Ecology and Conservation* student, Lilli, writes about the field trip of a lifetime.
Hi, I’m Lilli, a third year student studying Ecology and Conservation* at DICE. At the beginning of September, my class visited the Caño Palma Biological Station in Costa Rica, to work, study and learn more about conservation here.
*formally called BSc Wildlife Conservation
Once we landed in Costa Rica, we drove to the hotel. Everyone was quite tired from the long journey but the place was really nice. The following day, we got to the station, did a health and safety briefing and settled into our rooms. On the first night, some of us were a bit scared because there were loads of spiders but after one night we got used to them (even the people who were really scared of spiders) and took lots of videos and photos of them.
In the morning, we were split into three different groups so everyone could do lots of activities. Every group did the same activities in a different order. On the first day, we went out into the forest to set up for a nutrient cycling experiment. We had to weigh pig dung in the forest, then place it throughout the forest and along the beach. We put a plate over each of them to keep the rain off and weighed the dung again at the end of the week, to see if dung beetles were taking away the dung. Some of the dung was completely gone at the end of the week! So the dung beetles or other animals were very active in these areas.
We had to learn how to do lots of other surveys too during the trip. Mammal tracking, for example, where we went into the forest with a local guide. This is an important skill for students learning to be ecologists. We compared photos of prints to the tracks we saw so we could identify them. We saw loads of armadillo tracks and my group even saw jaguar prints, close behind our accommodation which was crazy!
The main survey we did was the sea turtle patrol. There was a morning census and a night patrol. The morning census mainly involved disguising nests to keep them safe, from animals and people. At night, we had to wear black clothes to not disturb the turtles. We walked along the beach to find tracks of turtles and their nests. We carefully did body checks on the turtles we saw, checking to see if it had a tag, so we knew if it had already been recorded. If we came across the turtle before she laid eggs, we would count the eggs carefully as she laid them. When the turtle left, we would cover up the tracks and the nest, so that the eggs couldn’t be stolen or damaged. We had to cover our own tracks too. There were lots of turtles coming out of the sea at once and it was kind of stressful sometimes because you need to take note of all of them! But it was special to be close to a massive turtle and usher her back to sea safely after she had laid her eggs!
To protect turtle nests, we also did an activity where we twisted bamboo together into a mesh to prevent dogs from digging up and eating the eggs. We put the mesh at the top of the nest and covered it with sand, so the dogs couldn’t get in but the turtle hatchlings could get out. All of us made one, which was nice to see how it works.
We also carried out a macaw survey where we sat by the river to watch and listen for macaws. We were looking for the great green macaws and the scarlet macaws, but we also wrote down any other birds we saw. We recorded the direction they flew in, where the call was coming from or where we saw them, the time we saw them and if they exhibited certain behaviours. The aim was to learn how to survey for birds, and to monitor the macaw population because they are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN list.
Some other surveys we learned to do included an otter survey, where we went kayaking down a river to look for evidence of otters. None of us saw any otters because they are quite rare to see, but we did see otter dung – which is great news. We completed a forest survey, where we measured the size of trees so we could calculate how much carbon the forest stores. We also learned how to survey butterflies, where we put out a type of trap with fermented banana, which lures the butterflies. We left them overnight, and then in the morning we checked what we had caught. Our lecturer, Jake [Bicknell], showed us how to properly handle them, so we could pick them up. And then we used a book to identify them and see what species were around. We’ll be analysing the results during our module this term!
Finally, we did a night-time caiman survey. We were on a boat looking for orange-yellow caiman eyes that reflect when you shine a dim torch in their direction. We saw loads of caiman, and we also saw loads of spiders. Many people mixed up the spider eyes with caiman eyes because they look alike, even though the caiman eyes are bigger – that’s a random fact for you!
The station was simple, but had power and internet, and shared dorms. The food was great, but most days it was rice and beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were also vegetables, salad, occasionally eggs and some meat. There was always fruit too. Two times we even got pancakes and cookies! But mainly we had rice and beans – it was yummy… though we were all a bit fed up with it by the end!
Outside of working at the station, we also had some time to explore and learn about the local area. We visited a local farm to learn about land-use change (like deforestation). We hiked up a mountain and went to a village to learn about local issues… and to buy snacks and ice cream – which was really exciting after rice and beans! We also went snorkelling in a protected reserve, that was extremely nice. We saw nurse sharks and loads of fish, and then ate pineapples at the beach. We also had a jungle trek, which was really exciting – we saw some snakes, sloths, loads more wildlife. We even saw the Fer de Lance snake – the most dangerous snake in Central America!
The trip was amazing, I’m so glad I went. It was really hard work, but we learned a lot, had loads of fun, and bonded so much as a group. At the end, we had fun awards. One person got an award because she got the most mosquito bites. Someone got an award for their mermaid-like swimming. There was one for the best power-naps, the best turtle egg counts, the clumsiest person in a kayak. I got an award for losing all my clothes on the first day! My luggage was lost temporarily by the airline, so I had to go underwear shopping with our group leader, Helen [Pheasey]. Our other group leader, Jake, gave me a towel, and I was wearing strangers’ clothes for a while! Luckily my bag turned up a few days later 😊
That’s it from my experience in Costa Rica.
Find out more about studying Ecology and Conservation at Kent.