Tag Archives: Costa Rica

Evil Rabbit

When I have a high fever, I have a reoccurring dream about walking through a dark forest and being attacked by several claymation-like evil rabbits.  It reminds me of the trip the baby bear has after eating a mushroom in The Bear.  I’ve had the same dream since I was a kid and only when I have a high fever.  It’s always terrifying.

When I saw this picture, it reminded me of the dream (and having a fever), and I immediately broke out into a cold-sweat.  The rabbits in the dream also have glowing red eyes, but they have white fur.  rabbit-06032009-120445

Two large Iguanid juveniles

There is an abundance of both Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) and Black Iguana (Ctenosaura similis) juveniles about the station.  These two species are the largest terrestrial lizards around here, although the ctenosaur is much more abundant in the dry forest.  I’ve only seen two green iguanas, both of which were larger than the largest ctenosaur around the station.  Obviously, though, they are reproducing…

The ctenosaur juveniles are around every corner, and Charles witnessed two being consumed by Turquoise-browed motmots.green-iguana-iguana-iguana-06032009-115340juvenile-ctenosaura-06022009-115434

Another complicated picture

Again, while photographing plants for a personal identification guide, I noticed there is much more going on in the photograph than plant identification.

I wonder what these flies are doing on this Echinodorus paniculatus flower.  There is a pair for each petal; are they a breeding pair?  If so, will they lay eggs and form a gull or otherwise use the Echinodorus has habitat/food?  Are they simply attracted to the white?echinodorus-paniculatus-05232009-083430

Leptophis Action

In one day, I was able to observe a pair of mating parrot snakes and a parrot snake preying on Lithobates (Rana) forreri.  As a disclaimer, the frog was tossed toward the snake out of curiosity by another student here, Paul, so it wasn’t a ‘real’ predation event.  Mahmood, however, suggested that this species of snake hunts for frogs, such as L. forreri, in the leaf litter during the day, while the frogs are inactive.

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A finished fence and a crocodile

After completing a fence to keep out the damn cows, Boa and I discovered that a 2-m crocodile had come to investigate.  The water is still very shallow, so it didn’t make an attempt to get away… that is, until we decided to strap a rope around it’s jaw and wrangle it to the shore.

Charles is shown stringing the crocodile’s jaw and Paul is the other individual celebrating the catch.