A continuous feeling of dampness swells around your body at all hours of the day. Each step taken reverberates alongside the surrounding bird and insect callings. And out of the corner of your eye, you might be lucky enough to spot a basilisk camouflaged in the lush greenery, fleeing from an attacking scarlet tanager. These are the sensory details in Costa Rica that I had not anticipated. Little did I know that the biodiversity would be present in every aspect of daily life in Central America. Amid the “oohs” and “ahhs” of our academic group, you can hear the deep booming of the curassows and the silent whooshing of the rising river. Without our knowledgeable and experienced tour guides, we would not have been able to auditorily identify numerous reptilian or bird species. Taking nature walks, night hikes, and birding ventures with the help of the tour guides enhanced the journeys by tenfold. I was able to gain an appreciation for the new environment I was in, learn of the potential dangers, and gain valuable information on many of the species we encountered at La Selva.
My journey to Costa Rica was definitely eventful, to say the least. I spent the past eleven days in the Dominican Republic with the Center for Underwater Science and traveled solo from Punta Cana to San Jose, Costa Rica. I had an amazing experience staying at La Riviera Hotel Bed and Breakfast where I finally curved my craving for authentic Costa Rican coffee. The food, coffee, atmosphere, and staff went well above all my expectations. After a few full days of coordinating transportation and speaking solely in Spanish throughout San Jose, I arrived back at the airport to meet with my professors, assistant instructors, graduate researchers, and other study abroad students. Once everyone had safely arrived at our designated spot outside of Deli Malinche, we took off in a two-hour long, giant shuttle bus through what felt like Jurassic Park. After leaving the outskirts of San Jose, we took a winding path through the cloud forest where we were surrounded by walls of foliage and many eye-catching waterfalls. We arrived at Estacion Biologica La Selva after dark and were fed a very healthy dinner and were led to our cabins that we will share for the upcoming ten days.
To start off our second day of the program we took a nature walk along the paved trails. With each new animal species that we encountered, our tour guides provided us with an astonishing amount of knowledge and facts. It was remarkable how much we learned from a short time span of being in the rain forest. Having the opportunity to learn in an outdoor setting in a completely new environment is something I will cherish forever. Such a unique opportunity to take a study abroad course is something that I have been yearning for, especially in such a vibrant country with an insane amount of biodiversity. Out of all the species that we saw, I was thrilled to spot multiple sloths rustling around in the tall canopies. Costa Rica is home to two species of sloth, the brown colored two-toed sloth, and the gray colored three-toed sloth. Remarkably, we saw b oth in a very short time span. Later in the day we found one near the base of a tree attempting to climb back up to a safer height. I was thoroughly surprised by the speed of these creatures, they moved much faster than I anticipated. Another feat of the tropical rainforest that we will be studying, is the drastic difference in tree size, biodiversity, and undergrowth presence between the old growth forest and the new growth forest. Due to deforestation, the younger reforested areas are sparser and have much smaller trees. In the older forest, the trees can reach up to 120 feet and live up to 200-300 years! To cap off our first full day in La Selva, we went on a night hike with the guides which was phenomenal. I felt as if we were trekking through a completely different forest. We were able to see a red-eyed tree frog, fer-de-lance snake, casque headed lizard, cat-eyed snake, and numerous nocturnal spider species. Once again, at the sighting of each new species our guides taught us an abundant amount of useful and interesting information.
Throughout the next day Dr. Michael Wasserman gave a lecture regarding the Anthropocene, planetary health, and how animals cope with temperature changes and habitat variations by practicing avoidance or tolerance. I was extremely interested in learning about the differences between fundamental and realized niches within ecosystems, and how humans have grown to construct their own niches while other animals are forced to adapt to their habitats and rely on their evolutionary biology for survival. Our fourth day started off with a bird tour where we were each introduced to auditorily identifying different bird species. Our guides were impeccable at recreating many of these callings and we discovered that there are over 800 bird species within the country of Costa Rica. This was followed by a lecture revolving around the latitudinal diversity gradient, the relation between brain size and primate dietary niches, and convergent evolution. Our free time consists of exploratory hikes during the day which is a great time for everyone to bond and create ideas for each of our individual research proposals.
Although this may not seem significant, on nights with a clear sky I enjoy venturing out to the hanging bridge in order to take a moment and star gaze. It is exceptional how the stars twinkle and the amount of constellations that can be seen from this viewpoint. Turning off all lights and listening to the sounds of the forest while being able to explore the different constellations, will forever be engrained in my memory.
The following two days felt like a blur as we all participated in a Mantled Howler Monkey census that is conducted every thirty years. Each person was paired to another and were given a marked location in the forest to record data. On the day of the census my partner and I had to leave for our hike at 2:30am. Little did we know how dangerous and thrilling braving the pitch-black wilderness by ourselves in the middle of the night would be. In our sleepy daze we were surrounded by obtrusive noises and enveloped in darkness from every angle. On our journey we had a very close encounter with a fer-de-lance and hiked through muddy hills to get to our location. We stood for multiple hours and recorded the howling, and eventually made our way back to the census directors. Overall, this was a neat experience to be a part of a professional Costa Rican data collection experiment. I know that this month is going to fly by and one day it will feel like a distant memory, but the experiences, connections, and stories will be something I am stoked to be able to share! – Izzy
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