Winter sucks

Normally I spend winter occupied with fun activities like wallowing in depression and playing videogames all day but despite how fulfilling that might sound I decided to do something different this year. So I finally went outside to enjoy the nature that somehow persists during this dreadful season. Luckily there's one amphibian that is crazy enough to be active during the winter or else I'd really have no motivation to go outside except for maybe exercising my atrophying body. While I once hiked up and down the Grand Canyon with ease I found myself out of breath after the short walk through the woods as this was the first instance of sustained physical activity in months, unless you count going to the mall to pick up a copy of the latest Pokemon game. Anyway enough about me, let's go to the vernal pool.

The vernal pool.

Behold, the lair of the marbled salamander! At least their aquatic larvae anyway. Adults are terrestrial and rarely seen, living up to their family's common name of "mole salamanders" by spending most of their time underground. This is an interesting salamander with a unique lifestyle which has been conveniently covered by David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood series so just watch this video if you want to know more about this wonderful creature. Actually Sir David forgot to mention how these salamanders lay their eggs in the bottoms of dry vernal pools in the fall which hatch when the pools fill later in the season. The larvae then slowly grow throughout the winter and get a significant headstart in growth compared to the other species which normally breed in the springtime. 

Find it?

To my surprise there were also a few adult eastern newts hanging out in the pool. Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of them, so you'll just have to trust me on this one. Will I brave the cold again to find these animals and maybe pay attention to the other winter flora and fauna? Tune in next week to find out! 

A closer look. 

The End 2

Last time, the rainforest ended with a bang on the final night hike: a snake, a lizard and a caiman, oh my! What more could a young herpetologist want in his final hours in the jungle? This time, instead of showing off its abundance of reptiles, the rainforest decided to show off its abundance of rain. I guess that's the universe telling me to study something else. Just a few measly frogs and insects before it started pouring until early morning. But that's fine, there's no use in romanticizing any arbitrary night when you've spent an entire month in the most biodiverse place in the world. 

More thrilling rainforest tales and pictures like this one later. 

Another great time in Ecuador has ended and now I'm back in the lame freezing cold northeast. After a day of this winter BS, I'm sick of it so I'm going to Puerto Rico. See you in a week. 

Gone Fishin'

I'll be in the rainforest from tomorrow until December 5th. Surprisingly enough, I won't be spending too much time on the internet despite how boring it is there. And it costs money. Mainly the former. Since I've already been there I've seen nearly every tree, insect, lizard, and frog. There are only more species of tree in a single hectare (100 meters x 100 meters) than in the entire United States and Canada combined. And only 100,000 species of insects per hectare. And this particular area has the highest concentration of amphibians in the entire world. Actually, it is the most biodiverse place on the planet. Better destroy it for some oil!

You can read more boring statistics about how incredibly diverse eastern Ecuador is or about its unfortunate impending fate. But for now you can watch this highly educational nature documentary series filmed entirely with a cheap point-and-shoot camera.

Watch in HD!

  Episode 2 is sub-par at best.

Now that I have fancy cameras, I have no excuse not to get some incredible footage. I still have to write about Galapagos, but here are all the pictures I took there. See you in a month. 

The Galapagos (videos)

I'll be blogging about the magical islands soon enough but first, here is a video from the last time I was there. This was footage from my friend's GoPro  that I edited together with some music. This inspired me to get a GoPro, although for much less extreme purposes.



And this is a video from the most recent visit to Galapagos.

The highly anticipated sequel to this short film. 
What a magical place.

More thrilling tales from the Enchanted Isles (no, seriously. That's another name for the Galapagos) coming soon.

Lizards Lizards Lizards

Why does anyone go to lovely tropical coastal Ecuador? The lizards, of course. This is probably the most popular tourist activity right behind hiking in the cloud forest by yourself in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, staying at the beach during this time of year was a very different experience.

Fortunately, the only day the sun decided to show up was during our visit to Parque Nacional Machalilla which is Spanish for "lizard heaven." The park is located in a dry forest and happens to have one of the most beautiful beaches in Ecuador within its borders. I don't know how people ever make it to the beach when you literally encounter hundreds of lizards on your way there.

Just one of many beautiful distractions. 

One of the actual reasons for going to the coast was to look at all the primordial creatures that live in tide pools. My opinion on tide pools and their residents hasn't changed since the last time I was there, but this sea slug was quite funky. 

Woah.

Despite the lack of sun for the majority of the trip, the lizards were still out and about, albeit in lesser numbers. But that didn't stop this beautiful gecko from showing up. Or me from watching this same exact individual for three days straight.

Diurnal geckos usually evolve to be pretty. 

His less-pretty nocturnal cousin below is probably quite jealous, but could probably devour him if it wanted; it's about three times larger.

If I took less artsy fartsy pictures you might be able to see the 

size difference between these two lizards.

If you're sick of lizards by now, too bad. Here's another. But this is no ordinary lizard! This is the ancestor of the most famous Galapagos animal: the lava lizards. Forget what you heard about the tortoises, marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies, these are definitely more interesting and widely-appreciated. This also serves as the perfect segue into the next horribly delayed post: The Galapagos.

She's been waiting a while for me to write something too. 

Lizards in order of appearance: Ameiva septemlineata, Gonatodes caudiscutatus, Phyllodactylus reissi, and Microlophus occipitalis. A few more pictures here. 

Onwards to the coast

The cloud forest is a dark and gloomy place. With no lizards. Just clouds and forests and failure. Stupid cloudy places with no sun. Or lizards. Maybe I'm just bad at finding lizards. I quit. After another weekend spent in the cloud forest in vain, I've decided to become an entomologist that studies weevils.

This is a weevil.

With the way this world works, you can always find insects. Weevils are a kind of beetle, and beetles basically rule the world, numerically anyway. There are around 9 million species of animal on this planet and probably about 6 million species of beetle. What a great world we live in...

I guess this is pretty fantastic. 

Well, that about exhausts my knowledge of weevils. Luckily I'm off to the coast tomorrow, which was pretty much "lizard heaven" (although I did find a weevil there too)... but apparently the weather this time of year is cloudier (like the cloud forest!) which could mean no lizards... Hopefully I'll be able to find some reptiles and won't actually have to resort to studying insects. I gave a rather honest and complete overview of what that place is about the last time so feel free to refresh your memory by reading that. 

No more cloud forests for me.

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La Hesperia

I just spent the past weekend in La Hesperia which is a cloud forest I conveniently never blogged about the last time I was there. "Cloud forest" is an odd term and unless you're a biologist or someone who's vacationed in Costa Rica it brings a strange visual to mind.

Artist's rendition.

A more technical name for these places would be "tropical premontane moist forests." I don't know why that name never caught on. While they aren't floating above rainforests on clouds, they are higher than rainforests in elevation along mountains. The name is not completely misleading though; cloud forests are shrouded by... (you guessed it) clouds for at least part of the day. Due to the readily available moisture this is where forests start to look really lush and tropical with plants growing on plants. 

Frogs also like wet places, but surprisingly there weren't many out and about like last time. I guess they didn't like how I violently grabbed them out of their daily routine to take a million pictures of them. Or rather, the last time I was here was during a wetter part of the year when more frogs were reproducing tiny froglets to place on your finger. But there are always insects, so you'll have to entertain yourself with these leaf cutter ants who decided to add some color in their life by bringing flower petals back to the nest. 

But the real reason people come to cloud forests is for the birds. Like actual birds. I did see toucanets, tanagers, and barbets which is English for "colorful tropical flying things," but they're hard to photograph so here is an underwhelming, but humorous bird called an ani.

Contemplating dinner. 

While birds are nice (if you're into that) the true jewel of the cloud forests are the lizards. Except, there aren't many lizards in the cloud forest. And they're hard to find. Actually, the cloud forest is a truly horrible place to go lizard hunting, something I found out last year the hard way. But it makes finding them all the more enjoyable or something like that. 

Gee, what a sappy ending.

More pictures here.