As I was researching study abroad programs offered by IU, a trip to Costa Rica stuck out to me because of my love for warmer climates and I knew that in Costa Rica you spend a lot of time outdoors, which is another favorite of mine. I knew this program was going to be the perfect fit for me because you can always find me exploring outdoors and seeking new adventures. Once we landed in Costa Rica and felt the warm, humid air I was immediately filled with excitement to start exploring the country. Earlier in the year, my family took a vacation to Costa Rica for my sister’s senior spring break. They loved their trip and were excited for me to go as well because they know how much I love wildlife and exploring. After hearing about all of their adventures, I was very antsy to explore more about this beautiful country.
During my time at La Selva Biological Station, I was immersed in a thick tropical jungle and had waves of new information being thrown at me, however, I would not have wanted it to be any other way. The more I learned about Costa Rica’s ecology, the more questions I had because I was so intrigued and wanted to learn about every new living thing I came across. Starting with the natural alarm clocks of the jungle, the howler monkeys, who woke everyone up around five every morning without fail. Learning that these monkeys, also known as mono congo, howled every morning to send warnings to other groups of primates to mark out their territory was extremely interesting to me. This also proved to me how intelligent these monkeys are. A second animal that I quickly fell in love with were the bats of Costa Rica. We got to see the Honduran white bats, vampire bats, and greater-speared-nosed bats around La Selva. The reason I became attached to these mammals was that a couple of groups chose to sleep attached to our rooms at the River Station. This allowed me to constantly see what they were up to during the day, which was mainly sleeping. However, it always seemed that when I was walking past the bathrooms outside my room, at least one bat every day would come swooping from the ceiling and fly inches away from my face. Towards the end I think they were just doing it to mess with me because it became a pattern. I always found it funny and liked seeing them each day. Bats became a new favorite of mine throughout this trip, and I am happy for it because they are a unique mammal.
Being introduced to new species in the tropics is eye-opening because the evolution and adaptation of all these species are mostly polar opposite to what I am used to in the midwest of the United States. A lot of species in the tropics survive because of their camouflage. The camouflage that tropical species have include bright colors like green, red, blue, and yellow. While in the midwest, ideal camouflage for species includes brown, white, tan, and some black. Learning how to train my eyes to spot out bright colors among the equally bright colors of the tropical ecology was a learning curve, but once you start spotting one, the rest will come easier. On the other hand, the bright colors of some animals are intentional to stand out more. The best example that I saw every day was the Strawberry poison dart frog or blue-jean frog. This frog has a bright red body with a royal blue color to their hind legs. This little amphibian was easy to spot when against the green foliage. This color is to warn others of their toxic components that could harm predators.
Something that I did not expect to gain from the program was my interest in the botany of the tropical forest. I think this interest came from my consistent observation of the lowland plants when I was collecting data for our research project. I think that before my research study, I was always looking through the plants and trees in search of animals. My job for our study design consisted of counting the plants within a certain range on the forest floor. I believe that I became increasingly interested in the patterns and where I could find certain species of plants. I would catch myself looking for similar plants near the rivers and predetermining which plants I would see before I got to a spot. It was almost a game that I would play against myself to test my newly-gained knowledge. Along with predicting plant species, I also really enjoyed looking at plants, like the walking palm, that crawled across the forest floor in hopes of more sunlight. I was fascinated by this concept because it is a very advanced maneuver for a plant to complete, but you could see this happening all over the forest and across many species.
Another bit of information I was reminded about from Audrey and I’s research in the field came from our results. I was happy to see some significant data from our collection as well as some unpredicted information from bird species. I have always read in school that there will be a higher abundance of species and specie diversity near a nutrient-rich environment such as a river, however being able to record data and see the results from your collection has much more educational value. Some valuable data that we surprisingly received included the difference between insectivore and frugivore abundance based on location. Our data showed us that insectivores were much higher in abundance near rivers when compared to frugivore abundance in the same area. I found this information to be extremely valuable to our study because we were not initially expecting to be able to have data on specific bird species. With Audrey’s talent for identifying birds, we were able to add another layer of data collection that taught us more than we were expecting. I was also grateful for Audrey because she taught me a great deal about birds and by the end of the data collection I was able to identify a handful of bird species.
Leave a Reply