May 28- Wildlife Sightings

One of my favorite things about being in the tropics so far has been the wildlife.  BCI has an amazing variety of species, many of which you can find around the dorms.  3 of my room's walls are primarily screens, and I can usually hear a variety of birds and insects calling in the forest.  Howler monkeys are very recognizable- their calls can carry for 5 kilometers, and I have learned that they're quite noisy during storms and at 5 in the morning.  I had known to expect them, but it still scared me more than I care to admit when they woke me up the first morning.  (Hey, you try waking up alone in a pitch-black room to the sound of screaming howls).  There are also tons of agouti around the dorm- I can often hear them crashing through the jungle outside of my window.

As soon as you go into the forest, there is life everywhere.  I was out there for 4 hours this morning- the projects I'm involved with study Azteca ants, and we were identifying good nests for study sites. We saw howler monkeys almost as soon as we got into the forest, and could hear them making noise all morning (they were too high up to get a good picture, but I'll try again in the future).  We have also seen lots of capuchin monkeys.  Our most exciting encounter today was with a 6-foot-long snake lying across the trail that we didn't spot until we almost stepped on it!

The island is surrounded by the gorgeous water of Lake Gatun.  However, swimming is strictly forbidden due to crocodiles!  I went looking for them during a break yesterday afternoon, and sure enough, I saw one within five minutes (the dark line towards the center of the picture- an anti-crocodile fence kept me from getting close enough to get a better picture on my phone)