Costa Rica--Where I've been

I was thinking about how much of Costa Rica I have visited over the years and decided to make a map of my travels all over the country. I first came to Costa Rica in March 2002 during my third year of college at UC-Santa Barbara and have been back about once a year (or more) since then. I have traveled to beaches on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides (it's hard to choose which coast is nicer) and I have been to about 10 national parks and reserves. I have worked on beaches on both coasts, in the cold paramo of the Talamanca mountains (the range runs through the middle of Costa Rica), in the dry forests of Guanacaste in the NW and Palo Verde further south, and I have hiked near Volcan Arenal (an active volcano--with flowing lava, hot springs, rumblings and all). I now work in one of the wettest forests of the Costa Rican lowlands, but I plan on fitting in a bit more travel before I finish my research. I still need to visit Volcan Poas (the 2nd largest crater in the world--after Mauna Loa) and a couple more beaches (with black sand!) before I go back to the states. Fortunately I still have 6-7 months left so that should leave me plenty of time to do more traveling...well...if the research permits!

Salchichita

There is a little crazy weiner-dog that lives next door to Carlos and me. We call her Salchichita ("little sausage" in spanish) but her real name is something strange like Nurque. She is a really friendly puppy and she hangs out with 2 other funny dogs and they have adventures all day around the neighborhood and in the forest. It is good that Salchichita hangs around with these other doggies because they are relatively big and can protect her and keep her out of trouble...most of the time. This little dauschund is pretty brave (or crazy) for her small low-to-the-ground stature. One time I came home to discover that Salchichita had attacked a coendu porcupine and she had tons of spines stuck in her snout (that Carlos and I had to pull out--yeow!). Another time, she attacked a howler monkey that fell out of a tree and the monkey took a chomp out of her little ear. Salchichita licks toads at night (they are almost as big as she is!) and chases rabbits and butterflies. Her owners are never here (they have their main house in San Jose) and they only visit once or twice a month so Carlos and I take care of Salchichita at night after we get home from the station. We put a little towel on the ground for her to sleep on and give her a snack every night. I miss my animals back home with my parents, but it is nice to take care of this little puppy. Who ever heard of a weiner-dog in the rain forest?!

Logo-a-go-go

A couple of months ago, I was asked by the president of ATBC to draw the logo for the 2008 conference to be held next year in Paramaribo, Suriname. I finished it yesterday and it is up on the official web site for the conference...check it out!

http://atbc2008.googlepages.com/home

Mexico Plans

As many of you know, I am traveling to Mexico in a little less than a month (11 July - 20 July). I am working out the finer details of my trip and it looks like it will be a really great time.

The purpose of the trip is to attend the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) 2007 international conference and present my research. I was invited to give a 20-minute talk in a symposium focusing on neotropical palm seed dispersal and predation. The title of my talk is “Differential handling of palm seeds by agoutis and peccaries has contrasting effects on seed fates.” I will be spending 4 days in Mexico City and I plan to go to museums, eat good food (tacos!), and visit the sites. I will definitely go to the anthropology museum, zocalo, templo mayor, and Teotihuacan as a day-trip from the city.

On the 14th I will travel to the city of Morelia (4 hours west of Mexico City) by bus and get ready for the start of the ATBC conference on the 15th. I have already looked over the conference program and there will be lots of great talks presented by some big names in tropical biology. Nerd paradise! I am also happy because a TON of people from my university will be there and I can catch up with some people that I haven’t seen for a while. Unfortunately, Carlos isn’t able to go this year because of the usual visa complications that all Colombians have when traveling. Despite that, I will have a great time exploring Mexico and meeting up with fellow bio friends. I am putting together my talk now and analyzing all my data. I can’t believe that I have only 3 weeks until the trip! I will post more updates of my plans as I get everything organized. If anyone has suggestions for what to see, let me know~

PS. The picture for this post is in my presentation-- an agouti hoarding a seed. Woo-hoo!

Estacion Biologica La Selva

So, this is the place I work and have spent the past year--La Selva Biological Station. La Selva means "the forest" in spanish and this field station is located a few kilometers from the little town of Puerto Viejo Sarapiqui in mid-north-west Costa Rica. The La Selva property is protected land (1,600ha) managed by OTS (the Organization for Tropical Studies). OTS runs 2 other field stations in Costa Rica: Palo Verde and Las Cruces.

The forest here is classified as wet tropical lowland forest and average yearly rainfall is approximately 4 meters per year--pretty rainy. There are several rivers that run throughout La Selva and during the rainy season they sometimes rise and flood a lot of the forest. There has only been one major flood since I have been researching here and it was so bad that all researchers were forbidden from entering the forest unti the waters receded!

I live in a little house off-station (1 km away from the main entrance) with my boyfriend Carlos. Many researchers live on-station in cabinas, but it is much cheaper (and more relaxing) to live right outside La Selva. This forest is a great place to work and a fun place to visit--it is very tourist-friendly. The animals that I study and the plant species I work with are all found in great abundance here. I know that my next 7 months of research will go by fast so if anyone wants to come visit, send me an e-mail soon (my mom is coming in September with a friend). Chau!

Finding seeds

I spend a lot of time in the field looking on the floor for seeds. These aren't just any seeds...they are seeds that I have modified to make them easy to find on the forest floor after mammals move/eat them. I collect seeds of 4 plant species (Socratea exorrhiza, Dipteryx panamensis, Iriartea deltoidea, and Astrocaryum alatum) from the ground (or using a slingshot to hit ripe fruits out of the canopy) and tie 50cm of flourescent pink string, a small numbered plant tag, and 10cm of pink flagging tape to each seed through a drilled hole. After this modification, I set out seeds in grids of 9 either inside cages or exposed. The cages allow agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata, Rodentia) to enter and take the seeds within but exclude peccaries (Tayassu tajacu, Artiodactyla) from the seed crop. Every 2 days I search the forest floor for pink strings in a 50m radius from the source. Sometimes it can take FOREVER to find a string/seed, but each data point is worth the work. Example: yesterday it took me over an hour to find a seed that was dispersed 36.42m from the source. When I found that sucker I was really proud--all in a day's work for a field biologist!

Press start to begin.

Hi everyone! I thought it would be interesting to start a blog to keep people updated on what I am doing.

These days, I am in Costa Rica (and have been for a year now) at the La Selva Biological Station gathering data for my Ph.D in Biology from the University of Miami. I have about 7 months left here before I return to Miami to write up my thesis. I don't know how often I will be able to update this blog, but I am going to try and post new information at least every week. This blog will consist of the randomness that goes on in my life--from my work in the rain forest with big-butted rodents and seeds to what things I am going to do when I get back to the states. I hope people actually read this and please send me a comment if you like it!