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<\/p>\nHi, I’m Lilli, a third year student studying Ecology and Conservation* at DICE. At the beginning of September, my class visited the Ca\u00f1o Palma Biological Station in Costa Rica, to work, study and learn more about conservation here.<\/p>\n
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*formally called BSc Wildlife Conservation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n T<\/span>he main survey we did was the sea turtle patrol. There was a morning census and a night patrol. <\/span>The morning census <\/span>mainly involved<\/span> disguising nests to keep them safe<\/span>, from animals and people<\/span>. <\/span>At night, we had to wear black clothes<\/span> to <\/span>not disturb the turtles<\/span>. We walked along the beach to find tracks of turtles and their <\/span>nests<\/span>. <\/span>W<\/span>e <\/span>carefully <\/span>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 <\/span>the nest<\/span>, so that the eggs <\/span>couldn\u2019t<\/span> be stolen or damaged.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>We had to cover our own tracks too. There were lots of turtles coming out of the sea at once and it was <\/span>kind of stressful<\/span> sometimes because you need to take note of all of them! <\/span>But i<\/span>t was special to be close to a massive turtle<\/span> and usher her back to sea safely after she had laid her eggs<\/span>!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n To protect <\/span>turtle nests, <\/span>w<\/span>e also did an activity where we twisted bamboo together into a mesh to prevent <\/span>dogs from <\/span>digging up and <\/span>eating the <\/span>eggs<\/span>. We put the mesh <\/span>at the top of<\/span> the nest and covered it with sand, so the dogs <\/span>couldn\u2019t<\/span> get <\/span>in<\/span> but the <\/span>turtle <\/span>hatchlings could get out. All of us made one, which was nice to see how it works.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We also carried out a <\/span>macaw <\/span>survey<\/span> w<\/span><\/span>h<\/span><\/span><\/span>ere<\/span> we sat <\/span>by the r<\/span>iver<\/span> to <\/span>watch and listen <\/span>for<\/span> macaws<\/span>. We were <\/span>looking<\/span> for the great green macaws and the scarlet macaws, but we also wrote down any other birds we saw. <\/span>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 <\/span>exhibited<\/span> certain behaviours. <\/span>The aim was to <\/span>learn how to survey for birds, and to <\/span>monitor<\/span> the <\/span>macaw <\/span>population because the<\/span>y<\/span> are <\/span>listed as Critically Endangered on<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the IUCN list<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some other surveys we learned to do included an<\/span>\u00a0otter survey, where we went kayaking down a river to look for evidence of otters<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span> None of us saw any otters because they are quite rare to see<\/span>, but we did see otter dung<\/span> \u2013 which is great news. <\/span><\/span>We completed <\/span>a forest survey, where we <\/span>measure<\/span>d<\/span> the <\/span>size<\/span> of trees so we could <\/span>calculate how much<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>carbon<\/span> the<\/span> forest<\/span> stor<\/span>e<\/span>s<\/span>. <\/span>We also <\/span>learned how to <\/span>survey<\/span> butterfli<\/span>es<\/span>, where we put out a type of trap <\/span>with <\/span>fermented <\/span>banana, <\/span>which lures the butterflies. We left them overnight, <\/span>and then in the morning we<\/span> checked what we had caught<\/span>.<\/span> Our lecturer,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Jake [Bicknell], <\/a>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\u2019ll be analysing the results during our module this term!<\/p>\n Finally, we did a night-time caiman <\/span><\/span>survey<\/span>. We were on a boat <\/span>looking for orange-yellow caiman eyes<\/span> that reflect when you <\/span>shine a dim torch in their direction<\/span>. We saw <\/span>load<\/span>s of caiman, and <\/span>w<\/span>e 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 \u2013 <\/span>that\u2019s<\/span> a random fact for you!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The stati<\/span>on was simple, but had power and internet<\/span>, and shared dorms<\/span>. The food was great, but most days <\/span>it was rice and beans for breakfast, <\/span>lunch<\/span> and dinner. There were also vegetables, salad, occasionally eggs and some meat. There was always fruit too.<\/span> Two times we even got pancakes and cookies! But <\/span>mainly we<\/span> had rice and beans \u2013 it was <\/span>yummy…<\/span> though we were all a bit fed up with it by the end!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Outside of working at the station, we also had some time to explore<\/span> and learn about<\/span> the local area. <\/span>We visited a local farm<\/span> to learn about land-use cha<\/span>nge<\/span> (like deforestation).<\/span> W<\/span>e hiked up a <\/span>mountain <\/span>and<\/span> went to a village<\/span> to learn about local issues… <\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span>to buy <\/span><\/span><\/span>snacks and ice cream \u2013 which was really exciting after rice and beans<\/span>!<\/span> We <\/span>also <\/span>went snorkelling<\/span> in a protected reserve<\/span>, that was extremely nice. We saw <\/span>nurse sharks and loads of fish, and then ate pineapples at the beach. We also had a jungle <\/span>trek<\/span>, which was <\/span>really exciting<\/span> \u2013 we saw some snakes, <\/span>sloths, loads more wildlife. We even saw the Fer de Lance snake \u2013 the most dangerous <\/span>snake in <\/span>Central<\/span> America!<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The trip was amazing, <\/span>I\u2019m<\/span> so glad I went. <\/span>It was <\/span>r<\/span>eally hard<\/span> work, but <\/span>w<\/span>e <\/span>learned a lot,<\/span> had loads of fun<\/span>, <\/span>and<\/span> bonded so much as a group. At the end<\/span>, 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 <\/span>power-naps<\/span>, the best turtle egg counts, the clumsiest person<\/span> in a kayak<\/span>. I got an award for losing all my <\/span>clothes on the first day! My luggage was lost temporarily<\/span> by the airline<\/span>, so I had to go underwear shopping with our group leader, Helen [Pheasey]<\/a>. Our other group leader, Jake, gave me a towel, and I was wearing strangers\u2019 clothes for a while!<\/span> Luck<\/span>ily<\/span> my bag turned up a few days later<\/span> <\/span>\ud83d\ude0a<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s it from my experience in Costa Rica.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Find out more<\/a> about studying Ecology and Conservation at Kent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi, I’m Lilli, a third year student studying Ecology and Conservation* at DICE. At the beginning of September, my class visited the Ca\u00f1o Palma Biological … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83585,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[244608],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}