Pura Vida!

A Report from the Tropical Ecology Course
By Prof. Valerie Banschbach


{PICTURE OF CHESTNUT MANDIBLED TOUCAN, taken by Jeff Dukette}

Pura Vida! That’s the Costa Rican expression for living life fully, immersed in every moment. That sums up the experience that the Saint Michael's College students (Jake Girard, Ian Sullivan, Emily Ogilvy, Jess Sprague, Corey Dolbeare, Mike Sprague, Bridget Levine, Sara Williams, Jeff Dukette, Chris Lavallee, Jake Withee, and Janel Roberge) and Professors Denise Martin, me, and Jonathan Leonard, had during our winter break trip to study ecology and conservation of the cloud forests and lowland rain forests of Costa Rica.



{PICTURE OF WHOLE GROUP, V. Banschbach’s camera}

As you might guess from our group photo in the lodge, the cloud forest at Monteverde, CR was a little chilly and damp. The cloud forest receives 20% of its rain as “horizontal rain”, i.e. clouds. The hummingbirds and the plants thrive on it and we saw plenty of super-sized examples! Students researched pollination biology of a hummingbird pollinated member of the plant family Acanthaceae, behavior of the trap-jawed meat-eating ant, Odontomachus sp., and the habitat preferences of bromeliads.


{PHOTO OF VIOLET SABREWING AT FEEDER, V. Banschbach}






{PHOTO OF STRANGLER FIG – JAKE WITHEE, JESS SPRAGUE, PROF. DENISE MARTIN AND PROF. JONATHAN LEONARD—taken by Jess Sprague’s camera}



After our work at Monteverde, we took an interesting full-day road trip down from the mountains to our next study site, the Atlantic slope lowland rain forest at Selva Verde.
{PHOTO Mike Sprague, Bridget Levine and Jake Withee, taken by V. Banschbach}


When we arrived at the lower elevation rain forest site, it was a bit hotter, and like this basilisk lizard, we were ready for a dip in the water.{PHOTO OF BASILISK LIZARD, V. Banschbach}

At the Selva Verde rain forest reserve, students conducted projects on Heliconia sp. pollination, red-eyed tree frog behavior, ant lion prey capture, and bird foraging behavior.

At both study sites, we had excellent Costa Rican naturalist guides that helped us pack an enormous amount of learning about natural history, ecology and conservation issues into our 10-day trip. Of course, we also took a little time just to hang out and enjoy the experience.

{PHOTO OF MANTLED HOWLER MONKEY, taken by V. Banschbach}

And now we are back enjoying the snow.