By far the most fascinating part of this trip for me so far has been the wildlife. That’s exactly what I expected, but it doesn’t make the biodiversity any less impressive. I enjoyed all of our guided hikes. I actually stuck with the same guide for the morning hike, the night hike, and the bird tour. It sort of happened to work out that way, but I did really appreciate the attitude he had toward guiding us through the forest. Before our first hike he said that we should not enter with any expectations, and let the forest show us what it wants to show us. I liked that he prepared our mindsets like that, and it made the variety of animals we saw even more exciting. I have not kept a comprehensive list, but I’ve seen macaws, parrots, toucans, 4 snakes including a fer-de-lance, red eyed tree frogs, Mexican tree frogs, sloths, peccaries, howler monkeys and spider monkeys, lots of anoles, geckos, and other small lizards, curassows, an agouti, dozens of spiders, katydids, grasshoppers, cockroaches, flies, and other insects. That list is by no means complete, although I know other people that have been keeping a list of all the animal species they’ve seen. In the middle of writing this blog I actually saw a caiman on the bank of the river underneath the hanging bridge at La Selva.
Mexican Tree Frog, Smilisca baudinii
I have found myself very interested in the birds at La Selva. It’s gratifying to listen intently to the songs in the morning and eventually locate the source. It’s especially fun with a guide, it feels like a tutorial teaching us how to spot and identify birds before we go out on our own. The tutorial has worked for me a little bit; I’ve learned to recognize calls from toucans, parrots, and macaws. One morning, I spent the whole day hearing a unique bird call that was unlike anything I’ve heard in North America. I was considering consulting the internet to identify the call, but as I walked across the hanging bridge toward the comedor I happened to hear the same call again. This time, however, I could see the bird making it. It was an oropendola. Dylan walked up to me while I was watching the oropendola and we ended up seeing chestnut-mandibled toucans, a pale billed woodpecker, and a bird with a scarlet rump, but not the scarlet-rumped tanager. Dylan said he really likes birds and would have been happy to choose birds for his project. I told him we could work together because my research project will be very similar to what we were doing just then.
Honduran White Bat, Ectophyla alba
For my project, I am connecting the concept of ecosystem engineering through seed dispersal with edge effects to evaluate the efficacy of using fruit trees in abandoned degraded landscapes as a reforestation method. I am already planning to research the effect of beavers as ecosystem engineers at the Research Teaching Preserve at IU in the fall semester of 2022, so my project idea here is somewhat related.
In terms of methodology, I plan to find a fruiting fig tree at the edge of the forest and one at the interior of the forest. I will sit at each tree for a few hours in the morning when frugivores (fruit-eaters) are most active and catalogue the unique species I see and the number of individuals of each species. I will then compare the species diversity and abundance between the forest edge and interior. It is entirely possible that diversity and abundance will be higher at the forest edge, suggesting that natural seed dispersal could be an effective reforestation technique.
I am not sure with whom I want to collaborate on this project. I ranked Kassidy as my first choice because she wants to use camera traps, and I think that could easily be incorporated into my project to collect data from nocturnal frugivores like bats. There are several other students studying edge effects like Tate, Madison, and Wendy, so I could potentially work with one of them as well.
Great Green Macaw, Ara ambiguus
The diversity of interests and expertise of this group has also influenced my academic and research interests. Multiple people are interested in sociology, economics, and political science and they are focusing on land use, ecotourism, and energy use. I am incredibly interested in ecology, evolution, and biodiversity. I love learning about flora and fauna and the interactions between them. However, when it comes to research, I would like to focus on the relationship between human society and the environment. If I end up dedicating a lot of time to research, I want it to have practical applications related to combating climate change rather than basic research testing the validity of ecological theories. Both are important, and I am of the opinion that all knowledge is useful, but I personally want to focus on research that directly relates to climate change and human society.
Because of that I am going to start looking into Geography or Anthropology degrees to go alongside my Environmental and Sustainability Studies degree. I hope it could give me a better sense of policy and land use practices and how they relate to conservation. I have also found that I enjoy field work, which still aligns with studying the effects of various human practices on the natural environment. Studies like the effects of pesticides on primates that the IRES students are doing seem to be an example of this intersection and I could envision myself doing research similar to theirs.
I am also considering applying to the IRES program at some point in my college career. I have only just finished my freshman year so it may be wiser to wait until after my junior year and go to Panama instead of Uganda. I know it is very early in the trip, but I do really enjoy learning about tropical ecology and I find myself more interested in research here than back in Bloomington, maybe North America in general.
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