The song of the zancudo

My first day in the dry forest of Palo Verde in Costa Rica, passed very differently from the last time I was in the dry forest. My last dry forest visit was in 2007 when I visited Chamela in Mexico, during the dry season. It was a turning point in my life as a scientist. In the dry season in the dry forest, all looks very dead. How could there be life in such a desolate looking place? Much to my surprise, a dozen leaf cutter nests surrounded the field station, and fed on everything from juicy cactus fruit to the kitchen leftovers. Every night, I spent hours watching those ants move along their trails, fascinated. Anyone who can recall seeing leaf cutting ants for the first time probably has a similar story- watching them carry their massive loads, wondering at what the different ants did in the nest. I caught not only a deliciously evil amoeba from drinking the tap water (cured thankfully!) but also caught a real love for ants.

Indeed, this time in the dry forest, in the rainy season, is very different. Why? Well, for starters everything is green. There is almost no rain here from January to May, but since the end of May, there has been a lot of rain. That means green leaves, wetland wonderfulness, and of course, MOSQUITOES.

The view of Palo Verde marsh just before sunset- beautiful reflections of the clouds in the water!

What this has meant for my ant watching is that I have limited it a fair bit more than I would have if the zancudos (as they are locally known) were not so voracious. I have only experienced them this bad before in Northern Canada. I also contended with black flies, no-see-ums, and horseflies in Canada, so I suppose I should consider myself lucky. Either way, I have resorted to using bug spray, which I am loathe to do. Usually I would try to avoid the stuff so that I can pick up cool amphibians, and not chemically destroy any ants I am collecting. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Despite the zancudo serenade at all hours of the day and night, I have grown to love this place in the short time I have been here. Our first day here we had two great orientation hikes, and I saw both howler and capuchin monkeys. (No pictures alas, but I'm working on it!). I saw agoutis, great curassows, frogs, lizards, snakes, and lots of other cool creatures.

Some insanely cute and fuzzy caterpillars!

A coati - the racoon of central america- says hello!

Ctenosaurs are everywhere- they run upright on two legs when they get really afraid.
They are a type of iguana, and love to sun on rocks outside our house.

Palo Verde used to part of a giant cattle ranch, and was made into a national park in the 70s. Unfortunately, after the cattle left major changes started happening to the area. The wetland became inundated with cattails, which prevented other plants from growing. This drop in diversity in wetland plant life had cascading effects on other species. There are 68 aquatic bird species that use the marsh of Palo Verde, and many migrant birds that stopover on their way to other parts of Central or South America. Once cattails started to dominate, the birds started to dwindle. What to do? Bring back the cows! Yes, there are a bunch of cows in this National Park.

You can usually see several cows and cattle egrets enjoying the cooling marsh.

We are working now on our first faculty field projects (FFPs), and soon we'll start our independent projects. I'll report soon on how that goes- we are working on a spider-plant interaction. Until then, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzancudo!