River @ La Selva Biological Station: Organization for Tropical Studies

Costa Rica 2014

1st Stop: La Selva

So most of you know I went to Costa Rica earlier this month on an Earth Expedition with Miami University of Ohio. This is the last class before my capstone and I will graduate this December. I was gone for 10 days and would like to share some of the sites and experiences I had while in Costa Rica.

La Selva was our first stop on our trip. This is a very unique region for biodiversity and the scientific research that goes on there. In fact, the original concept of the *Global Amphibian Decline* started here with Dr. Allen Pounds and his observations of the disappearing Golden Toad (Incilius periglenes). He first noticed something was amiss in the 1980s and when he shared his findings with the global scientific amphibian community: they agreed that they too were observing decreasing populations. 

Golden Toad (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

La Selva is home to the Organization for Tropical Studies, which has several research stations around Costa Rica. La Selva is considered a lowland rainforest, so it's warmer than the higher Monteverde, but just as wet. In fact one night we had a heck of a thunderstorm. I've been in storms before, but never one quite like this. I actually screamed out load as one of the thunder booms let loose, but no one in our cabin heard me because the sound was so loud. 

We saw a plethora of diversity at La Selva. Here are a few of the sights that I was privy to:

Howler Monkey genus (Alouatta monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae)
These monkeys mate for life. When the male and female choose one another, it takes them a few weeks to work out their song, which is unique only to them. It's quite beautiful (and loud) if you have never witnessed it. Check out your local zoo!

Our guide said there's literally thousands of types of butterflies and moths, so identifying them is very difficult: even for experts!

Coati in the tree (genera Nasua and Nasuella, also known as coatimundi)
These fellows are related to our raccoon in the U.S. They are every bit the nuisance that raccoon can be to us.

This is the outside pattern of the Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho peleides). These butterflies are HUGE and have a beautiful blue irridescent color on the inside of their wings (as shown below). It looks very similar to a moth, doesn't it?

Some kind of rainforest treefrog (unknown species)

When going out at night to look at the frogs, the thing that is SO STRIKING is how very small these frogs are. We always see pictures of them that are very close up, making them look much larger than they are when, in fact, they are about as large as your fingernail.

 

I will be posting more as I can. Since I will be graduating in December, I have much to do and have to get to my mom's medicaid application process, work and do all of the regular stuff like laundry. :-)