Spiders are the stars of the forest

The volunteers left to right: Starr, Margot, Jorinde, Larissa, and me.

Spiders are the stars of the forest. Their eight eyes twinkle when you look at them with a headlamp. These days, I see a lot of spiders, especially on our hikes. We usually go on at least one hike per day, with different purposes: sometimes, the goal is simply to see animals, like on our nighthikes. I like hiking at night because you can see the reflections of animals' eyes, known as eyeshine. To me, it feels almost like having X-ray vision, this ability to see animals by their eyes. Of course, this is only possible with a good flashlight. I have a very nice flashlight, when it has sufficient batteries. However, my flashlight tends to go from almost full to almost empty with very little notice, which has resulted in a nightwalk where I spent the second half squinting at the ground, barely able to see my feet. Most nightwalks are filled with interesting animals however: we have seen opossums, a small deer, various frogs, silver vine snakes, anoles, sleeping lizards, tarantulas, and many insects. Other walks are done with the goal of finding and observing specific animals. There is a long-term study on spider monkeys going on here, and on Friday morning we set out to find them. After about 20 minutes of hiking, a falling fruit betrayed their presence! A loose group of three females, one with a baby, was resting and eating in the trees above. The individuals were familiar to Clemencia, and we spent the next 2.5 hours observing their behavior and taking data every 5 minutes. Every walk is an opportunity to see animals, but of course everyone is hoping to see the special animals: tapirs, jaguars, pumas, ocelots, anacondas, armadillos, etc. The researchers here have had several encounters with these animals, and from their stories, they make it sound like they've seen these animals many times. However, once you start to probe, you learn that the last jaguar sighting was actually about 2 years ago, and all the others are also quite rare. A few days ago, we saw a king vulture on one of our walks, which is a vulture with a very colorful head. Vultures eat dead animals, known as carrion, and we wondered if there was a dead animal nearby. Vultures very important for the health of ecosystems because they are the only animals that can process bacteria like anthrax or botulism, which are bacteria found in rotting flesh. The bacteria from the carrion is still present in their poop, but nothing touches vulture poop, and so those diseases are not spread around the ecosystem. A few days later, we went to see if we could find that dead animal and see what it was. However, it had mysteriously disappeared, and we were left speculating if something had eaten it in it's entirety or if it had fallen into the stream. We will likely never know. Part of my volunteering here is with the forest ranger project. This group of people works with various conservation concessions in the area, including LPAC. Their job is to patrol the trails and look for "invaders" (people who are trying to move into the forest to live there), as well as illegal hunters and loggers. They are not armed, and so if they find someone, their job is simply to inform them that this is private property and that they are trespassing. If further issues arise, they get the police involved at a later time. Another volunteer and I went on one of their patrols with them on Wednesday. We were walking through a forest that had been selectively logged about 40 years ago, and the forest looked and felt very different. The undergrowth was a lot denser, and something felt unsettled about it. This forest is also used for Brazil nut collection, which is quite a big industry here. It can be done without cutting the forest, because Brazil nut trees grow naturally in the forest. When they fall to the ground, people can go in and collect the pods, always leaving some behind for animals like agoutis. Talking to the forest rangers and learning about what they do and why was very interesting. They also only spoke Spanish, so I was forced to speak and understand Spanish, which I was also very thankful for. More and more I am able to differentiate between Spanish and Portuguese, and I'm beginning to believe that there really is room for both languages, separately, in my brain. I wish I could upload all of my animal photos, but uploading photos takes a long time, and I only have 30 minutes of Wi-Fi every other day or so. I'm actually really enjoying not having internet though: I definitely feel like all my interactions with people here are a lot more involved because people are not constantly pulled into their phones, myself included. I'm debating how I can apply this information to life in the modern world, but I haven't figured out a good way yet. All this time without internet leaves time for things like reading, playing games, and talking. I am currently reading The Handmaid's Tale, which I really like. I may just read it again once I finish, just to make sure I understood everything. Some of the volunteers here also made a game of Clue designed after LPAC. In Clue, the goal is to find out who did the murder, with what weapon, and where. In our version, there are people like "the intern", "the volunteer", "the cook", or "the camp manager"; weapons like "falling tree", "tapir skull", "machete", and "ocelot"; and places like "kitchen", "hammocks", "boathouse", and "jungle". Clue is a game of strategy and logic, which means that I am pretty good at it and also very much enjoy it. That's all for now! This blog is becoming like a journal nowadays, so I'll keep writing!