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| The little Oophaga pumilio poison frogs |
In Bocas in the last three weeks, I’ve gotten to know many of
the other researchers. Living so
close to one another, we cross paths often,
whether in the labs, on the docks, or at the kitchen. It’s great to hear
everyone’s individual story and research work, and it’s amazing how much I’ve
learned just through daily conversations with the other residents. Above all
else, meeting the many researchers at the institute has been significant in
exposing me to the variety of work done here.
Last Sunday, after a full week of
taxing experiments in the lab, there was enough of a break in our work to allow
a day off. I’ve learned to take advantage of our break days through different
Bocas activities, and I hoped to do something interesting on my Sunday off.
Fortunately enough, many of the researchers at the institute gladly accept
eager observers of their work, so I spoke with a group of poison dart frog
researchers about joining them in the field that day. They happily agreed and I
happily went with them.
We took a boat to the mainland,
across choppy, jostling water. I just so happened to be sitting at the front of
the boat, the only seat that didn’t have a cushion, and needless to say, I was
uncomfortable. Regardless of the discomfort, I arrived intact to the field site
that they called “the swamp;” it was just that. We hiked from the boat to the
site through knee-deep mud. When we arrived, each of the four researchers took
to their specific work for the day. Simone’s work concerned the mating of the
frogs, with a particular focus on the color interactions involved (i.e. red
with blue, red with red, or blue with blue). I occasionally peeked in at her
observations as she patiently watched pairs of frogs interact, hoping that the
two would mate. Mysea’s work concerned the acoustics of the frog calls, and I
followed her around as she simultaneously followed around the frogs with a
microphone. Yusan and Houston focused their time on capturing frogs and marking
their location within a grid they had created. Scanning within the perimeter of
a specific plot, they recorded each frog’s coordinates on the plot and marked
them if they had yet to be marked. Their work took a majority of the day, but I
had no idea, as the time flew by. It was great fun to watch their daily
research work and they were happy to have a little extra company around.
It’s opportunities like these,
opened to me at the institute, that have made the trip that much more
memorable. Being able to tag along and learn from others has been a wonderful and
unexpected benefit of visiting STRI, and the opportunity to do so is available
for any and all that have the interest and the will to ask.
