From the moment Lextinction and I left Austin to begin the Costa Rica MSEM field course in Tropical Ecology, we knew it would be a life changing learning experience. I have been fortunate enough to visit Costa Rica in the past working for a Conservation Organization and study abroad in undergrad, but from the syllabus I could tell this program would be a continuous knowledge enhancement in both theory and practice. Getting on the bus at Juan Santamaria airport with the rest of Cohort 4, we started our journey around the various geographic regions of Costa Rica. The one thing I remembered right away were the twisty roads wrapping through the country making a car ride that should be a couple hours into a daylong trip. Costa Rica is a relatively small size (I think I remember one of the field guides saying it was the size of Virginia), but because of its location on the continental fault line and its location between North and South America it has huge range in elevation serving as a habitat for 5% of the worlds biodiversity. Thinking about this I knew we were bound to see an amazing amount of flora and fauna.
Our first destination was at La Selva Biological Station in the Sarapiqui region, one of the two sites owned by the Organization for Tropical Studies we would visit. First impression – Humid. The temperature was mostly in the 70’s and 80’s, but with the humidity at 100% it felt like it was in the 100’s. This was the beginning of the end for my nice smelling backpack. However, this was where I became vastly interested in the Mantled Howler Monkey, as we could hear there presence in the rainforest on our first day with there loud howls. As a class we began learning about the research we could do in the country, and what would serve as our final independent research project. With my curious its peaked, I was excited to see what else we could spot in the jungle and joined the mammal research team to set up camera traps along a transect that ran through the middle of the preserve between Primary and Secondary growth forests. With limited time, we thought this would be the best way to capture an elusive animal like one of the many cat species found in Costa Rica. Going through the motions of figuring out the best way to put the camera traps up. After a week of data collection, we took them down and immediately saw the errors in our sampling design. Then it was time to see why, and did additional research. We set one of the traps up close the classroom at the field station and walked horizontally to see the range of motion. We learned exactly where the camera was activated and got some funny pictures of us doing it, especially Dr. Wasserman. We ended our La Selva time with presentations of what each group discovered, and the only actual picture we had of a lesser anteater (pretty cool though). We were then spoiled with our next site at the Soltis Center, located in the lower reaches of the cloud rainforest. Another stop in a completely different geographic region. Here we continued to think about our independent research projects, and began another layer of knowledge enhancement with whether ecotourism is actually beneficial to preserving the natural resources of Costa Rica. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the program as it required a different level of thinking.
The final leg of the journey was at the Las Cruces Biological Station run by the Organization for Tropical Studies. This is where we were finalized and began our independent research projects. I was luckily enough to researching the effect of noise on the presence or absence of mammals with Bri’once. We created transects to gather observational data on what mammals were present, including locating mammals troops, and went through different areas of the preserve and collected sound samples to get an accurate soundscape of the area. We split our time with the camera traps as another research group required their use, but it ended up being great thing. Especially because the other group consisted of Lexington and Kelsey, two of the coolest people! After a couple weeks gathering data and allowing the camera traps to capture pictures, we started our intensive analysis process with layers and layers data (even though it was a short term ecological study). It was interesting to see there is a significance in the relationship between locations of trails and sound. With regards to the mammals, we had a great sighting of the white-faced capuchins, one of the three troops found within all of Las Cruces and observed how upset they got at our presence. Analyzing the pictures was a roller coaster of emotions, as what we though may be a puma ended up being a very large feral dog. But then, once all hope was lost, we saw an OCELOT!!!!!! The cool cat was just strolling down a trail close to where we saw fruiting fig. It was so amazing and the whole cohort felt the same when we presented it during the final research symposium. The staff at Las Cruces were excited as well as they had not seen one for over a year. I will certainly miss learning new things everyday being in the field and being able to share our knowledge and strengths and weakness’ with everyone in the Cohort. I am happy this trip brought us all together. So with that and all the amazing unforgettable experiences, I am happy to say that Costa Rica is a wrap for now. Hopefully we’ll be back soon.