I believe that every living creature, big or small, has a meaningful purpose worth contributing to the world in which we share. Every living thing is so beautifully and intricately connected in an elegantly spun web in which the planet and its inhabitants seem to persist in an almost perfect design. Though humans are a part of this eternal evolutionary network, we are altering natural ways in which organisms contribute to this everlasting conversation and this brilliant web is becoming unbalanced in unprecedented ways. Air and water are being polluted, sea levels are rising, climate is warming, forests are being destroyed, and extinction rates are climbing – our roommates in the home we call Earth are falling off this web and it is straining.
I was inspired to seek out an opportunity to study abroad in the uniquely diverse country of Costa Rica due to my belief that even I have a purpose for this Earth and a place in our shared home. Simply put, I believe that my purpose is to make the world a better place for all its inhabitants, now and in the future. I want to protect what makes our home unique within this universe: life on Earth. I’ve always been aware of our connection to nature and its importance including not only its beautiful diversity but also how it provides for and takes care of us. As its family members, we should be taking care of it too. If we continue to abuse our Mother Earth, she will not be able to take care of us and our children and we may die with her. However, by joining this group of diverse but like-minded people, I can see that there is hope that our generation will protect and create a safe world with our caring hands by learning and listening to problems, developing intuitive and integrative solutions, and carefully enacting meaningful actions.
My journey into the lovely, diverse country of Costa Rica begins with excitement and anticipation of leaving my country for the first time paired with my unease with the unknown. However, I reminded myself that I was not only doing this for my future to follow my dreams but also for the world’s future. I reminded myself that global change can begin small and this is my contribution. I couldn’t wait to experience new things, a new country, and new people, all while learning invaluable information from the course, the people, and every experience.
On the early morning flight down south, I had already met so many kind and friendly people associated with Costa Rica. Even in the long and frustrating customs line, I was already enjoying my experience with the people. Thus far, I had been failing to fully comprehend that I was actually in a totally different country and this whole experience was very real to me. It finally hit me when we exited the airport and boarded our bus in the pouring rain. I was overwhelmed with the day and the amount of new people around me but that overwhelmed feeling was met equally with excitement.
As we drove through the city of San Jose and into the cloud forests on our way to La Selva Biological Research Station, I felt like I was in a National Geographic magazine. Sights I had only ever seen as a picture were now real and right in front of me. The mountains were marked with green (lots of green), rain, and winding roads.
I went on my very first rainforest hike ever with my new friends and our leader Octavio. This first hike introduced me to the true level of biodiversity that exists here and it was not even a small ounce of what actually exists. We saw poison dart frogs, bullet ants, toucans, endangered green macaws, anoles, millipedes, cecropia and rubber trees, monstera, two- and three- toed sloths, a male Great Curassow, little white fluff balls of Honduran white-tailed bats who live in leaf tents, green ibis, green kingfisher, black river turtle, peccaries, and leaf cutter ants who work endlessly in a caste system for their mushroom partner. Some important species interactions I noticed was the mutualistic interaction between the leaf cutter ants and a fungi. The ants march along their lengthy highways carrying bits of leaves and flowers. They never stop their commute back and forth between their nest – always working and providing for their symbiotic partner: the fungi. The fungi requires the organic material to decompose it into food. In turn, it protects the ants from parasitic flies and the larvae feed on the mushroom, their only meal before their lifelong job. They are able to accomplish this endless feat by being organized into castes: the large bodyguard ants protect the others and forge the paths, worker ants transport the leaves, and minima ants tend to the larvae. Later, I gained another sense of the level of biodiversity during our night hike. We saw: iguanas, huge spiders, tink frogs, red-eyes tree frogs, the cannibalistic Savage’s bullfrog, stick insects, katydids, millipedes, a casket-headed lizard, and a fer-de-lance snake.
The forest reminded me of the life it supports even through the night when I could hear all the sounds from creatures hiding in the dark. The forest has a beautiful way of speaking. It is still very much alive at night but also tends to those who sleep. But come morning of the second day, the forest was wide awake and the Howler monkeys were its alarm clock. During a biodiversity index activity, I finally saw the Howler monkeys and was able to match their calls to their faces. On another hike, we spotted the more active and flexible spider monkeys as well. That night, my friends and I went on a chaotic yet pleasant self-guided night hike. We again were experiencing firsthand the amount of diversity that exists around us, especially since we have to examine every place we step for snake and crawling creatures. It started raining as it often does in the rainforest and at one point we all stopped, stayed silent, and turned off our headlamps. We took in all of the forest around us. We saw the night sky filled with stars and heard all the sounds from organisms hiding behind the darkness. I became keenly aware of how connected everything is within the forest and how we are now a part of it. The rain quickly comes and passes and the forest responds.The rain cooled the forest and us along with it. It seemed to quiet everything down for a moment before it all came back to life enlivened by the rainfall. The birds became more active as the rain cooled the area. The forest was still yet alive and thunder rolled its deep yet harmless groans as the sky lit up with lightning flashes.
The next day, I learned a lot about bird diversity in the area from Octavio. We saw: yellow-breasted flycatcher, Aracan Toucan, Golden-hooded Tanager, male and female rum tanagers, Rufous-bellied Hummingbird, Black-faced Grosbeak, Blue-gray Tanager (my favorite), Costa Rica’s clay-colored thrush, tropical king bird, red-eyed pigeon, Turkey vultures, short-billed pigeon, the Red Lored parrot, a male curassow, a female curassow with two chicks following, chestnut-colored woodpecker, the large pale-billed woodpecker, squirrel cuckoo, greater Guan, blue-chested hummingbirds, white-necked jacobin, and variable seedeaters. We also saw sag-winged bats hanging off a tree. I was most excited about the curassow family. The male seemed to be either protecting its family, mate guarding, waiting to copulate, or just hanging out. The female was brown with a black and white striped tail. The chicks would follow behind the female under her tail. I suspect that her tail may have the same effect as zebra stripes to distract pests or predators who target chicks. Today was a day filled with bird-watching and, while hiking, observations of species interactions.
I was inspired to focus on species interactions this trip because of my own personal interest in symbiotic relationships, ecology, and phenological mismatches. I was also inspired by the book Tropical Nature written by Forsyth and Miyata which mentioned the commensalistic interaction between tank bromeliads and trees, the mutualism between ants and fungi, and that of trees and fungi to name a few. From this inspiration, I discovered that I want to research the the ecosystem functions and services provided by epiphytic bromeliads through their symbiotic relationships including carbon absorption, water quality, and biodiversity.
The next day, we practiced for the Howler monkey survey. My friend Tate and I were partnered together and given a really “cool” spot far from the station and on a rugged trail. The trail was a great trail that brought us across from the arboretum and followed a river that snaked through along the edge of the forest. I noticed the duality of the forest during this trek. One second you are marveling at the larger-than-life beauty then the next second you are reminded of how dangerous the rainforest can be with the glimpse of a bullet ant or a hidden snake. During the hike I noted locations and accessibility of bromeliads for my study. They grow on larger, more established trees and are accessible near the trail. They range from several inches to a few feet in diameter.
The forest contains a myriad of deception. Songs that sound as if they are birds are actually the voices of frogs. Eyes that should belong to lurking lizards are actually bioluminescent beetles. Snakes coil as if they are vines or branches. Spiders are just spiders.
Saturday was the day of the Howler monkey census. I woke up at 1:45 am, put on my snake guards, and headed out into the forest with my group. We hiked over 2 miles into the forest to our spot. We had only our headlamps, a map, and our memory of direction from the other day to guide us on the muddy trail over snakes, bullet ants, and cayman. We arrived at our spot at 3:45 am, just in time to sit and wait for three hours while listening for howls. We heard around 4:45 am and recorded the time, distance, and angle of each howling group. Tate and I were joined by spiders, bullet ants, bees, and a friendly bat. Occasionally, we’d turn off our headlamps and take in the forest in its early morning slumber, paying attention to the creatures as they gently awake with the rising sun or fall back asleep as the dark night makes room for a light gray morning – my favorite time of day. As the morning came to, I looked forward to another day and week filled with exploring and learning. And just like that my first week here in Costa Rica came to a blissful end.
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