Surveys a plenty
On Monday and Tuesday, EMs got back to more focused surveys of the local wildlife. On Monday they concentrated on collecting benthic invertebrates, setting traps to live-capture dung beetles, and searching for amphibians on a forest transect. Of course, all of the surveys found plenty of other animals en route, and the invertebrate survey was briefly interrupted by an inquisitive hummingbird. The rain forest is so dense with life that it’s impossible to look for any one creature without finding plenty of others.
On Tuesday the focus shifted towards bird surveys, with two groups heading out to record and count bird calls. However, another amphibian survey headed out in the evening to see if they could find even more than the previous night’s group – which found fewer frogs than usual, but plenty of lizards; a fairly rare dwarf climbing salamander (Bolitoglossa minutula) and an enormous cane toad (Bufo marinus). On Tuesday afternoon, all of the new five-week EMs headed out to spend the night in a satellite camp deep in the reserve, so they could survey the wildlife in areas that are too far to go to in a day’s walk. The 10 weekers wished them good luck, and hoped that the tons of sunshine that had been gracing the base over the last few days kept on shining for the duration of the sat camp.
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