La Chica Enferma

There has been a ton of excitment on the beach since I have written. Most notably has been the fact that I saw my first leatherback this season (I was begining to wonder if this would ever happen)! Infact, I have now been able to work on three since last I wrote, two of which were with the tourists around, which can be frustrating. Also, on a much sadder note, we had a ridley stranding and there was nothing we could do for her. She finally died after two days of being stranded on the sand.

I know that all of you are curious about the leatherback, so let me try to explain the extreme wonder and excitement, however, I'm pretty sure I can't. I was fortunate enough to get to count the eggs of the second leatherback, since I find this job the most exciting because you get to see all the action, this is what I will talk about. The second we stepped on the beach we received a phone call from the park guard stating that there was a turtle 300m down the beach. Both patrol groups decided to go to the turtle so that the newbies could be trained on proper protocol, especially when dealing with guides and tourists. As the egg counter I was able to lay down right behind the turtle and watch the whole process at eye level. The best I can describe the nest chamber digging is as a meticulous alternation of flippers that strain down 70cm and create a scoop-like bowl to create the upsidedown lightbulb shape of the egg chamber. The flippers themselves kind of remined me of baby elephant ears in color and texture, but are so soft and smooth.These massive flippers move back and forth for 20 minutes digging further down until the chamber is deep enough. At this point she drops one flipper into the nest to hide the dropping eggs. This, of course, is challenging for an egg counter, but fortunately biologists and their volunteers are allowed to touch the turtle. I was permitted to used my hand with the egg counter to pull back her massive flipper which is draped like a curtain hiding the eggs just so I could count them. This isn't always easy though, she is very strong! Often times she knocked my hand out of the way when she was contracting, making it impossible to get an accurate count. I guess I'll have to start lifting weights again to get into turtle working shape...Who knew? Her carapace (top shell) was about a meter and a half long and a meter wide (mom you might have to draw this on your white board so your students can see and add a basketball-sized head and another foot worth of back flippers). I hope this paints an image of how big they are. This turtle wasn't even a large one! Apparently back in the times of poachers and before Las Baulas was a national park, full grown men used to crawl on their backs and ride or surf them down the beach. Now there is practically no poaching on the beach and the tourist must have guides, thus turtle surfing has been eliminated on this beach. Hovered around this turtle was a group of 15-18 tourists at all times, separated into two groups, thus a little over 30 people watching her nest, plus two guides and the 3 biologists. Needless to say, working on a turtle can get hectic.Now on to the poor turtle who was stranded on our beach. She just showed up ne night, we all thought she was dead, but at 3pm the next day some of the other biologists went to take pictures and noticed she was breathing and ocassionally lifting her head. Apparently there is an animal rescue facility a little over 2 hours away, but they are not really a turtle rescue and have limited space. We called the National Park office and they told us there was nothing we could do. That night I patrolled that end of the beach and kept walking by her poor pathetic body that was exhausted and had given up. She finally died about 3am after getting washed out to sea, tossed around by the waves, and spit out back on shore at least three times. They are just now going out to bury her, but it is so sad! Apparently 30 ridleys have also washed up on the Arribada beach to the south, though I do not know if they were alive or dead.Sorry I have no pictures for this post

Minibadda

The bakery comes to our house, and is the only time we get desserts.

Kimmy and I at Rip Jacks the night of the minibadda.

Playa Grande

Look at this Caterpillar!!!

The ridleys are here! Thanks goodness, this getting a turtle every couples of days and maybe/maybe not getting a sample has been ridiculous. So far we have had three leatherbacks on Playa Grande and three more on Playa Ventanas (pretty amazing since there is no good spot to nest there). It's nice to finally collect some samples, however they are still doing a pretty darn good job at avoiding me. For instance, Friday night was my night off and Kim and I went for cocktails at Rip Jack's, and then six turtles popped up on Grande and two more on Ventanas...Jerks! Fortunately, my awesome team collected three samples for me! This was the most ridleys that have come to nest on one night in the past two years. Since arribadas call for 100 turtles in the night, we call this a minibadda, because it seems like a lot to us. Side note: I am also the only person on the team who was yet to see a leatherback this season, so it's not just the ridleys avoiding me.

On another possitive note, I managed to order some more supplies. Now I'm just waiting on sheep's blood for my agar (Microbio stuff...It's really not as gross as that just sounded). Fingers crossed I can actually get started on my anaylsis in November, before the peak of leatherback season and we have even less time.

Other than that, not much has happened the past week; I saw my first coati, tree full of black-headed trogons, and the guard, Joaquin, found an awesome Hercules beetle that flew away before I could get a picture. Yesterday there was a ridley that hatched in the day, but once again Kim and I missed that adventure because we were still trying to set up the hatchery. Our website is finally up, so you can all check that out at http://www.goldringmarinestation.org/.

145 Days till I'm back in the states!

Unhatched Ridley

Fungus growing on eggs



Happy to complete my first data set!

Turning sand over in the hatchery (don't let Jacob fool you, I dug 95% of that a meter deep!)

Baby seal from back home (just love this pic)

So much has taken place since the last time I have written a blog. It all started with my computer crashing while I was still in Costa Ric.  Then too few turtles came to justify staying, so I got to go home for a whole month! I hear September is the peak of ridley season, so it seemed like an odd time to leave, but I'm not allowed on the beach by myself, and Tera was going home because 10months of turtling in such a small town is just too much! I have to say the break was very much needed and gave me a chance to get home, get a new computer, get a bunch of chores done, and see family and friends. Unfortunately, I arrived home sick and got sick again just a short time later, needless to say, home was not as productive as I would have liked, but it was home.

Trying to get back into Costa Rica was a mess. three of the 7 of us got stopped at the airport where they would not let us on a plane because we did not have documentation saying that we were leaving the country within the 90 days required to avoid needing visas...out of the 20 something years they have been patrolling the beach, this has never been an issue.  Figures I would be the first person to run into this problem. I had to buy a refundable ticket back to the states for within the 90 days just to be able to leave the states. I met up with everyone 2 flights later in Atlanta where our plane promptly broke down and we didn't take off until what would have been our touch down time, but I made it. I don't know if it's good or bad, but the second I got here it was like I never left and the past month was just a dream...Obviously, not the case.

Our first night back all three types of turtles came up and nested and 2 nests hatched, however, we were all sleeping (or in my case just curled up in bed wide awake thinking about everything that must get done). The next night we had 2 turtles, one nested the other didn't, but I was able to work with both. I forgot how great it feels to work on turtles since it had been so long since I worked on one.  Iit takes about 3 nights of patrolling with no turtles for the "turtle buzz" to wear off and you begin to question your presence on the beach. Two nights ago we had 3 ridleys, but due to the fact that only Tera and myself are trained/permitted to work with them, only 2 were sampled. We ran down the beach to catch the other turtle in time to collect some samples. This means that in the 3 days I was back I doubled the amount of samples taken all summer. One of the nests that hatched was one of the turtles I sampled in August. We excavated the nest and I was able to sample the unhatched eggs, thus completing my first full sample set!!! Only about 29 to go (I only need 19 more, but I'm aiming for 30). More importantly, I think I have gotten my hands on the rest of my materials, so maybe by next month I can start the lab work part of my project...or send my samples to the lab that will ID fungus for me for only $6-12 a sample...Yes, I'm highly considering this option so I can get done and then can focus on bacteria. But I'm cheap and getting samples there could be complicated, so probably not.

PS...I got everyone hooked on the Big Bang Theory