Jicotea

yesterday we completed another for sampling round 2.  it is the most physically challenging site by far, but also one of the most beautiful and fun.  it is about a 45 minute drive from our house to the site. we pass this beautiful cemetery on the way. the graves are all above ground. i am surprised (and thankful) that our old land rover made it all the way and back every day for 2 weeks - and thankful that my field clothes are holding up.

the site is basically on the edge of a mountain – which makes for spectacular views, but sore legs.  we divide the 500 by 500 m grid in half to check the traps, so we hike for about 3 to 4 hours every morning. for the bottom half of the grid, we counted that we go under, over, or between 20 barbed wire fences.  for this site, there is a mix of coffee, forest, pasture, and sugar cane.  all of it is treacherous in some way. the coffee has cobwebs in between the plants that inevitably get stuck to your face at some point in the morning.  the forest has steep slopes in the mud that you slide down repeatedly.  when i work in the group with the farmer, he holds my hand or arm through most of it so i don’t fall.  i told him that i am like an old lady, he said no, i just want to hold your hand - very sweet. this little mouse in the picture wasn’t doing so well when we got him out of the trap. he was very weak and wobbly.  we didn’t have bait left, so the farmer grabbed a banana to feed him and the little mouse sat and nibbled on the banana. he was hungry.

the pasture grass has vines all over the ground that hide the rocks, cow patties, and water underneath them.  they also reach out and grab your feet so you have to do a little hop to free your foot and give yourself a little more air time to place your foot down so that you don’t fall flat on your face. the worst though is the sugar cane. the densely planted stalks are about 8 feet tall and they are sharp.  we wear long sleeves, keep our heads down, bring our arms up to protect our faces, but we still come out with little cuts all over.  it is also loud and hot in there. the silence after getting out of the sugar cane patch is amazing – like someone was sharpening knives in both ears as your push your way through and then just stops at the other end.

some of the points are near some people’s houses.  one of them has a huge dog, named mancha (which means "spot" in spanish). he is tied up, so you can sneak around him while is barking and pulling with all his strength against his chain.  when two of my field assistants were walking that transect line, mancha pulled hard against his chain enough to slip out of his collar…one of them screamed, the other froze in place.  mancha though just walked over to a bush, lifted his leg, and relieved himself.

one day of rest today and then tomorrow we start the last site for this second round.  no rest for the wicked as the saying goes : )

First month

my field research this go-round has been really hectic and my computer died about the 2nd week that i was here, so i apologize for the lag in the posts! the first month was quite a whirlwind! the undergraduate students were here – so we had a full house of 6 people. it was a challenge to get the research started, the equipment squared away, and make sure everyone was fed and up and out on time. not to mention, cleaning the house and doing dishes…wow.

our old 70s land-rover broke down every other day…sometimes we could pop-start it (a new term for me) which means 5 of us pushing this tank of car and one person trying to pop it into gear once it gains enough speed. not the best way to start off the morning heading to the field! sometimes it took us 4 or 5 tries to get it started. when that didn’t work, i was constantly scrambling trying to find transportation for the group. the offices on campus open early and close early – and we are in the field all day, so trying to get things accomplished during the week can be a little trying. luckily the administrative assistant is really nice and helpful, but sometimes there isn’t a car available to rent or anyone to drive us to the site so we either have to walk or take a taxi or a bus. i hope those days are behind us (knock on wood). after about $650 of work, the land rover finally passed inspection – third time’s a charm.

we had a chance to go birding with my advisor here on his research project. they set up mist nets to capture the birds super early in the morning. they then weigh them and band certain species to be able to track them. i got to release a humming bird after they took its measurements. they are a little stunned afterwards, so sometime they sit in your hand before taking off. it was really pretty amazing. the other picture is of a bird’s nest that one of my field assistants found.

the mammal research is moving along – some of the sites have much higher capture rates than others. the three sites are all very different, which is nice to mix it up a bit. we will be surveying each of them 4 times total for this study. at one of the study sites, we captured a total of 4 baby possums – one of them we actually recaptured- in the small mammal traps. we tag their ear with a small metal tag so we can tell if it is a different individual coming back. i really don’t know how those little guys fit in there. the trap would be closed when we went to check the traps in the morning and it would be really heavy! we would have to take the whole trap apart to get them out. when we opened the trap, the little possum would be all curled up in a little ball looking out at you. they are actually pretty cute. all the ones we captured were about the same age, so they might all be from the same litter. my field assistants and i were joking that the mom possum would be mad that they didn’t come home until early morning and would yell “you got your ear pierced too!!!"

Adventures in Costa Rica - Coffee Research Part 2

after nearly nine months of planning and coordination, i arrived in costa rica to begin the second phase of field work for my doctoral dissertation. every time i arrive in this country, something inside me releases. you can’t help but slide down in your seat a little further, smile a little easier, relax a bit more. i had a car pick me up from the airport in san jose since i was carrying all my bags of equipment (which probably is a main contributor to the relaxing rather than trying to navigate the bus system). we listened to american 80s rock music that i hadn’t heard in ages – like nights in white satin (i just realized now as writing that it is not “knights in white satin” – i had a completely different storyline in my head for that song), when the going gets tough the touch gets going, all night. the driver didn’t speak english, but he whistled great harmonies to most of the songs for our 2 drive through the mountains from san jose to turriabla.

my research here will be the same concept as in india – assessing mammal biodiversity in coffee farms and surrounding areas, but with much bigger sites and a lot fewer of them. there will be 242 small mammal traps per site and only 3 sites, but each of them are 500 m by 500m…that means hiking about 5 miles a day. i thought that there were between 400 and 500 traps here ready for me to use. i knew there was a chance that we wouldn’t have all 500 here, so i had my field assistants, who are arriving a couple of days after me, stash 20 traps each in case i needed them to bring them. we need 484 traps (to be exact) because we need enough for 2 sites – 1 set in use in the field, the other to be cleaned and ready for the next site - but there are only 305 here. fortunately, i was able to find internet access and send an email to my assistants to bring their traps, but that still leaves us short by about 100 traps. i’ll have to figure that one out somehow.

the living conditions for this research are quite nice. we have rented a house on the campus of a local university that we will be working with. i was under the impression that it was all set up and i could move in immediately, but there were some issues with me technically being a student, but not a student at their university. the campus has separate housing for students, faculty, and visiting researchers. the house can only be rented to visiting researchers not students. luckily, i was able to meet with the powers that be and convince them that my status while here is that of a “visiting researcher” and not a “student.” thankfully, they let me move in!

the house is rustic, but spacious. it has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, office, screened in porch, and kitchen. it is layout will be nice since my field assistants and i will be working together 6 days a week and living together; we will probably want some alone time. the house has filtered water and warm showers, which beats bucket baths in india. the only issue, the kitchen does not have a refrigerator. i am not sure what do about that one. that means no dairy, no juice, and no making extra food for the next day. in india, i was told that you can boil everything 3 times and then it is spoiled. peanut butter is generally a good non-refrigeration option for sustenance and protein, but we bait the traps every day with a mixture of peanut butter, seeds, and fruit. after a while, peanut butter starts to remind you of mice and rats and just isn’t as appetizing anymore.

my three undergraduate field assistants arrive tomorrow morning. i am excited to witness their reactions and impressions of this beautiful country and have some company in this big house!