Getting back to the station last night, I wondered to myself if I would have the motivation to get back to work...
Hmmm.
How in the world will I be able to go back into a jungle fantasyland and chase around lizards all day?
Somehow I found the willpower to make it through.
Only 8 more days of data collection and then we're cut-off. They're trying to simulate a field season. For all intents and purposes we are not to collect any more data after next Monday.
With that knowledge in hand, and the end looming ever closer, I headed off into the jungle. It has gotten to the point where all my remaining lizards are extremely cryptic, hard to find, and even harder to catch. My best bet is to cover as much ground as possible and look for any movement.
Lucky for me, that means all kinds of cool critters to run into.
I decided to head into a different part of La Selva today, one I haven't tried out yet. This area is all secondary forest. Secondary forest just means it has been regrown since a disturbance. In this case, it was clear-cutting in the 1960's for a cacao plantation. It's come back pretty well.
As you can see though, progress is slow.
Much of the area was ridiculously muddy. Basically just one giant swamp. After wandering around and getting pretty lost for a few hours I decided it was time to go back into the primary forest and hope for better luck.
On my way out I did run into one little gem:
Ever since the debacle that was last winter-quarters 'Plant Taxonomy' class, I've tried my hardest to stay away from botanizing.
Sometimes I can't help myself. Those colors are just too unreal.
Eventually I found myself even deeper in a swamp. And found a spot where a small stream bubbled up straight from the mountain!
That orange-red goo is called an iron-seep. It's full of iron and sulfur and comes from water and mud deep underground that is heated by the active volcano nearby! These spots are important not only as a source of ground water, but there is also a billion and one different types of bacteria that live in this goo and are really important for the ecosystem. Didn't smell awesome, but good to know someone is interested in studying this 'fart-mud' (not an official title, just something I've been toying around with).
In the nearby streams there was life to be looked at with almost every step!
Rana vaillanti (Vaillant's Frog) This little frog gave out the worst noise ever when I grabbed it! Sure taught me a lesson. It sounded like a drowning cat mixed with a crying baby. I think pictures of these will be enough to suffice from now on.
Kinosternon leucostomum (White-lipped Mud Turtle) Yeah, yeah. I know I've already put up about half a dozen photos of these guys. But come on, can you blame me? Look at that face!
Yeah tough guy, you gonna bite your way out of this situation? So ferocious.
Chironius grandisquamis (Ebony Keelback) New species of snake! At first I thought it was a bird-eating snake, so I was going to grab it since a fellow researcher is trying to get as many as possible for their study. And then...I reached out to grab it.
Three big differences. 1-You might not be able to tell from the photo, but it has a prominent ridge down its back 2- The dorsal scales (on the snakes 'back') are HUGE! and 3- This thing was mean as hell! Not the typical look or behavior of what I'm used to. Since I wasn't so sure it was a bird-eating, I let it go with just a few pictures. Better safe than sorry when you're all alone in the middle of the jungle! Awesome animal!
And then we come to this...
Umm... How about another round of 'WTF is this thing?'
Today's candidate is definitely in the order Orthoptera (crickets, locusts and grasshoppers). Beyond that...your guess is good as mine. Pretty awesome animal... whatever the heck it is. Look at those eyes! And it had weird hairs all over its legs too. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure this is an alien-space-cricket, no earth insect would have bizzaro features like that. Don't stare at the eyes too long, you'll never come back!
Corytophanes cristatus (Casque-headed Lizard) New species for the study! What what! These things are really hard to find, the two I've seen were dead leaves... until I looked closer and realized they were lizards. They have an amazing ability to change colors, and their iris is an awesome brick-red color. You can see from the photo that this guy has about 6 different scale colors on only one side. Now if only I could find 19 more!
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A new species of snake and a new study species of lizard.
The day could not get better you say?
I'll be the first to admit. I never understood the hype. I mean, they're okay, what's all the fuss about. Is it really worth a 'viral' Kristen Bell you tube video?
The unquestionable answer is yes.
Sloths are the cutest animals ever!
This is the closest I've ever gotten to a sloth. Had I cruel intentions, I could have reached out and picked the little teddy-bear up.
Sometimes it is so hard to resist doing something you know you shouldn't do.
Whatever...you...do. Don't.... touch that sloth!
What is it doing on the ground? That's where the story gets a little weird.
Call me a pervo-voyuerist all you want. There is no way I wasn't going to snap a million pictures of this adorable animal.
Sloths only come to the ground for one purpose.
Every few days they come down from the trees to relieve themselves.
Yes. This is a photo of a sloth taking a crap.
I never though I'd ask this.
But isn't that the most adorable pooping photo you've ever seen?
As if the day couldn't get any better:
Care package from my amazing wife!
She's too good to me.
19 more days and we'll be on a tropical beach vacation!
For the next week though... I've got some lizard catchin' to do!
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