Night Symphony

Chirp, creak, hum, buzz, screech.  Whoever said the forest is a quiet, peaceful place has never tried to fall asleep on BCI.  In a room enveloped by trees the raucous symphony playing outside our windows often makes sleep elusive.   As soon as the lights go out, the night swells with the music of a congregation of astonishing new voices.

Creeping from the forest’s silhouette, the night brings out a new cast of players.

Every inch of the forest is alive and the more intently I listen, the more life I hear.  Buzzing insects; screeching bats, tiny chirping tungara frogs; mammals rustling in the leaves on the forest floor; the whispered wing beats of night birds.  Even the robust hammering of rain pellets against my roof, and the ticks, snaps, and thuds of distant branches falling to the ground or on the roofs of buildings, fill the night with their steamy melody.

Of the 120 mammal species found on BCI, it’s the 72 species of bats that rule the night.

Everything moves.  Everything breathes.  Everything is animated with music and energy.  Listen long enough and the weary trekker, nestled in the cocoon of her bed, begins to appreciate the lullaby of the always-awake jungle symphony. 

- Katrina Macht

Recycling in the Rainforest

While hiking in the forest, my friends Jackie and Erika came upon this intact skeleton of an ocelot.  There are so many organisms on BCI that are decomposers that it only takes a few weeks for the remains of a dead animal to be recycled.  Many animals, large and small, benefit from another animal’s demise.  Turkey vultures (very large birds) might be first on the scene, followed by smaller creatures and finally the microscopic decomposers arrive to finish the decomposition process.  This is Mother Nature’s way of reusing and recycling nutrients. 

Finding a skeleton also allows scientists to study lifestyle and eating habits of this ocelot.  Jackie was surprised when she looked inside its mouth and found several missing or broken teeth, especially the important large canines that ocelots use to catch their prey and the carnassal teeth that are used for tearing their food like a pair scissors.  Notice in the photo that the eye sockets are both in the front of the skull.  This is a good indication that this predator had good stereoscopic vision.

- Fran Zakutansky

Perfect Camouflage - Both Shape and Coloration

As we walked home from dinner last night, my friend, Anna spotted this strange creature hanging from the white railing along the path.  This is the largest walking stick that I have ever seen!  Five of its legs are holding on to the railing, the sixth leg is dangling off to the right.  Having six legs is one of the characteristics that tells you that this animal is an insect. Its head is right next to the tip of Anna’s middle finger and its long tail is hanging straight down.

Thank goodness this walking stick decided to hang out on the railing rather than in a tree.  We never would have spotted it in a tree!  Notice that it is shaped like a thin branch of a tree and it also has the perfect mottled coloration to look like a twig or branch.  Nature creates well-adapted creatures for survival and this is one of my favorites!

- Fran Zakutansky

Frog on a Raft

Frog on a raft

I was out walking in the rainforest and came up to a shallow pond.  As I looked carefully in the pond, I saw thousands of cute little tadpoles swimming around.  As I walked around the pond, I saw the coolest thing.  It looked like a white foam raft about the size of the palm of my hand and sitting pretty on top of the raft was a very small, but adorable frog.  Take a look at the photo.  The frogs make this foam raft by kicking their feet in the water as they release a liquid.  The mother (female) frog lays her eggs into the middle of the raft.

The floating raft is a good adaptation to protect the eggs from hungry predators, prevents them from dehydrating, and protects them from parasites and bacteria.  It’s convenient that the eggs hatch into tadpoles right in the water where the tadpoles swim.  After the tadpoles hatch, the foam disintegrates (it is biodegradable).  After a few weeks, the tadpoles start growing legs and lose their tails and become adult frogs and they look like the frog in the photo perching on top of the foam.

- Fran Zakutansky

Jaws and Claws

Every year when I travel to Barro Colorado Island one specific theme emerges amidst all the astonishing sights and sounds of the forest.

The story begins at boat docks of Barro Colorado Island.

The year of the trogon, the year of the monkey, the year of the tamandua.  This is definitely the year of the crocodile.  I should have known that crocs were going to take center stage when the first animal I saw stepping off the boat was a small mama stretched out on the lake bank, catching the last of the sun’s rays.  My one-woman welcoming committee.

Little Mama Crocodile is quite the welcoming committee.

But “Little Mama” in no way prepared me for what was to come.  Of course I already know crocodiles are mighty predators, and since hunting them was banned in 2000, their numbers have increased exponentially.  I also know this is nesting season for both crocs and iguanas, which doesn’t bode well for the iguanas.  Still no amount of prior knowledge prepared me for what I was about to witness.  A once-in-a-lifetime predation event – at least once in my lifetime.

It all began unceremoniously enough.  As I was relaxing on the balcony of one of the laboratory buildings after a late afternoon hike in the forest, I spied a hefty crocodile near the boat docks on the opposite side of a mesh fence constructed around the perimeter of this part of the island.  We’ll call her Bertha, and Bertha was one big, bad, mean and ugly looking crocodile.

Duuun dun duuun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun…

Just a few meters away, on the ramp leading down to the boat docks, was a solitary iguana, seemingly unaware that a flimsy fence was all that stood between her and certain death.  We’ll call her Iggy.

Innocent Iggy prior to the incident.

I hadn’t yet seen any iguanas this visit and was eager to capture a photo of her.  Stealthily, I crept down the sidewalk leading to the docks, digitally memorializing the moments with every step I took.  Inching my way closer and closer to Iggy, Bertha suddenly shot straight up in the air, seizing a totally different iguana on her side of the fence.  As she rose up I saw Iggy’s cousin hanging out from either side of her jaws before she dove into the lake with her new found prey.

One less iguana on the banks of BCI.

Everything happened so fast; I thought Bertha was coming over that fence for sure and either Iggy or I were goners.  What a total surprise to see in her grasp an iguana I never knew was there.

Diving into the lake to enjoy a tasty late afternoon iguana snack. 

Iggy looked “all shook up.”  After Bertha disappeared into the water she cautiously leaned over the far side of the dock ramp, peering into the water below.

What just happened here?

About that same time I heard a rustle in the leaves at the water’s edge and saw two or three more iguanas hustling up the stalks of the Heliconia, trying to get as high up and as far away from Bertha as they could. 

One iguana sacrificed so the others can live and nest another day. 

Big Bertha remains a formidable force of which to be wary.

- Katrina Macht

Look at those leaves

There are over 300 different types (species) of trees on this small island called Barro Colorado Island (it’s less than 3 miles across), located in the middle of the Panama Canal. 

Cecropia tree

The tree in this photo (Cecropia) has very distinctive lobed leaves.  Can you count how many lobes each leaf has?  Cecropia flowers and leaves are favorite food of kinkajous. 

Kinkajou Photo Source:   www.bite.ca (Photo of the Month:Kinkajou)

Kinkajous are very cute tan furry nocturnal mammals with big eyes, but I would not want a kinkajou as a pet because they like to sleep during the day and stay up at night!

- Fran Zakutansky

Antlion

Antlion Pits

As I was coming back to my home (for the next week, anyway), I saw many little ditches in the dry, sandy dirt near my door.  They were different sizes, but all perfectly formed.  These must be antlion pits (see photo).  The antlion is the larval (baby) form of a lacewing insect.  They are sometimes called doodlebugs because of the designs that they make in the sandy soil as they are looking for a good place to dig their pit).  An antlion looks a like a chubby pillbug with giant pincher jaws.  The antlion uses these massive pinchers to toss sand from the bottom of its pit (sandy ditch) to make the walls so steep that when an ant steps just over the edge of the pit, it slides down the sandy wall and right into the waiting jaws of the antlion.


Take a look at this cross-section photo (from dk images) of an antlion who just captured an ant in its pit. When this happens, the antlion kicks a spout of sand from the bottom of the pit. 

You can see the antlion at work in this video. Look carefully to see its giant jaws doing the digging and tossing. As antlions grow larger, they make larger pits. I bet when I return tomorrow that pit will be all repaired and the antlion will be at the bottom, with jaws protruding, waiting for its next meal.

- Fran Zakutansky