July 25- Ant Research

As the summer field season starts to wind down on BCI, I'm getting close to finishing the field work portions of my projects.  In addition to helping out with a few of the lab's general projects, I have two of my own projects I've been working on as part of the REU.  Both are a continuation of work that the Kaspari lab has done with Azteca in past summers on BCI.

At the beginning of the summer, I collected Ochroma (balsa) seeds, cleaned them, and planted them.  Once the plants were around a centimeter in height, we placed them in the field.  I have 80 pots out- half of them under Azteca nests (where the seedlings receive nutrients from the refuse and potentially protection), and the other half ten meters from the nests.  Once a week I hike out to measure and photograph all the seedlings.  Next week, I'll harvest all of the surviving seedlings and weigh them.  I had expected growth and survival to be better among the seedlings under Azteca nests.  Initial conclusion: lots of things eat seedlings.

The other half of my project has been testing how other species react to Azteca.  Past studies have shown that leafcutter ants and army ants tend to avoid Azteca.  I'm trying to determine if Azteca refuse has chemical pheromones that might deter these ants.  I set out dirt, Azteca refuse, and Azteca nest material one at a time in front of the leafcutter or army ants, film each for half an hour, and then analyze the ant behavior in the video.  The issue has been that I need a perfectly stable camera set up on uneven terrain pointing directly at the ground for half an hour.  I've tried tripods, but found that the best setup utilizes PVC pipe, plastic dog food containers, and lots of duct tape.

It's been a very fun project.  Army ants are always on the move, so finding them always requires a few hours wandering BCI's beautiful 50 hectare plot.  Good days!

July 19- Canopy Crane

I typically work 6-day weeks here, with Tuesdays off.  The late afternoon on Tuesdays is for the weekly STRI seminar lectures, and we typically have professional development workshops for the REU program in the morning/early afternoon.  But last Tuesday we had a special treat- the REU interns all got to visit one of the Smithsonian's canopy cranes in Panama City!  A canopy crane is pretty much exactly what it sounds like- a huge crane that attaches to a small metal basket and lifts it 40 meters into and above the treetops.  The crane we visited is in a park near Panama City, so we got some really stunning views of the forest and the city.  It was a bit nerve-wracking at first (the basket can really sway as it's moved), but the view made it more than worth it.

Only five people could go on the crane at once, so we went hiking through the park while waiting for our turn.  We saw toucans, hawks, and monkeys.  The hike took us up a steep hill to a cool overlook, with great views of the city skyline.

And there was one more exciting sighting back near the canopy crane- a sloth!

July 14- Hostel Mamallena

After returning from Taboga, we spent the night in the very cool Hostel Mamallena in Panama City.  Dan had stayed there his first night in Panama, and knew that it had a dog and free pancakes in the morning- that was enough to convince us that it was an establishment more than worthy of our patronage.  It was a really beautiful place.  There were interesting paintings and tilework, and a fun back garden.  I had never been to a hostel before, and it was also super fun to get to experience the sense of community among the guests.

We ate at a little restaurant near the hostel (between eleven interns and two other guests from the hostel, we pretty much took the place over).  I finally tried ceviche, a very popular Panamanian dish.  It's made by curing raw fish in citrus juice, and mixing it with onions, cilantro, and salt.  In Panama, it's often served in cocktail cups and eaten on either crackers or plantain chips.  It tastes incredible!  Most restaurants I've been to in Panama City have it- I'll have to have some again soon!  Later that night, we went to a bar/restaurant in Casco Viejo.  It must often cater to tourists, because they had red, white, and blue balloons up for the Fourth of July.  A great night!  The next day we had REU project meetings in Panama City, a professional development seminar, a talk to attend on the history of malaria, and then a trip to the fish market restaurant that the REUs all visited back in June.  It was a fantastic few days.

July 10- Taboga!

Well, I'm officially past the halfway point of my stay in Panama!  The past few weeks have really flown by.  The undergraduate interns all managed to get a few days off, so we had a short intern vacation.  We spent one night on the beautiful Pacific island of Taboga, and then a second night in a cool hostel in Panama City
Taboga, nicknamed "The Island of Flowers" is a gorgeous island 12 miles of the coast of Panama City.  It's an hour-long ferry ride from the city, in which you get a very impressive view of ships lining up, waiting to load into the canal.  We took the ferry over the morning of July 3, and spent a wonderful day exploring the island and swimming at the beach.  You can't go in the water on BCI due to crocodiles- it was fantastic to finally be able to go swimming!  Taboga is a perfect little tropical island- flowers everywhere, beautiful beaches and palm trees, brightly colored houses, lots of great little seafood restaurants.  The beach was beautiful, and there were pelicans everywhere!  (One attacked us on our second day.  Two people had to lure it away from our bags, while someone else went in and grabbed them).

We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast called Cerrito Tropical.  We had a big enough group of interns that we rented the entire place- lovely rooms, my first time sleeping in air conditioning since May, and a back porch with a fantastic view of the water!  

The morning of July 4, we hiked to the top of the highest mountain on the island (1200 feet, which feels like quite a bit when you're doing it in an hour in tropical heat).  The view was absolutely incredible- we had a fantastic view of the entire island, ships waiting to enter the canal, the surrounding islands, and Panama City in the distance.  We hiked up through the jungle, but took a winding dirt road down.  At one point, we turned a corner to find a herd of cows wandering down the road.  Definitely a fantastic trip!

July 8- Another Panama City trip

I seem to have gotten behind on this blog (for good reason, I promise- cool pictures coming in the next few days!), but we had another great trip into Panama City last week.  The REU students took the early boat in so that we could get supplies from the impressively-huge Albrook Mall.  We had meetings and the weekly seminar in the afternoon, and then spent the evening in Casco Viejo.  Early mornings are generally not my thing, but the sunrise made it worth it this time.

We ended up having dinner at a place called Tantalo- a great restaurant with an incredible rooftop bar.  We had an amazing view of Panama City- the historic buildings of Casco Viejo in one direction, and skyscrapers in the other.  Tantalo also has some of the best mojitos in Panama City.

Getting home was a bit more of an adventure than usual- a train had broken down where the road crosses the tracks near the dock, so we had to get out of the van and climb through the train.  Definitely an adventure!  It was a clear night, so the boat ride back was fantastic- we lay out on the deck and looked at the stars and the canal's buoys going by.  A really wonderful day.

July 2- Panama Canal Expansion and SLOTHS!

Since 2007, there has been ongoing construction in the Panama Canal in order to accommodate larger ships and a greater number of ships.   Last weekend the project was finally completed, and the first new ship passed through.  A group of interns decided to hike to one of the island's points where boats pass close to the shore.  The main ship was delayed to the point where we had to turn back and watch it from camp so we could have lunch and go back into the field to work in the afternoon, but we got to see some slightly-smaller ships pass.  It was incredible to be there watching a historic moment!  It was also great to get to spend a morning with the other REU interns (we're typically spread around the island on our various projects).

It was a fun but exhausting morning (it was an extremely hilly hike in hot, humid weather), and it was rather difficult to get psyched back up to spend an afternoon working in the field.  But towards the start of the trail, we got some incredible motivation: a sloth!!!  It was definitely on my list of things that I really wanted to see here, but they're normally very difficult to spot.  This one was climbing up into a tree, so we got a fantastic view.  As you can probably tell, the delight cut straight through the exhaustion.

June 27- Spider Monkeys and Aggressive Ants

As you may remember from my previous post, we had quite the storm last week that knocked down a lot of trees on the island.  One of those trees fell with a V in its branches around one of my study nests- the site itself is okay, but I have to climb through a fallen tree to get to it.  Some of you may guess where this is heading.  I made it through most of it despite the fact that it was a slippery, shifting, fallen tree.  And then, when I was almost through, my foot caught on a branch and my shoulder hit the Azteca nest as I stumbled.

Azteca are extremely aggressive, especially when anything comes near their colony.  Unsurprisingly, they were not happy to be disturbed.  I leapt away as quickly as I could, but I already had thousands of ants all over me.  One Azteca bite is annoying, but not too painful.  Dozens of simultaneous bites as hundreds of ants go down your shirt, up your neck, and into your hair is a different story.  I ended up having to rip off my shirt and throw it over a tree, and then spend the next fifteen minutes removing angry ants before I could continue.  My ant-infested  backpack was a lost cause- I carried it on a stick until I reached a fork in the trail that I knew I would pass on my way back, and left it on a tree.  Luckily (or unluckily) we got a major rainstorm that morning- it soaked me, but removed most of the ants from the pack by the time I came back for it.  I was quite the sight when I finally limped back into camp an hour late, soaking wet, covered in mud, and carrying my backpack as far from my body as possible.  

One highlight of that day- I saw an anteater!  I was delighted- it was definitely on my list of things that I wanted to see this summer, but they can be difficult to spot since they are arboreal and nocturnal.  I got lucky, and saw it as it was climbing into a tree to sleep.  One bright spot from my ant-related delay!  My camera was still sitting in the ant-infested backpack, but I ran back up the trail to get it.  I also had some amazing spider monkey sightings the day before.  

June 22- Storm

Sunday was certainly an adventure this week!  It started out as a normal morning- I had gone out by myself to a nearby trail to perform an experiment with some Atta leafcutter ants.  I'm trying to determine whether they react to various Azteca chemical signals, since leafcutter ants tend to avoid trees with Azteca nests in them.  I'm testing how they respond to Azteca refuse or nest material with dead Azteca as opposed to plain dirt, which means I find ants, set up the experiment, and film for an hour to analyze later.  My current setup utilizes a gopro, some PVC pipe, and plastic dog food bins, which I think finally qualifies me as a real field scientist.
I spent the morning happily finding an experimental setup that worked (I've been trying different things without success for a week) and filming ants.  Around 10:30, I noticed that it was starting to get cloudy.  I ignored it- we get storms basically every day, and most aren't too severe.  It can be an hour from the first thunder to the start of the rain, and almost every storm that I've experienced here starts extremely lightly.  There hadn't been anything too major on the radar.  Since I was finally getting good data, I figured that I would head back towards the lab once it started sprinkling, and be back by the time the real rain started.  As you can probably guess by the fact that this incident is getting its own blog post, things didn't work out that way.  Around 11, the forest suddenly got nighttime-dark.  The rain started suddenly, along with a howling wind.
Word of advice: if conditions ever reach a point where you start to feel chilly in the jungle, leave the jungle immediately.
In the time that it took me to turn of the camera and put my stuff into my bag, it was pouring rain.  When I detoured back a minute later to grab something I had forgotten, so many branches were falling that I had my hands up over my head.  The noise was unbelievable- pouring rain, branches and trees cracking, howler monkeys freaking out, booming thunder.  There was a ridiculous wind in the understory of the forest (something that really isn't supposed to happen in jungles).  I wish I could have gotten a video of the awe-inspriring scene, but I was a little too busy trying to avoid getting hit by any falling trees.  I learned exactly how fast I could run back to the dining hall (the closest building to the start of the trail).  It was faster than I thought.  The long staircase at the end of the trail that normally gives me such issues goes much faster when you take the steps at a sprint, two at a time.
Luckily, I had been working close by, so I was indoors by the time most of the trees started falling.  Groups that had been working further out had much closer calls- several people were very close to falling trees.  Several PhD students say it was the worst storm they've ever seen here, and one of the most frightening ones they;d ever experienced.  It only lasted about 10 minutes, but there are huge trees down all over the island.  The following pictures are all from a walk that afternoon when we tried to determine how many of my study sites had been destroyed (answer: four, potentially five).  The tree that I had been watching sway in the wind was on the ground inches from where I had been standing.  Getting places on the trails has certainly been an adventure this week (some of them are basically unusable- it took us 45 minutes to go 700 meters meters at one point)