the QERC students, led by Dr. Cossel. We spent two days looking for all the herps we could find, and ended up seeing 18 species! It was fairly dry where we were hiking, but we still saw a decent amount. The highlight for me was catching a baby caiman, which got its tiny jaws around my thumb while I was handing it off to one of the students. I only got a few scrapes, but I was impressed by how strong his jaws were!

I have been hard at work on my project since we got back. I am now up to eight lizards, and am on a good pace. We should at least be able to reach our goal of 12. Dr. Cossel left yesterday, and Dr. Mooring arrived the night before that. It was really fun getting to hang out with Dr. Cossel, who has far more experience in tropical herpetology than me. He has been invaluable to the formulation and execution of the project, and I owe him a lot. Dr. Mooring is teaching a mammal unit this week, and he has also been helping with the project. I am glad all three of my Honors Committee members will be able to participate in the project.

I can't believe I have already been here for over a week! In just 4.5 days, Genieva arrives, which I am really excited for! It will be great to be able to show her this place I have spent so much time in and have grown to love. Let's just hope she can handle the night hikes ;)

Bocas del Toro, Panama

Because we only had 90 day visas for Costa Rica, we had to leave the country for at least 72 hours until we could return and renew our 90 days. In order to do this, we went down to a set of islands off the coast of Panama called Bocas del Toro. There are nice coral reefs all around the area, so we used these four days for our marine diversity lessons.

After a LONG bus ride from Parismina, we got there just as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful, almost stereotypical, Caribbean island. Palm trees everywhere with hammocks strung between them, crystal clear blue water...It was paradise :) After getting our things settled, we had a quick meeting about or plans for the next day. I got directions from one of our professors to a small nearby pond that we were told had some cool frogs, then Dan, Aaron and I headed out on our night hike. Little did we know what was in store that fateful night...

When we saw the pond, I immediately spotted the characteristic orange glow of caiman eyeshine! Who would have guessed there would be a caiman in this tiny pond no more than 20 feet in diameter on an island in the Caribbean? Needless to say, we were excited :) As we got closer, we could see that it was just a small one, about 2 feet long. Feeling confident, waded into the pond to try to catch it. Just like its friends in Tirimbina, this one was pretty shy and kept hiding underwater. However, in that small of a pond that was only two feet deep, it was easy to see every move it made. Dan came in to help me and we slowly moved it to one side of the pond. Suddenly, I saw it right in front of me at the surface and I decided to grab it behind the neck. I reached down, but not quite fast enough...I grabbed him at midbody and he turned around and clamped down on my right hand! Thankfully, he let go as quickly as he bit me, but he left some serious wounds. At that moment, we realized that there were, in fact, TWO caiman in the pond, and the one I tried to grab was actually closer to 4 feet! The night hike ended very quickly, and we headed back to camp to get my wounds bandaged. On the way back the shock of the bite wore off and it started to throb. I was lucky to only have three tooth marks, but they were pretty deep and right on my knuckles. I had never seen that far into my body that far, and I was a little worried :( I had to swallow every ounce of pride I had and admit to the staff what stupid thing I had done...that sucked :) They were very gracious and fixed me up quickly. I think they were glad that I had learned my lesson!

The next day three days were spent almost entirely in the water snorkeling. While it stung my hand a bit, the salt water actually ended up being good for my hand. I had never been snorkeling on a coral reef, and I was amazed by all of the things we saw. There were so many colorful fish that I had only seen in a aquariums before, sea cucumbers, jellyfish, comb jellies...I even saw a barracuda and two huge moral eels! It was an awesome three days of experiencing the diversity of marine life and living in paradise :)

Besdies marine life, we also saw four species of snake, a few geckos, a night lizard, and a cool color morph of the Red and Blue Poison Dart frog that was green and yellow with black spots! Way more herps than I expected on an island :)

Bocas del Toro was an amazing place to get to spend a few days, and I will not soon forget the lesson I learned to respect EVERY animal that has teeth!

Parismina

One of the most famous tourist destinations in Costa Rica is Tortuguero, a National Park on the Atlantic coast that was named for the large amounts of Green Sea Turtles that come there to nest at the same time (Turtuga=Turtle). However, this time of year they are not nesting, so we went to a nearby town called Parismina in hopes of seeing Leatherback Sea Turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), since they nest there in low amounts year round.

We arrived the first night and had a lecture about the different types of sea turtles. We headed out at 8 pm to walk the beach and look for turtles. We went with people from a local organization that works to protect the turtles. For years they have been killed by people for their meat, and people have robbed their nests for the eggs. This organization both protects the turtles as they are laying their eggs and moves some of the nests to protected sites to keep people from taking the eggs. Luckily, the local people understand that these animals need to be conserved, so the problems have decreased a lot. We walked around for 4 hours and saw nothing :( I was pretty bummed when we left, because that was my one chance to see them and I didn't know if I would ever have another opportunity.

The next day, we went into Tortuguero National Park. We only went on a short hike, but we saw 2 types of vine snakes(Oxybelis aeneus; Leptophis ahuatella), a couple Norops, a Casque-Headed Lizard (Corytophanes cristatus), and a Wet Forest Toad (Bufo melanochlorus). We also saw some big crocodiles in the river! Later on that night, I also saw a little mud turtle (Kinosternon leucostomum) near our hotel.

During the afternoon I found out that we were going to go out and look for Leatherbacks again that night :) I was so excited for the second chance to see them! We went from 12 to 4 this time, so we all took naps after dinner until 12. We headed over to a different beach and started to look. As soon as we got there, we found a turtle heading back into the water after nesting! It was SO AWESOME! I was so stoked to actually see one :) We kept looking for a while longer and found another one! It was in the process of laying eggs, so we got to watch it for a while. 

All of my life I have wanted to see a Leatherback, but never thought I would. They are the largest of all sea turtles, growing up to a shell length over 7 feet long and weighing over 2000 pounds! They are the deepest diving reptile, and rival the Sperm Whale for deepest diving vertebrate. They have been recorded at depths greater than 1200 meters, which is 3900 feet! They are also unique in the fact that they are able to maintain a constant body temperature, even in very cold water; very few other reptiles are able to do that. They can be found in all of the world's oceans and they nest all around the world. They swim incredible distances during their lifetime. Unfortunately, they are currently listed as critically endangered. Their population in the Pacific is especially weak, and it is likely that it will not survive without a major intervention. 

I can't even describe what it was like getting to experience that moment with the Leatherback...It makes me sad to think that these incredible animals may not be around for others to appreciate in the future. This is why I am going to be a herpetologist/conservation biologist in the future, because I want someone else to have the opportunity to be inspired by the incredible beauty and complexity and subtleties of an animal like this.

La Selva

In the world of tropical herpetology, even tropical biology as a whole, there is one station famous for producing much of the foundational research: La Selva. Run by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), La Selva continues to be one of the world leaders in tropical research, with over 100 researchers using its facilities every year. At any given time there are at least 20 researchers working at La Selva. Their facilities are very impressive, and over the years they have become almost like a mini university in the rainforest. It was awesome to get to go to a place with such a legacy and prestige.

To make it even better, our day at La Selva was our Herpetology Diversity Day! Unfortunately, we only had one night to be there, but it was all about herps :) Before we arrived, Yimen (one of our TA's) and I decided to have a contest to see who could find more herps in 24 hours. Within the first five minutes I saw a striped basilisk (Basiliscus vittatus), which is the third species of basilisk in Costa Rica :) We had a lecture in the morning when we arrived, then went on hikes around the station. We saw two vipers on the walk; an Eyelash Pit Viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) and another Hog-Nosed Pit Viper (Porthidium nasutum)! The Eyelash Viper was a yellow color morph that is common on the Atlantic Coast, which was awesome to get to see :) We had another lecture before dinner, then we went on a night hike as a group.

 On the night hike we saw tons of herps! We saw a Smoky Jungle Frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus), which was almost Cane Toad size. We also saw a Fer de Lance (Bothrops asper) and a Coral Snake (Micrurus alleni)! I had never seen a coral snake before, so that was pretty awesome to see. We went down to the “Cantarrana” (Singing frog) pond, which La Selva is famous for. We saw a few species of tree frog there, and eyeshine from a caiman :)

At the end of the hike, everyone else went back, but I stayed out. I decided that since it was my only night in La Selva, I was going to hike all night :) I went around through some of the trails and found a ton of frogs. It was raining a lot, so I had to stand under palm trees for a while to avoid the downpour. It was an amazing experience to turn of my headlamp and just stand there in the middle of the forest hearing the rain fall down through the trees and all of the frogs singing around me...I'll never forget that :) I got startled by some peccaries a few times, and I saw an armadillo, which was cool.

 I was going along a trail that led back towards the station and I came to some bridges. Unfortunately, because of the heavy rain the bridges were underwater! Some of them I was able to walk across, but one had water well above the top of my boots. I decided to climb across on the railing, and as I got almost to the other side, I felt something sting my hand. I looked down and saw a bullet ant stinging my palm! Bullet ants get their name because of the strength of their sting, and it certainly lived up to it :( It wasn't too horrible though, so I kept on walking. Around 2 am I found another snake! This one was a Coral Snake mimic like we saw in Penas Blancas (Urotheca euryzona). It was pretty cool to get to see it better this time, since I only saw the tail of the last one.

At about 3 am I headed back to the station to get a little sleep. I ended up with 23 species in less than 24 hours! I was pretty amazed at the amount of herps that I saw, and I totally dominated Yimen :) The next day we left after lunch to head to Parismina after having a short class period in the morning. I greatly appreciated the long bus ride so that I could catch up on my lost sleep...La Selva definitely didn't disappoint!

This was when my camera broke, so I have no pictures from La Selva or later...I'll do my best to get some from other people though :)

Tirimbina--Day 1

Tirimbina is officially my favorite place in Costa Rica :) I had so much fun that I have to split it into 3 entries...From Poco Sol we drove to a biological station in a reserve called Tirimbina. It is a couple hours off the coast at the base of the montains we hiked through earlier. The station was pretty nice, but the best part was that it was right in between a pond/swamp and a river; each one was about 5 minutes away...Perfect setup for some great night hikes, and they were nothing short of EPIC!

The first night, Nick, Dan, Jason, and I went down to the pond to look for frogs and caiman. We immediately spotted the bright orange caiman eye shine out in the middle of the pond, but decided to look for frogs first. We could hear them calling all around us, so all we had to do was follow the sounds! The first frog we found was a Scarlet-webbed Tree Frog (Hyla rufitela), which was so beautiful! It was bright green with red webbing on its feet. Its underside was blue also. A great start to the night! Next, we found a little rain frog (E/P ridens). Not as interesting to look at, but an awesome frog nonetheless :) We were at the edge of the pond and Nick spotted a baby caiman, so I went out into the pond to catch it. After slowly sneaking through the reeds, I grabbed it! It was such a cool little animal! It looked just like a full size caiman, just in miniature form :) It even made its “mommy help me!” noise, which was cool. 

After letting the little guy go, we continued looking for frogs, specifically the famous Red Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas) that we heard was there...We kept hearing a loud frog right around us, but were unable to find it. I decided to try to call back to it, and it worked! I had to dig through a pile of dead leaves, but I finally found it :) It was another tree frog (Scinax boulengeri), but this one was brown. The crazy thing about it was that it smelled like cinnamon! I found nothing about the smell in any Costa Rica herp books, but we thought it might be a chemical they secrete that repels predators...Future research project? :) 

With the Red Eyed Tree Frog still eluding us, we kept searching. I could hear it calling high above us, but we couldn't see any...All of a sudden, Nick spotted one up in a tree! We were so excited, but we had no way to get any closer. I decided to try to climb a nearby tree, but when I pulled on a vine I saw something fall next to me. I looked down and saw a DIFFERENT Red Eye crouched on a leaf by my leg! It was pretty lucky, but at least we got to see one up close :) This frog is basically Costa Rica's mascot and it is such a tropical cliché, but getting to see it in the wild was so amazing. Their colors are so striking and their faces are so interesting. It was something I will not soon forget :)

The only thing left to do was to catch a big caiman...Dan and I waded/swam out into the middle of the lake in pursuit, but the caiman were very wary of us. Any time we got within about 30 feet they would submerge and swim away. Even though we were unable to catch one, it was a really fun experience. Most people would be terrified to be neck deep in a dirty, smelly, caiman-infested swamp, but I loved every minute of it :)

Here are some pictures, but Jason got a lot of awesome pictures since he has a nice camera. I'll post a link to his blog when he posts the pictures...

Scarlet Webbed Tree Frod (Hyla rufitela)

The "Cinnamon" Frog (Scinax boulengeri)

Red Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas) that

just fell out of the tree crouched on a leaf

Waking up :)

I love this picture! (That's Jason, by the way)

Playa Naranjo

Today was another hiking day, a little bit longer than our other one (13k each way). Dan and I hiked it together and we had a lot of really good conversations, so it went by pretty fast… It was similar in a way because partway through the hike we got into an old growth forest that was very different that the rest of the area around it. It was interesting to see the drastic contrast between the two…After that part we came to some mangroves that grow there because it occasionally floods with salt water from the ocean.

The beach was so beautiful! (This seems to be a trend with most places I go in Costa Rica…) The hills around the beach were covered with the same dry forest, and the brown/yellow colors of the trees was awesome. The water was surprisingly cold, unlike in Corcovado, but the waves were great! A big group of us were body surfing, and we had so much fun :) Boogie boards would have been amazing!

We stayed at the beach and watched the sunset there. It was so gorgeous! I am lucky to get to see the sun set over the ocean most of the year, but this was even better that what I’m used to…I couldn’t stop taking pictures because every few seconds the colors would change and I wanted to capture every part of it. It was fantastic :)

This was me trying to be a photographer :)

The clouds were so beautiful when they were lit 

up by the colors of the sunset!

We walked back together in the dark (the sober group) so that we could hopefully see some snakes. We have some pretty good luck, because about 5 minutes into the hike we saw a little crocodile in a stream. 15 minutes later, we found a snake! I was really excited because I knew exactly what it was the moment I saw it (which is a feat when there are 137 snakes in Costa Rica…). It was a Lyre Snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus), and I knew that because I caught one in San Diego before! They range all the way from the southern US to Northern Costa Rica. This one was about full grown at about 4 feet long. It was a gorgeous snake, and it was fun to get to teach Dan and Gracy about it since it was a species I already knew about :) Near the end of the hike we saw a banded gecko (Coleonyx mitratus) which was really interesting. It turns out that they are actually in a different family than most geckos since they have some different characteristics: no adhesive toe pads (just claws) and eyelids (true geckos don’t have them). It was a great end to an awesome day!

Trimorphodon biscutatus crossing the trail

Awesome snake :)

Dan holding the Banded Gecko

Such incredible camouflage!

Cocodrilos

We left the Osa Peninsula yesterday and have been driving up the coast to Santa Rosa National Park, which is where we will be camping for the next week. On the bus ride today we stopped at a bridge that crosses the Tarcoles River. For some reason, there is a huge group of massive crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) that congregates underneath this bridge, so we walked across and got to look at them. They were so big! We were very high up, but they were still very impressive. The big ones were only around 10-12 feet long, but incredibly wide! (I say “only" 10-12 feet because some other species can grow over 20 feet…Imagine that!) Someday I’ll be good enough to catch one of these giants, but for now I’ll stick to the little guys ;)

The tiny ones at the top are about

the same size as the one I caught :)

This guy was MASSIVE!

So many big crocs...I counted 37

just right around the bridge!

Officially a Crocodile Hunter!

On February 9th, 2010, at the age of 21 years, 5 months, and 24 days old, I accomplished one of my top life goals: I caught a crocodile! It was an amazing experience, and I have never had that much adrenaline in my entire life! It was such a beautiful and powerful animal, and it was amazing to get the chance to experience it first hand. This is a moment I will never forget, but it would be wrong for me to not recognize one of the major sources of inspiration for my passion for reptiles and amphibians, the original Crocodile Hunter: Steve Irwin.

Steve caught his first crocodile at the age of 9, so I have some serious catching up to do :) He continued to pursue his passion throughout his life, and eventually attained global fame through his Crocodile Hunter TV show. Though his methods were often controversial, his love for animals and passion for conservation was infectious. Though his life was tragically cut short at the age of 44, he did so much for the conservation movement, and inspired many future biologists to carry on his legacy. I am so thankful for the life of Steve Irwin, and I hope that some day I may have the chance to also inspire others to love and conserve these amazing animals. Though I hope to catch many more crocodiles in my lifetime, but I'm dedicating this one to Steve.

Kinda blurry, but here's the crocodile on the bank

Me and the croc...About 4-5 feet long

Such an amazing animal!

Some of the other students getting to feel the croc

Releasing the crocodile

Steve Irwin--The real Crocodile Hunter