The Manphib VES

Wednesday 25 May. An amphibian and reptile VES (Visual Encounter Survey) was pencilled in for the night. A crew united in testosterone with one goal: to pursue as many squidgy and scaly critters as possible. I took the opportunity to lead the group and also navigate us through the transect. After some displays of risk assessments and general hooliganism by our compatriot Micky, we headed out at a searing pace; stopping only for a large banana spider. When I was reiterating the mitigation methods of the project and other relevant nonsense, one of the men (by name Lexington)kicked the night off with a yellow-tongued forest anole. Little did we know it was the first of many to come. We bludgeoned on without dropping a single bead of sweat and were at the transect in a matter of mere minutes. We started and had to pass down a gradient, a couple more anoles were found but it was no big deal. We cruised over a small stream and up a sheer slope and eventually onto some level ground, this is where the ‘gentlemen of the jungle’ got into gear. Just a taste of things spotted was: collared tree runner, golden orb spider, flat-headed bromeliad tree frog, carabaya rain frog, emerald wasp, further forest anoles, a scorpion and a tarantula. We were checking the emerald wasp when eagle-eyes spotted a red vine snake, which we observed in all its majestic glory and let it escape. It was later on also that we captured another bromeliad tree frog, then a salamander, then a collared gecko, then an additional salamander, and finally a rare tree frog – which was intercepted expertly with the assist of Micky boosting a fellow gent up for the capture. All of such were found in the last fifty or so metres. All in all a cracking display by the chaps.

Oliver Jenner, GVI Amazon Conservation Intern, April-September 2011

The Manphib VES