{"id":6,"date":"2005-02-17T16:32:25","date_gmt":"2005-02-17T20:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/2005\/02\/17\/nesting-crocs-and-killer-snaks\/"},"modified":"2012-05-04T10:16:28","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T14:16:28","slug":"nesting-crocs-and-killer-snaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/2005\/02\/17\/nesting-crocs-and-killer-snaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Nesting crocs and killer snaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

First off, a few more photos of the Chiva from my
\nbirthday.  <\/span>These are from Axel Haensson
\n(it was also his birthday\/leaving Panama
\nparty)<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

“Chiva group”<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Chiva dancing”<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

It has been an exciting last
\ncouple of weeks. <\/span>Santa
\n Maria, the last radio-collared agouti that hadn’t been
\neaten disappeared off the ARTS system. 
\n<\/span>None of the towers were picking up her radio-collar, and we had been
\ndebating whether we thought the radio-collar had malfunctioned or if she had
\nbeen eaten. Then early last week, one of the towers started to pick up her
\ncollar again, at a very low signal strength and constant direction.  <\/span>This meant that she was probably dead, and we
\nneeded to go recover her radio-collar, and whatever was left of her.  <\/span>Santa Maria
\nhad been a survivor, living over a year since she had been radio-collared.  <\/span>When we finally did pick up her signal with a
\nhand-held antenna and receiver, it was on mortality mode—the signal pulses were
\nfaster than in normal mode.  <\/span>The collars
\nare designed so that if they don’t move for a predetermined amount of time,
\nthey start emitting this mortality signal. 
\n<\/span>(This proved problematic when a sloth was radio-collared, and started
\nemitting the mortality signal within 1 day even though it wasn’t dead because
\nit hadn’t moved enough).<\/font><\/p>\n

Tom did find Santa
\n Maria’s radio-collar, along with a matted ball of fur
\nand some claws.  <\/span>He interpreted this to
\nmean that she had been eaten by a snake, because snakes can apparently digest
\neverything except hair and nails. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

I also found the remains of a
\nsloth while walking my fruit census. 
\n<\/span>Like with Santa Maria, there
\nwas a lot of fur, and some claws, but no bones. 
\n<\/span>I guess this means that we have at least one large snake on the island,
\nalthough no one has seen any really large boas in a really long time.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Because there is a lot more wind
\nin the dry season, a lot of the wind dispersed plants fruit at this time of
\nyear.  <\/span>There have been a lot of really
\ncool seeds floating around, including those of Tachegallia—the suicide
\ntree.  <\/span>This species is really cool
\nbecause it is a big, canopy tree that grows for decades, maybe even centuries,
\nnever fruiting.  <\/span>One year, once it has
\nbecome enormous, it flowers, produces thousands of wind dispersed seeds, and
\nthen dies.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

These are some of the fruits that
\nI found on my most recent fruit census. 
\n<\/span>The large green one on the bottom is Sterculia apetala.  <\/span>On the inside are a bunch of round seeds
\nabout 1 cm in diameter, which are surrounded by fiber-glass like hairs.  <\/span>When you try to pick the seeds out of the
\ncapsule, these hairs stab you, and you end up with hundreds of them stuck in
\nyour hands, which actually hurts quite a lot. 
\n<\/span>The capuchins, however, don’t seem to be bothered very much by these
\nsilica-hairs.  <\/span>They break open the
\ncapsules and eat the seeds without thinking twice about it.  <\/span>Sterculia reminds me a lot of the Neesia
\nfruit that grows in the peat swamps in Borneo.  <\/span>Neesia also has fiber-glass like hairs
\nprotecting its seeds, and when orangutans eat it, they use sticks as tools to
\navoid getting the hairs stuck in their hands. 
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are also two species of
\nVirola which are starting to drop fruit. 
\n<\/span>This is the red fruit in the green capsule on the right side of the
\nphoto.  <\/span>It is a relative of nutmeg.  <\/span>The white flower in the middle is from a
\npseudobombax tree, and the brown fuzzy thing at the top is in the same genus as
\nthe monkey-comb that I’ve talked about before (Apeiba).  <\/span>The capuchins are eating Lacmaellea (the
\nyellow fruit), and Chrysophyllum (the purple fruit below the yellow fruit)
\nright now, both of which taste pretty good. 
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

I also found this enormous seed
\npod in the field the other day!<\/font><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

This Ochroma (balsa tree) in the
\nlab clearing has been flowering for the last month, which has been really neat
\nbecause all kinds of animals eat its nectar. 
\n<\/span>One of the capuchin groups I study has been visiting at least once a day
\nto feed.  <\/span>Some nights they sleep right in
\nfront of my room, and feed in the Ochroma both in the early mornings and late
\nafternoons.  <\/span>Kinkajous, medium sized
\nnocturnal mammals, also eat balsa nectar, and we’ve been going out at night
\nwith large spot lights to see them. There is also a a large potoo that has been
\nhanging out near the balsa tree.  <\/span>Potoos
\nare large, nocturnal birds that look a bit like owls, but have an absolutely
\nblood freezing cry.  <\/span>One kinkajou
\nresearcher who worked alone at night in the forest apparently comforted himself
\nafter hearing a potoo call by saying “that sounds like a monster. . .but there
\nare no monsters in Panama.”  <\/span>It has also
\nbeen really interesting because several people looking for the kinkajous have
\nseen capuchin monkeys feeding in the Ochroma in the middle of the night.  <\/span>I should be able to use the ARTS data to look
\nat how often the capuchins are active after dark, and whether this correlates
\nwith food availability.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/font><\/p>\n

I had some really forgetful
\nmoments this month.  <\/span>After having an hour
\nof computer problems as I tried to print out data sheets, including multiple
\nphone calls between myself and the computer technicians in Panama
\n City, I finally got out to the forest and found my
\nmonkey group, only to realize that I had left my clipboard, with newly printed
\ndata sheets, in the lab.  <\/span>This was my
\nsolution, and in retrospect, I think it looks kind of cool.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

The other cool thing that has been
\ngoing on is that three crocodiles have laid eggs on the shore along the lab
\nclearing, so we’ve been seeing a lot of them.  
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“croc2”<\/font><\/p>\n

These are just some cool things
\nthat I saw on a walk yesterday:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/p>\n

It is a big week coming up for
\nme.  <\/span>Saturday is carnivalito—the island
\ncelebration of Carnival.  <\/span>Unfortunately
\nI’m not going to be able to play as much as I’d like, because Bob Lessnau
\narrives that day to help me radio-collar a few more monkeys.  <\/span>Its going to be a crazy week, and hopefully
\nI’ll have some interesting photos to share with you.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First off, a few more photos of the Chiva from my birthday.  These are from Axel Haensson (it was also his birthday\/leaving Panama party) “Chiva group” “Chiva dancing” It has been an exciting last couple of weeks. Santa Maria, the last radio-collared agouti that hadn’t been eaten disappeared off the ARTS system.  None of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1454],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crofootstories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/crofoot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}