Sea turtles, Jabirus, and Ocelots...oh my!

Sarah: The past few weeks have flown by. John Cossel, herpetologist from Northwest Nazarene University, was here for a week teaching about reptiles and amphibians. After that, Sharon Young from SNU was here to find bugs (not hard) and teach about entomology. This was the third of three weeks that the students had professors here on site to teach Topics in Tropical Montane Forest Ecology (the first being Dennis Seigfried from SNU to teach ornithology). All three weeks were busy and tiring for the students, but also proved to be excellent in getting them excited to learn about the critters in the forest right here around us.

After those three weeks were over began some travel time. Most of our students left on a 4 ½ day Spring Break, in which they traveled over to the Caribbean for some much-needed relaxation and beach time. They chose the Caribbean because they won’t be seeing that area of the country during the rest of the semester, and they had a great time renting bikes, exploring Cahuita National Park, and playing in the ocean.

Right after Spring Break, everyone met up in San Jose to begin the Tropical Ecology and Sustainability (TES) course. I did not meet up with them, and stayed here at QERC to host a couple of researchers from the University of Calgary while the group is out traveling. The first half of TES blew everyone’s expectations out of the water! Our 6 students and David met up with 4 students from the Latin American Studies Program and Trevor, our good friend who is the faculty member representing LASP. In only one week, they toured Earth University, hiked around Tirimbina Rainforest Center, visited Arenal Volcano, hiked around Palo Verde National Park, stopped by Casa del Sol, spent some time in Ostional, and ended up back here at QERC exhausted but on cloud nine.

Earth University is an international school for teaching sustainable development and agricultural techniques for tropical countries. The group took a tour to learn about their approach to academics and training students to return to their home countries in order to be agents of environmental change by solving global issues of poverty through sustainable development. Tirimbina Rainforest Center is a privately owned nature preserve originally purchased by a natural history museum in Madison, WI, and is now operated by Costa Ricans with the purpose of promoting research, education, and habitat preservation. The group experienced the Caribbean lowland rainforest with a local guide sharing about rainforest ecology. David claims that their guide Carla was the best guide he’s ever had in Costa Rica! The students enjoyed seeing some cool birds, poison dart frogs, and bullet ants.

At Arenal, the group studied volcanology up close and personal, and had a chance to visit one of our favorite places, Ecotermales. Hot springs are fairly common around the town of La Fortuna, where Arenal is located, and Ecotermales is a family-run hot springs that practices sustainability and conservation efforts when running their business. After a talk from a family member, our group enjoyed time to soak in the warm, tranquil hot springs. From Arenal the group spent time in Palo Verde National Park to study dry forest ecology. They hiked around a lot, studied wetlands, became enamored by the many birds (including the Jabiru, the largest stork in the world standing 5 feet tall), and hit the jackpot when they came across an ocelot on a night hike! The ocelot lounged on a branch in front of them while they were able to watch for about 15 minutes. The picture here is the only picture one student was able to take before his battery died on his camera.

From Palo Verde the group stopped by Casa del Sol, an NGO focusing on local environmental issues that involve cooking, teaching women how to use solar ovens and encouraging families to lessen their consumption of processed foods and increase their consumption of local, native, seeds and grains. The group ate their lunch prepared by the women who are a part of this operation. After Casa del Sol, everyone headed over to the Pacific coast to Ostional to learn about sea turtles. An unexpected surprise was the fact that there was a researcher there who recruited our group to help out with his research on the turtles. Two nights in a row our students broke up into 2 groups, each having a 6-hour shift patrolling the beach in search of the turtles. Once found, the group measured the turtles, tagged them, counted eggs, inserted temperature recording devices for further data collection, and witnessed the entire egg-laying process. On a few occasions this research involved picking up the turtles or wrestling with them in order to take proper measurements!

Now the group is here at QERC to study cloud forest ecology and hear don Efrain Chacon speak about the history of the valley. I’ve enjoyed time to work on my own projects and have some down time, but I have to admit I’m thrilled to have them back!