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 ;)

Volcán Rincón de la Vieja/El Día de las Serpientes: Número Tres

For the last day of our Pacific Coast field trip, we drove to a national park on the slope of a volcano called Rincón de la Vieja. We had a few hours to hike around the trails, so we decided to hike to a waterfall that had a swimming hole at the bottom. After about an hour hiking we made it to the waterfall. It was so incredible! My camera certainly does not do it justice, but I hope you can get an idea of how impressive this waterfall and pool are. The water was a little on the cool side, but it felt so good after a hot hike :) I also saw a cool anole by the pool that turned out to be a Norops oxylophus.

Absolutely breathtaking...

We hiked back to where we started and stopped at another little swimming hole along the way. Nick, Gracy, and I went a little ways down the river and found another waterfall. It was so fun getting to explore this place, and it turned out to be one of the most fun and relaxing days of the trip :)

We left the volcano and drove down to the beach to watch the sunset. After that, we went to dinner at a seafood restaurant near the coast, We went back to Santa Rosa for our last night, and the rest of the group decided it was time for a big party, so Dan and I promptly left for a night hike ;) Dan went back partway through, but I was determined to see one more snake before leaving Santa Rosa.

I have to say that I underestimated how creepy it is to walk around in a forest alone at night…Nevertheless, I continued on. Before long I heard a sound in the leaves next to the trail. It was another one of the “uncommon” mimics of a rare coral snake (Leptodeira nigrofasiata). They are such beautiful snakes, and it was cool to see another one since we only saw a glimpse of the last one. Satisfied to have seen a snake, I headed back to camp. I took a brief stop at the only water hole to check for frogs and I saw a cool Dry Forest Leopard Frog (Rana forreri). As I was about to leave, I saw another snake! It was a little brown and tan colored snake stretched out right next to the water. I didn’t know exactly what it was at the time, but it turned out to be a relative of the other snake I saw (Leptodeira annulatus). I was so excited to see another snake :) On the five minute walk back to the campground, I heard some rustling in the bushes. I looked over and saw anther Lyre Snake (Trimorphodon biscutaus)! It was slithering through some braches next to the path. It was about 3 feet long, so pretty good sized. I was overwhelmed with happiness :) Not only 3 snakes in one day, but 3 snakes in 30 minutes! A great end to an amazing 2 week field trip!

Leptodeira nigrofasciata in the leaves

Leptodeira annulatus climbing a branch

Rana forreri by the pond

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!

Sunrise

I really don’t like waking up early. However, there are certain things that are worth losing sleep over, and this was certainly one of those occasions :) We woke up at 5:00 this morning to go watch the sun rise from this beautiful lookout spot that looks out over the dry forest and has a volcanic mountain range in the background. My photos aren’t amazing, but it was so cool seeing the sun slowly appear through the haze of clouds surrounding the mountains and bring light to the forest down below…Definitely worth waking up for ;)

Beautiful :)

Santa Rosa/El Día de las Serpientes: Número Dos

Today was our first full day in Santa Rosa, and it was so interesting! Santa Rosa is a dry forest, as compared to the wet forest we were in for the past week. Since it is currently the dry season here, almost all of the trees have dropped their leaves and it hardly feels like a forest. It is much less humid, which makes it a lot easier to sleep at night :)

This morning we just hiked around the campground and learned about some of the key species in a dry forest ecosystem. We saw White-faced Capuchin Monkeys and Spider Monkeys really close to the trail, which was really neat. We also found a Parrot Snake (Leptophis mexicanus) that was D.O.R. Pretty cool snake though!

Swinging Spider Monkey :)

A relaxing Capuchin

Leptophis mexicanus up close and personal :)

After dinner, the sober group (Dan, Gracy, and I) went out for a short hike along the road to look for snakes. We saw a really interesting little brown snake (Stenorrhina freminvillii) that was slithering along the road. Apparently they are mainly diurnal and fossorial (live underground), but for some reason it was out at night on the road :)

Stenorrhina freminvillii crossing the road...and

Dan's shoe :)

We had a lecture after that, then we went out for another night hike while everyone else drank ;) We had good luck again! We saw a beautiful black snake with greenish-white bands that is an uncommon mimic of a rare coral snake (Leptodeira nigrofasciata). One of our professors who has lived in Costa Rica for the last 40 years has never even seen it before, so we felt pretty lucky :) Second 3-snake day of the trip! I love this place :)

The only picture I could get before it escaped

down into the rocks

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!

El Día de las Serpientes: Número Uno

This trip has been amazing so far! Today we got on boats and drove out to Isla del Caño, which is just about an hour off the coast. On the way we saw a humpback whale, a pod of pantropic dolphins, and by far the highlight A SEA SNAKE! I couldn’t even believe it! The Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Pelamis platurus) is the only species of sea snake found on the Pacific Coast, and very uncommon to see. On the scale of things I wanted to see on this trip, this would have been within the top 3, but it is by far the last thing I would have expected to see. I didn’t even consider it a possibility…But somehow our boat driver saw it swimming along on the surface of the water and we got to see it! It was so beautiful and impressive contrasted against the brilliant blue of the ocean. It only stayed on the surface for a moment and then it dove down, but that is a moment I will NEVER forget.

Not my pictures, but you get the idea...

We hiked around the island for a while and played in the ocean, then headed back to the mainland. When we returned we had free time, so Gracy, Dan, and I took a hike. (We are the only ones in the group that don’t drink, so we like to hang out together…We call ourselves the sober group :) We thought we knew where we were going, but it turned out that we didn’t exactly…We hiked up a really steep trail and eventually found our way. It turned out to be a really interesting hike after that :) First, we saw a big troop of spider monkeys swinging through the trees. After that we saw a neat Casque-headed Lizard (Corytophanes cristatus) that Gracy almost walked right into :) We were getting close to the campground and I was thinking to myself, “The only snake I REALLY want to see before we leave here is a Fer-de-Lance…” About 5 seconds later Dan yells from up ahead that there is a Fer-de-Lance (Bothrops asper) on the trail! I was blown away :) It was such an amazing snake! It was only a small one, but it could still do a lot of damage if it bit you…These snakes are notorious in Central America and they inflict the most snake bites of any snake here by far. They are common and aggressive, which is a bad combination, but for the snake lover, they are quite an impressive specimen. We returned to camp very satisfied with our walk :)

Corytophanes cristatus

Bothrops asper slithering through the undergrowth.
Their pattern is so interesting!

Coiled up on a branch

After dinner we had a night hike. Can you believe we saw ANOTHER snake?! This time it was a Cat-eyed Snake (Imantodes cenchoa) It was an amazing day :) First 3-snake day of the trip…

Playa Llorona

Today we did a semi-long hike (8k each way) to a beautiful beach called Playa Llorona. The only way to get there is to hike, so we were the only ones there! Along the way we walked through a patch of primary rainforest, which means that it has never been cut down before. It was incredible to see the massive trees stretching over one hundred feet up into the sky and the massive vines intertwined between them.  It was cool to think about what those trees have seen…Most of them have probably been there for a few hundred years, if not longer, and I’m sure they have seen it all. So many people walking through and being amazed by the beauty of this place. It was awesome :) When we arrived at the beach, I was blown away by how beautiful it was. Such a pristine and natural place. There was even a waterfall that we could shower in and fill our water bottles with. It was such an amazing place! I hope I am lucky enough to go back there again someday :)

South

North

San Pedrillo

For a week, we got to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world! We were staying at San Pedrillo in Corcovado National Park, which has been called one of the most biologically intense places left on earth by National Geographic. It certainly didn't disappoint! :) Here are some pictures of where we stayed and the areas right around the station...

River that runs by near the station

Awesome waterfall up the river

One of the beach areas around camp

Our campsite :)

Sunset behind the tents

Sunsets on the beach just never get old! :)

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