A Reason to Worry

Maggots in my petri dish of fungus from an egg!

Fungus from a turtle's cloaca

This is Diego.  He is a catcoon...Literally,he thinks he is a cat. He comes when called and will come up and touch you beging for food. He even patrols the site with our guards.

Hatchlings that hatched during the day and were rescued from unleashed dogs

Part of the beach after clean up.
The rest of the beach that has not been cleaned up. This has caused many turtles to turn around or try and nest too low. It is also difficult for the hatchlings to cross.

I've finally started plating my samples and trying to start identifying bacteria. I have 30 samples to date, which is incredibly exciting considering how many turtle we missed this summer and how many ridleys we are continuing to miss.  Especially now that the leatherbacks are around and they take priority. However, I have made it through my first 15 samples and only found 6 that were for sure not contaminated.   I also found 3 that may or may not be contaminated, so I'll probably find out when I plate those. I, however, also have to be very careful with contamination in the lab because I found maggots on a plate which is never good for a microbio project. Fortunately that plate was only a practice from a contaminated sample. Now I make sure to seal the plates to keep out flies...So gross! Other than that, not much has happened here. We just got done with our third group of volunteers and have one lady coming tomorrow. The place is starting to get packed with other researchers, randoms, volunteers, and people coming from Panamana because they are starting a leatherback project there,for ridleys, on an arribada beach. We just had 2 people back out for Thanksgiving, but I'm ok with that...more stuffing for me if someone can make it tasty. There really is not much else to write about, so I'll just posted pics.