An update from the jungle

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Dear All,

Hope this finds you well and dandy. So what have I been up to in the last few weeks. A few volunteers left last month and we had a handful of new ones arrive - Kathrine, Benedict and Jessica. They love Ian's porridge but are undecided about getting stuck in the mud on monkey surveys....especially when they don't see any monkeys either.

After a few days rest out of the jungle (when I last posted some pictures) we got back into the jungle and the interns (including me) were hit with a list of tasks to complete in addition to carrying out surveys and preparing ourselves to start to lead some surveys to! More of that later. In relation to animals and bird spotting, the new volunteers (and interns) were treated to a trip on the motor boat so the new volunteers could start practising their bird ID skills. They were much better than us when we first arrived. Sneaking up on Kingfishers is not an easy task with an outboard motor but Kingfishers were spotted whizzing in front of and along the side of the boat (fish caught nicely between the bill). As always the canal did not disappoint when it came to Little Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Green Herons and Tri-coloured Herons but I have yet to see the Purple Gallinule, a Reddish Egret or even a Green Ibis 😞

In the jungle however I have been lucky enough to see some some different mammals. Two tyra (on two different occasions), a Paka and a Central American Agouti. All of these were on different incidental surveys walking along North Trail. There was also some flying (yes flying) Green Climbing Toads when Jacob inadvertently flicked the large palm the Toad was sitting on when he clambered down from the inside of a tree (yes I do mean inside).

In non-related survey life in the jungle Sarah and Sophia (the new staff members for one month) arranged a two team relay race with beans on spoons and water carried in bowls on heads competition. All in the name of fun what followed was some friendly banter, cheering and a few wet heads, faces and shoulders.

We also had to replace the wooded mile markers on the beach (part of Sea Turtle Conversation) requirements). This involved taking the recently painted white large wooden posts, digging holes in the sand and placing the markers firmly in position (three in a row). Just two blisters on the thumb from my digging efforts!

This month I was also part of the group that spotted a White-nosed Coati (again on North Trail). It sat for a good while so we were able to take some photos and also 'pose' for some shots on Facebook which some of you may have seen if following the GVI Facebook pages. It was also my first go at leading a survey. Thankfully, Kat was supervising and I was with two brilliant interns Peter and Cyrille. No snakes spotted and I managed to avoid or see the spiders webs before walking into them.

February was also the month I completed my first long jag walk. The long jag walk consists of getting up about 5am, walking 14.5 miles along the beach towards Tortuguero village. The purpose of the survey is to look for jag prints, turtle prints, jag prints coming onto or leaving the beach and (when it happens) any dead turtles and if they have been killed by a Jaguar! There is usually 5 people in the survey and each person has a task to complete for 3 miles before swapping with someone else in the team. The team is spread relatively evenly across the beach from the edge of the jungle towards the sea. The idea being there is only a 1 to 2 meter gap between each person as we 'comb' the beach looking for tracks. The roles are split as follows: one person walks right next to the vegetation (into the jungle) and checks for jaguar prints going into and out of the beach, the second person has the GPS. They monitor how far we walked (especially when there are no mile markers to tell us). If a jag print is located either entering/leaving the beach they also take the GPS co-ordinates of the 'entry/exit' onto (or leaving) the beach. The third person has the notebook and enters the information as we find it. The fourth person looks for turtle tracks and dead turtles and the fifth person 'rests'. They still have to walk along with the rest of us but they can walk a little bit behind and chose which bit of the beach to walk along. Everyone looks for jag tracks and we mark if they are present/absent for each half mile travelled. My first long jag walk was with Kat, Renato, Julia and Zoe. We did not see any dead turtles or in fact any turtle tracks but close to mile 10/9 of the beach there was a Red Brocket Deer close to the vegetation but on the sand looking directly at us. It stayed for a good 30 seconds whilst I tried to grab my camera to take a camera and then vanished. Everyone saw it though....the first I had seen since arriving in Jalova. For my first jag walk, we set out at 5.45am (the dawn fast approaching and no need to have head torches on). We walked on the beach down to mile 18 and set off. My first task was walking by the vegetation and checking for any exits and entries. None found and we managed a good pace. In fact we reached the half way point in just a few hours. This was good as the sun was firmly up by then and it was getting hot. The last 3 miles I was on the GPS so I could see as we approached every half mile until the end of our destination mile 3.5 on the beach and the village just a few hundred yards away. We arrived about 11.30am in the morning - sandy, hot and tired. Glad it was over, pleased to have seen the Red Brocket Deer and thankful for the ice cream sundae at the bakery in the village!

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