Alice, one mentor of the bat group, climbs a gigantic strangler fig to investigate potential bat roosting sites.
Tag Archives: NAPIRE
Wet forest cactus
La Amistad
Forth of July Celebration
A little lag, but here are some photos of the 4th of July dinner we had. This was on top of the station prepared dinner… so we got to eat dinner twice. Good stuff.
Emerald Glassfrog
Centrolenella prosoblepon
Waterfall from Quebrada Cusingo
Río Java draining forest
Salmon-bellied racer!
Mastigodryas melanolomus was my first snake sighting/catch in Las Cruces! I was beginning to get jealous of the snake reports from other mentors and students… But, on the way back from a sampling period today, two of my students, Mel and David, spotted this juvenile (it still has some blotches – adults are more solid) salmon-bellied racer.
Spanish Cedar
While visiting Las Alturas Biological Station and the adjacent forest in La Amistad Biosphere Preserve (an international conservation area in the Talamanca mountain range), we came across some Cedrela, a genus in the Mahogany family. These trees are valued as timber and are absolutely stunning. The preserve protects about a half million hectares of primary forest, and it was a fantastic opportunity to enjoy a little mountain of it.
This tree is endemic to Costa Rica according to the station director at Las Cruces, and my best guess at the identification was Cedrela tonduzii, which may be found elsewhere and is found in higher elevational regions (like La Amistad). I’m certainly not a skilled enough photographer to capture the tree’s beauty, so I’d encourage everyone to visit a primary, premontane wet forest and observe one of their own…
Collecting bamboo leaves
Mel, one of my students, is building a study investigating decomposition of leaves from a native tree Miconia appendiculata and an invasive bamboo Phyllostachys makinoi in streams. Here, she’s recruited some others to help her collect bamboo leaves.