La Selva Biological Station

La Selva: A True Tropical Forest

This excursion was the first field study I had for Tropical Ecology. We left from the central park around noon on Saturday, September 28. It was about a 3 hour drive through really windy roads until we got there. La Selva is located in Sarapiqui, close to the Caribbean Coast. 

Once we got there, I could tell right away that it was gonna be a really hot and sticky weekend. I was warned that this area is more like a rainforest than what we have seen so far, and my professor was right. It was about 90°F with like 100% humidity. We arrived late afternoon, so we were given about an hour to put our stuff in our rooms and hang out before our professor showed us around little bit. The rooms were similar to like cabins at a summer camp, with 3 bunk beds and no A.C.. I roomed with my friends Maddie and Cierra, so I was completely ok with the arrangements. 

Before our first walk with our professor, a lot of us started exploring a little on our own. There was a suspension bridge that separated the lodging area with the rest of the park. On the bridge, there was a family of howler monkeys all around.  This was really cool because they were walking all around us. Soon after, our professor called us back to start our walk.

At this time, it was like 4:30 and starting to get a little dark. She took us through where the researchers live when they are there. She explained that researchers could stay anywhere from one week to a year and they come from all over the world to study the park. Here was saw peccaris, which are kind of like small wild pigs. We continued on a path into the forest. We didn't get very far because we only had about an hour until we had to be back for dinner and it was getting dark. However, during the walk we saw lots of poison dart frogs, ants, spiders, and other insects. Our professor also spent time pointing out different plant species and explaining biological interactions. I really liked that she did this because there is a lot going on in the forest all the time and I wouldn't normally pay attention to a lot of it. 

Strawberry poison dart frog

At 7:00, after a buffet style dinner, we went on a night hike with our professor and one of the park's biologists. They split us up in two groups because we weren't allowed to have groups bigger than 10 people, so I went with the biologist. During the hike, we went on a few different trails all over the park. It was dark, so I didn't really know where we were going. During the night hike, we saw a large variety of amphibians, insects, and bats. Overall we saw green tree frogs, toads, a slug eater snake, bullet ants, spiders, and a skunk. I was ecstatic to see a green tree frog, since it is so iconic to Costa Rica. However, after we saw the first one, we crossed this bridge over marshland and saw dozens of them. It must have been mating season too, because all the froggies were "paired up".  The whole time we heard different noises that were blaringly loud. We were told that they were mostly cicadas and frogs. Around 9:00, we ended our tour and got ready for bed. 

Mating season? The female is the bigger one on the bottom

The next morning, after a 7:00 am breakfast, we went on our second guided hike. This time it was in the daylight, which means we got to see different animals. This hike was also longer than the other one, so we walked slower and got the chance to see more. We were supposed to go to the old growth forest, but we never actually got there. Along the way however, we saw more peccaris- this time with a baby, an agouti, toucans, both types of sloths, black river turtles, a caimen, an eyelash pit viper, tons of strawberry poison dart frogs, a green and black poison dart frog, a fer de lance snake, more howler monkeys with babies, white tent bats, basilisk, and hummingbirds. My favorite ones were the white tent bats (because they were very little and sleeping so they looked super cute), the eyelash put viper, and the caimen. This trip was very cool in terms of seeing wildlife. Since the purpose of this field trip is to observe the biodiversity in the region, I'd say it was successful. 

Baby Fer de lance. Most venomous snake in Costa Rica 

After the hikes, we packed up, ate lunch, then headed home. The trip was super fun, but I definitely was happy to see my shower when I got home. 

More pictures:

Red eye tree frog

Froggy

Wolf Spider

Toucan through binoculars

Basilisk lizard

Green and black poison dart frog

Me being cute on the suspension bridge

White tent bats