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From very dry to very wet: Aguirre and Carite

Updated: Feb 10, 2023

We are now well over the half-way mark of the field season which means we have all settled into a more or less efficient groove. Everyone has tasks they like to do and we (mostly) stick to the patterns we’ve engrained over the last six weeks. And I do a little bit of everything and make sure that everything happens when and where it needs to. Lots of organizing!


Last week, we were sampling in Guayama in the Aguirre state park. The forest was at sea level and our study sites abutted with mangroves—rubber boots, while hot, were definitely an asset! We all wear rubber boots—they help me feel invincible. The vegetation last week was very scrubby, trees were short, and many plants were covered in thorns. It was also ridiculously hot—our temperature sensors recorded highs of 39 degrees! Because of the heat, we were all exhausted, all the time.



This week, we’ve moved to Carite--slightly inland and up to 300m elevation. It feels very mountainous with very steep sided slopes and sharp hills. The airbnb we’re staying in feels remote—we’re perched on the side of a hill at the bottom of which is a stream and beautiful swimming spot.


Horrifyingly, there are arboreal tarantulas here, although I have yet to see one. Apparently, they make little hammocks out of silk and are all cute and fuzzy, like a Pixar character. I am skeptical. Regardless of the tarantulas, the sites this week have been beautiful and are all off a path to a swimming hole (Charco Azul). Very wet tropical forests with many, many lizards.


My daytime best for a survey this week was 62 lizards in a sampling session!! When there are this many individuals, surveys take about 4 hours, whereas last week (when I saw 11 lizards in a survey) surveys take about 2 hours. This is also the site where I acquiesced and used mosquito repellent for (maybe?) the first time in my adult life. The day that wore down my reluctance I had 115 mosquito bites after my survey. Surveys are ideal mosquito buffet time—we stand still and stare into space and then move a foot and stand still again. Queue clouds of mosquitos!


Natural history highlights include a sleeping hummingbird in its nest, nightjars roosting on my path to my survey plot at night, the ubiquitous coqui frogs, and seeing a sleeping Puerto Rican tody.



Next week is our last site of the field season. Incredible to believe that almost seven weeks have passed—I’m already sad to leave. And when I close my eyes I see lizards. Quite literally.


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