| |
|
We spent about three hours on the trails of the park
with a sharp-eyed guide named William (don't let the
English name fool you, though--he's 100% Costa Rican
and has lived here all his life!). Some of the
below photos were taken through his telescope.
If you have a DSL or cable modem connection, all the
pictures should appear within ten seconds. If you have
a dialup connection, it may take up to a minute for
all the photos to appear.
Once all the photos appear, you can scroll down and view
them, or use the Table of
Contents here to jump to specific sections:
|
|
|
|
Three-Toed Sloth
In the tropical heat, you don't want to move too much--kinda
like this three-toed sloth, who William spotted near the
park entrance. The photo at right was actually taken through
a low-power telescope--a miniature of the original photo is
below.
|
|
Back to TOC ^
|
|
Anteater
Before this tour, I had always figured anteaters--called
"oso hormigueros" (ant bears) in Spanish--to be
fairly clumsy ground-dwellers. Apparently not; the one
at right was easily negotiating branches 20-30 feet off
the ground.
|
|
Back to TOC ^
|
Wild Plants
Just ask Karen how impressed I am with the size of some
tropical plants--she's had enough of hearing me admire their
hugeness. The photo at right is a good example
(but certainly not the largest leaf we saw on the tour!).
Also, the flower shown below is pretty sizeable as well
as beautiful. It's about half a meter from top to bottom.
|
|
The plants shown below patiently wait (what else is there to
do when you've got roots?) for a poor critter to crawl
along their leaves. They snap shut and release enzymes that
digest the bodies. Oh, the irony--a carnivorous plant! The
grey box on the right side of the picture shows some leaves
that I tickled shut with a stick.
|
|
|
Here, Karen is sporting a new nose ring! Actually, it's the seed
of a plant that has an amazing ability to stick to almost anything.
At first touch, the seeds just feel sticky as if they are covered
with sap or something. But closer inspection reveals a coat of
very small hooks that cover the outside of the seed. The structure
of the hooks reportedly inspired the invention of velcro.
Aside from being a convenient way to wear cheap jewelry, it also
enables the plant to spread its seeds
far and wide by hitching rides on passing animals.
|
A closeup of some useful plants here: The leftmost bud is from a
a type of pepper plant. Natives would use it to flavor their
food by pinching the buds between their fingers to release
tiny grains of pepper (you can barely see a few grains just
to the right of the bud). The berry on the top is from a cintronella
plant--rub it on your skin for a natural bug repellent. The
leaf on the right can be recognized by it's distinct watermelon-like
smell, and is loaded with vitamin K, which assists the blood in
clotting. A centuries-old remedy for preventing excessive
bleeding is to wrap these leaves around cuts or scratches.
|
|
Back to TOC ^
|
Our Guide
The tour would not have been the same without our guide,
William.
Without him, a walk through the park would be merely
a stroll through some mildly interesting vegetation, with a small
chance of seeing an animal now and then.
With a guide, it is transformed into a eye-opening,
educational experience: He was able to
tell us about the plants we saw, and had amazingly sharp eyes.
Typically, he would walk along, eyeing the forest
carefully. Then he would stop and set up his telescope while
we fruitlessly scanned the trees for what he was aiming
at. Then we would take turns looking through the telescope,
say "oh, THAT'S where it is!" (a bird, crab, lizard, spider,
sloth, whatever), but even when we looked again with bare
eyes, it was still hard to find in the vegetation.
At right, William is scanning the left side of the path
for our next jungle wonder.
|
|
|
Back to TOC ^
|
Leafcutter Ants
One of my personal favorites was the leafcutter ants. Although
they're not quite as fun to watch as monkeys, their social structure
is fascinating: the ant society requires at least five types
of ants to work together to survive.
Below is a stream of ants consisting of three types out of
the five: the leaf carriers, leaf cleaners and soldiers.
Below that is a closeup of the three types. These ants are
almost completely blind and find their way across the forest
floor by following scent trails laid by other ants. They can
reliably travel up to 300 meters away from the nest by
following the "scent highways". They
also seem to be continually colliding with each other, but
in reality, they are meeting up and quickly brushing
their antennae over other to detect hormones that communicate
simple messages ("food this way", "we're being attacked",
etc.).
|
|
At right is a closeup of the three types of ants that venture
outside of the nest: the medium-sized ant has the job of
cutting and carrying the leaf peices. The large one is a
soldier ant that protects the stream of ants, and can deliver
a bite that can cut through skin with it's sharp jaws.
The small one is an ant that cleans the leaves to ensure
that unwanted mites and aphids are not carried back to the nest.
|
|
Unfortunately, we can't see the most remarkable part of the
interaction, which occurs underground back at the nest.
The leaf carriers pass the peices on to other ants that
cut the leaves into even smaller peices. The leaves are
then packed into balls ranging in size from a tennis ball
to a as large as a soccer ball. These balls of fermenting
leaves serve as soil for a specific type of mold that the
ants derive their nutrition from--they don't eat the leaves
directly for nutrition, rather, they create underground
mold farms to create their food!
They mold is then harvested by a fifth type of ant, a
minuscule one that travels in and out of the leaf balls
through tiny passageways. They gather the mold and bring it
out to feed to all the other types of ants that are unable
to travel into the leaf balls due to their size.
|
|
Back to TOC ^
|
|
|
Jesus Lizard
Here's a part of a photo taken through a telescope of the infamous
"Legarto Jesus," or Jesus Lizard. It earns it's name for it's ability
to run across water using it's webbed feet to
sprint over the surface. Unfortunately, we couldn't see this guy
in action, he was just chilling in the shade on this particular day.
The picture isn't very good because of the lighting and the fact
that I didn't have the camera lined up well to take the photo
through the telescope.
|
|
|
Back to TOC ^
|
|
|
White-Faced Monkeys
Okay, I saved the best part for last: the white faced
monkeys that roam the trees near the park's beautiful
beaches provide endless entertainment. Don't leave
your food unattended, these rascals will grab it and
run off! One day when I was napping at the beach,
Karen saw one grab a rather large plastic package of
crackers I had brought and scurry off with it under
his arm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour
of the tropical forest. I didn't get photos of everything we saw
due to lighting conditions and the fact that I ran out of batteries,
but we've got more to share from Karen's camera when we see you
in person. Also, stay tuned from more wildlife photos
photos (including an even better batch of monkey photos!)
from the Damas Island tour Karen and I went on yesterday.
|
Back to TOC ^
|
