Pitfallin' Fun!

It was a fun filled weekend which involved a trip to the Saturday market at Agua Santa, which is always worth the trip just to eat the amazing chicken and rice – a well deserved break from beans! This gave me plenty of energy to help carry the food order form the canoe up the steps to camp! Then came beer and games in the evening which is always a good laugh and a great way to unwind after an eventful week.

So today we are back to normality and my first survey of the week was pitfalls. This is the amphibian survey to assess the ability of secondary forest to preserve leaflitter herpetofaunal richness, distribution and abundance in comparison to primary forest. So we had five pitfall arrays to check, all in the secondary forest near the Riparian zone. We found two frogs, both Pristamantis Kichwarum, which are easily indentified from the distinctive “W” markings on their heads. We also came across an Allobates Zaparo, which was near the drift fence that had tadpoles on its back. We did not include this one in our stats because of the tadpoles, but it was a pleasant surprise to find one as they are very rarely seen outside of the primary forest.

Maxine Tachon – GVI Amazon volunteer, Nov-Dec 2010

Pitfallin' Fun!