Summer camp, hikes and remote caverns...

Hi everyone, hope everything's good where you are. It's been a busy week as usual for the expedition. as we near the end of our time in Trinidad most of the main projects we've been running here are starting to wrap up, so that means lots of data collection and compiling, which means our brains have to run at full-steam! As well as keeping busy with things in the labs we've had plenty of time in the bush this week, with three climbing trips up Mt. Aripo alone. There still haven't been any sightings of those ever-elusive golden tree frogs, although we did find another frog in one of the bromeliads we looked in. This was a marsupial tree-frog, which is so-called because it carries its eggs in a special pouch on its body. We're not losing hope of seeing an example of one of the shiny frogs that we seek, as we've still some other sites that they might live in to visit, so fingers crossed! The multiple mountain hikes we took this week gave some of the usually more lab-bound members of the team a great chance to stretch their legs (a lot!), and it was nice to see that the once utterly exhausting hike was now merely exhausting! I guess we've all got a bit fitter since we've been working in the jungle.

Our temporary shelter at the top of the mountain.

As usual there were lots of fascinating things to see on the mountain, including a giant orb-weaving spider and a baby fer-de-lance.

The "cute" little viper had chosen a rather awkward position to sit (for us) as it was right on top of a log that we had no choice but to clamber over. We managed to gently move the wee snake with our machete and it slithered away with no harm done.

Not so nice, but still quite cool (in a gross way) was this tick we found...crawling up my neck. Luckily we spotted the beasty before it could try and bury it's mouthparts into me!

Aside from mountain-work this week Nina and I helped out at a Summer-camp that the Asa Wright Nature Centre was putting on for school kids. About twenty local children were there to learn a bit about animals and their environment, so we brought along some examples of local frog species and some of their nests for the kids to look at and even handle a little. We'd spent the previous night catching a monkey frog and another tree frog called crepitans to show the kids, as the monkey frog is quite a docile little creature and patient enough to deal with gentle handling.

A wee lassy checks out some tadpoles from one of our ponds at the research station.

Nina shows the kids some tadpoles

Me showing the kids a monkey-frog nest

Here's a video of the kids getting to know some of their frog neighbours. Unfortunately the video doesn't have any sound, but the kids' reaction to the cane toad we showed them speaks for itself!

It was great fun showing the kids the animals, most of which they didn't realize were from their own country, and it was good to teach them a little too, as a lot of people in Trinidad dislike or are frightened of frogs, as they think that they are poisonous (none of them here are!).
At the end of the week we went on an extended praying-mantis hunt for Dan's project to a place called Cumaca. There is a great big cave filled with oilbirds, which you might remember from one of our previous posts. The rock formations in the cave were really impressive, and it was worth the long journey, despite being down probably the bumpiest road I've ever seen!

We also found time to relax and soak up some local culture when a Trinidadian friend of Dan's came by with his steel-drum band to play us a few tunes, I hope you enjoy the video!

Until next time, take care!
Innes