Climbing for frogs

Greetings from the expedition climbing team. In week one I promised you that I'd tell you more about our exploration of the Northern Range, Trinidad. Several thousand years ago (estimates range from 1000 - 4000 years ago) Trinidad was not an island, it was connected to mainland South America (to what is now Venezuela) so the Northern Range was probably once part of a larger mountain range. In geological time Trinidad is still very young and active, and as a result the mountains of the Northern Ridge are still growing in height. The first thing you'd notice about the Northern Range is that it is beautifully lush, displaying every shade of green you can imagine.

Like all mountain ranges it affects the climate, making northern Trinidad wetter and more humid than mid - southern Trinidad.
The first mountain we climbed was Morne Bleu, the third highest ridge on the island. It is important to set off early. The morning is cooler for walking in and we need plenty of time to climb trees when we reach the top and enough time to get off the mountain before nightfall. It gets dark at around 19:00 every night here because we are very close to the equator. We set off at around 07:30 and when we reached the summit we were concerned by how dry it was. The rainy season was a little late in getting started and the leaf litter was crunchy underfoot, which is most unusual in a rainforest! Mud and glistening, wet leaf litter (which is extremely slippery to walk on and leads to many slips and tumbles) is much more common. Sean accidentally trod on a small coral snake (Micrurus circinalis), one of the three highly venomous snakes that live in Trinidad. They usually aren't dangerous though because their mouths are too small to bite us. Neither Sean or the coral snake were harmed and we watched the snake glide away into the leaf litter.
The trees here are taller than the trees I've climbed in the UK. It is vital to select the correct type of tree to climb. Some species are soft wood which is not safe to climb, others shed their branches during heavy downpours of rain, some are being eaten from the inside by termites, others have damaged root systems. Luckily we know what we're looking for and are always safety conscious. Around half way up the tree I reached a small clearing in the canopy, the view I had from there was stunning. I could see for miles, all the way to the sea, with a slight shimmer of heat haze over the whole scene. Despite our best laid plans and early start we were still descending when darkness fell. We have head torches and, to my mind, the jungle is an interesting place at night simply because you can see creatures you don't see during the day. By the end of the day we felt tired and glad to have made it home safely.
Living in the bromeliads we examined we found many spiders, including a tarantula and a wolf spider, various beetle larva, woodlice, cockroaches.

Essentially we found a wide variety of insects, which is especially great for Dan as he's an entomologist, but no golden tree frogs or tadpoles.

The golden tree frog is endemic to Trinidad, it is found nowhere else on earth, and it is critically endangered. Climate change makes the future of the golden tree frog even more uncertain. That is why we are so keen to find them and to make a record of their current range.
Our next climbing adventure took us to El Cerro Del Aripo (a.k.a. Aripo). It is the highest ridge on Trinidad. Knowing this made us feel slightly apprehensive since climbing Morne Bleu had been tough. In addition to climbing we are carrying heavy rucksacks, over rough terrain in a hot, humid climate none of us are yet used to. However we all like a challenge! As usual we set off early. The whole team came along for the trek, rather than just the climbers who had decided to camp at the summit. It was a difficult climb, mainly due to the weight of the climbing and camping equipment required. Suffice to say that it was the first and only time the whole team climbed a mountain together and that the climbers camped at the summit! Since then we've streamlined the amount of equipment we carry, e.g. by not camping we don't require a tent etc, and are now able to ascend and descend in one day in parties of 3 or 4. It is working well. We have found some incredible things inhabiting the bromeliads on Aripo, such as 3 species of scorpion and a fantastic, brown gecko.

We were excited to find damselfly larva in a bromeliad because they predate tadpoles (golden tree frog tadpoles perhaps?) and to find a crab because our own Professor Downie thinks that these crabs may compete with golden tree frogs for bromeliads given that crabs and golden tree frogs have been found in bromeliads adjacent to one another. The one frog we have found in a bromeliad is the marsupial tree frog. It, like the golden tree frog, is endemic to Trinidad and Tobago. All endemic species in Trinidad are endangered, even those that are locally common, because Trinidad and Tobago are small islands so in the event of a natural disaster, such as a massive earthquake or hurricane, the endemic species could easily be wiped out.
We've had a few close encounters with Fer-de-Lance on Aripo. Once when we got too close and Dan stood on one (they are very well camouflaged and difficult to spot) the Fer-de-Lance flicked its tail from side to side, like a rattlesnake which is a classic warning given prior to a (potentially fatal) strike.
In summary, we still haven't found a golden tree frog or tadpoles on this expedition (Dan has found them on previous expeditions) however we continue to search for them and would love to write in the next blog entry that we've found one (or more!) In the meantime we enjoy climbing the ridges, climbing the trees and noting all the weird and wonderful life forms inhabiting the bromeliad Glomeropitcairnia erectiflora.



You may have noticed we left out the second highest ridge, El Tucuche. I can assure you we very much hope to climb there soon and will certainly let you know when we do. Although El Tucuche isn't as high as Aripo the climb is longer. Let's hope we're rewarded with a golden tree frog find, yet even if not we'll still be thrilled to discover whatever we discover...!
Bye for now
the climbing team (and their wonderful helpers!)

PS - Here's a video that we wanted to upload a few weeks ago, but were unable to due to technical difficulties/internet-gremlins. It's the little High-woods coral snake we found near one of the ponds at the research station. It was a lovely wee snake, so we were keen to let you see it.