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Sea Turtle Ecology in Costa Rica

How do scientists and volunteers help protect wild sea turtle nests to support wildlife populations in Costa Rica?

New Hampton School traveled to Costa Rica where we traveled by plane, bus, and boat to Pacuare Reserve—a working field research station stewarded by Ecology Project International —and helped scientists research and protect incredible species like leatherback sea turtles. When we weren't collecting data in the field, we explored the biodiversity of a lowland tropical ecosystem on guided hikes with EPI instructors and Pacuare Reserve staff. Students participated in real-life, ongoing wildlife conservation projects with experts in their field.

Day 1: NHS to San Jose, CR

Our first day of Project Week consisted mainly of travel. We left for Logan Airport in Boston, MA, from NHS at about 8:00 am EST, and after a layover in Houston, arrived in the capital city of San Jose, CR at about 11:00 pm CST for a total travel time of nearly 12 hours. After a short bus ride through the suburbs of northern San Jose, we arrived at Hotel Cibeles in Heredia. We enjoyed a small snack and took care of some of our pre-trip paperwork before earning some much-needed rest before the adventure really began!

Day 2: San Jose to Pacuare

Our first day in Costa Rica began bright and early in the capital city of San Jose. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then got on the road for a 3 hour bus ride to the Pacuare Reserve, located on the east coast of Costa Rica The drive was very scenic, taking us through Braulio Carrillo National Park which hosts a stunning cloud forest! On our way to the reserve, we stopped at a grocery store where students and teachers enjoyed finding new local snacks and drinks to try! Some of our group favorites were Aloe drinks and Plantain Chips, recommended by our guides. After our long car ride, we got into small boats and were taken to the reserve, not without spotting a crocodile of course! We then got settled into our “summer-camp-like” sleeping situation and began lessons about turtles and other local wildlife. Then we headed to the beach to do a mock sea turtle measurement in the sand. We learned how to measure the shell and neck circumference, and how to collect eggs from the turtles. After learning how to complete turtle measurements, we headed back to do some group bonding activities and eat dinner. We ended our day with our turtle census, which is a 4-hour period where students and teachers scan the beach at night to search for leatherback sea turtles. One group left at 9pm and returned at 1am, the other group left at 12am and returned at 4am. The censuses are done in pitch black, and we could only use red light from the guides once a turtle was found. A turtle sighting is rare, but our group was lucky enough to see 3 on our first night. All the students helped the ecologists to measure the sea turtles and collect the eggs. After a long day, we headed to bed for another eventful day of ecology!

NHS students arriving in Pacuare!
Pacuare Reserve is located directly on the Caribbean Sea. Although the water is not safe to swim in, the beach provides ideal habitat for leatherback sea turtles to lay their eggs.
It also provides great habitat for NHS students who are escaping New Hampshire winters!
Before getting hands-on with actual sea turtles in the field, students made their own to-scale sand turtles to practice measurements.
Leatherback sea turtles have existed for 100 million years, but are endangered due to poaching and fishing practices globally. By doing this kind of work, we are helping to deter poachers and enhance the success rate of these nests!
They can be 5-6 feet long and weigh as much as a ton, so we needed to be prepared! Safety is a genuine concern, both for the turtles and the researchers. By participating in these censuses, students would be gaining both service and science hours!
There were three specific measurements that we would be taking during our census walks. The first was width, as seen in the picture above with Riley and Tova! Students would be looking for what were called "knuckles" in the shells.
The second was length, which you can see Ireland and Danika practicing above. Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtles in the world, so they can be 5-6 feet long!
And finally, Serenity and Jake practiced measuring neck circumferences, one of the more dangerous steps. Don't believe me? Look up what a sea turtle's mouth looks like!

Day 3: Pacuare

The second day of our Costa Rica trip began with a hike into the rainforest! We were fortunate enough to see frogs including the Malabar Gliding Frog, large birds like the Common Black Hawk, and a special type of lizard that walks on water known as a Basilisk! Cool! We even got to see Howler and Capuchin monkeys in the trees around the reserve. Then, we got into groups to create research questions for small group projects we will be working on the rest of the week. We then gathered for lunch and took a rest before our eventful afternoon. Our afternoon consisted of conducting research around the reserve, in the jungle and on the beach. Students observed the number of bugs on different colors of flowers, how tree trunk circumference impacts number the number of coconuts or leaf sizes, the correlation between algae population and distance to the shoreline, and types of organisms attracted to coconuts in different micro ecosystems. After dinner, students either headed to bed for a 10pm turtle census or prepared for the 8pm group for our second turtle census. We ended our night around 2am seeing one last leatherback sea turtle on the beach, bringing our total to 4! Tomorrow, we are headed off to a hotel in the lowland jungles closer to San Jose, filled with excitement from all the wildlife we have already seen! 

When walking through the rainforest, you need to have a pretty keen eye. Luckily, our instructors César and Fernanda were experts!
The Malabar Gliding Frog is a master of camouflage (usually). This young one showed some room for improvement in broad daylight!
The Common Black Hawk is a large carnivore that has adapted itself well to forest habitats. This one in particular is said to have been born on Pacuare Reserve, and as a result is not afraid of humans. While this is a testament to the safe conditions that have been created for wildlife, it also presents some fair concerns.
The Basilisk, or, according to César more commonly known as the "Jesus Christ" lizard, is known for its ability to run across water. Note its long toes, which help to not break the surface tension of the water. Couple that with the surface covering aquatic plants (seen to the right in our main tile image) and this lizard might as well be on land!
There are several tribes of Capuchins througout Pacuare Reserve. Luckily, we got to observe a group for a while and learn about some of their interesting social hierarchies, including the role of alpha males and the lengths they will go to ensure that there are no romantic scandals within their ranks (RIP Casper ❤️).
IB Bio students did a great job leading the research question writing (thanks Mr. Saunders and and Mrs. Laucks)!
Talon, Luna, and Tosin collected data on nearly 30 trees to help back their claims!
Kyler and his teammates, Danika and Jake S. took their observations skills all over, studying the response rates of insects as they were attracted to bits of coconut in three different envionments: the beach, the edge of the woods, and Pacuare's garden area.
You've played Rock, Paper Scissors before, but have you ever heard of Poacher, Sea Turtle, Jellyfish? Fun games like this, combined with our real-life research, helped reinforce key scientific concepts regarding predator/prey relationships at Pacuare Reserve.

Day 4: Pacuare to Tirimbina

On the fourth day of our project in Costa Rica, we uprooted from Pacuare and traveled inland to Tirimbina Biological Reserve in the lowland rainforests north of San Jose. While Tirimbina hosts a wonderful "Rainforest Lodge", the real excitement came from the rich wildlife that immediately greeted us upon arrival, including Howler Monkeys, Two-Toed Sloths, and Iguanas. We dropped our bags and walked out to the suspension bridge that went over the Saripiqui River, which we would be rafting the next day! After lunch and a rest, we gathered to work on posters for our research projects, which we would practice presenting later in the day. César and Fernanda led us on a walk further into the reserve's rainforests, where we saw incredibly diverse flora and some of the region's scarier insects, including bullet ants! After dinner, we went on a night hike to explore the region's unique nocturnal insect and amphibian life. Believe us, if you don't like insects, it's best not to turn your headlamp on!

Howler Monkeys are one of the more common monkeys in Costa Rica. This mama and her baby were quite social greeters at Tirimbina.
The Two-Toed Sloth is a professional lounger, sleeping 15-20 hours a day.
Iguanas, despite their size, are often great at camouflage. This male, in particular, wasn't exactly trying to blend in, though! You can tell this was a male because of the coloring, which suggests that he is trying to attract a mate!
Tirimbina hosts one of the longest suspension bridges in Costa Rica. While it offers great opportunities to see wildlife and take in the sights, it also makes for a great photo-op!
César stopped to tell us all about this tree, one of the largest in the reserve, which had once largely been cut down to make space for cacao trees for the production of chocolate. Trees like this one are called "host trees" that host microecosystems supported by epiphytes.
The Red-Eyed Tree Frog is a common nocturnal frog in Costa Rica. As you might guess by its name, this frog goes its whole life without touching the ground (if it can help it) and generally raises its babies amongst the previously mentioned epiphytes, which collect enough rainwater to raise tadpoles in!
The tiny Poison-Dart frog would be very elusive if not for its bright red coloring. The one that we saw, pictured above, is known as a Blue Jeans Dart Frog due to the blue coloring of its legs!
While not for the faint of heart, seeing a Cicada go through its molting process was an unexpected surprise! Cicadas spend the first 17 years of their life underground in the form of a beetle (see the dark shell being left behind in the photo above) before emerging to evolve. The adult Cicada grows wings, but loses its mouth, and as a result they expel unnecessary organs. According to César, the noise made by a Cicada is part of the mating process and is made in their abdomen, and sometimes the noise can get so intense that they injure themselves. How romantic!

Day 5: Tirimbina to San Jose

Our final day in Costa Rica hosted some of the most exciting and memorable moments yet! After a big breakfast, we packed the bus and made our way to Hacienda Pozo Hazul for our whitewater rafting expedition. This was a major highlight for the trip, as it was not only a thrilling experience, but a great opportunity to meet more locals and learn more about wildlife, including various Herons and Kingfishers, but most importantly Toucans! After rafting several kilometers and going over various Level 1-3 rapids, we made our way back up to the Hacienda and enjoyed a huge lunch, treated to Cas juice, which comes from an endemic tree that can only be found in Costa Rica. Our normal bus route was clogged with traffic, so our guides and bus driver made one of the best decisions of the trip and took us through Varo Blanco, an extremely scenic route with winding roads that offered views of beautiful mountains and waterfalls throughout. After a brief stop at a local super market, we found ourselves back where it all started at Hotel Cibeles in the suburbs of San Jose. We participated in some closing activities and ceremonies for the trip, before heading to bed early in preparation for our 4:00 am wake-up call to get to the airport. Our time in Costa Rica was officially coming to an end!

After a thorough (and humorous) overview, we were ready to take on the river!
Raft guide Abel led (from left to right) Kyler, Jake N. Mr. Masterson, Dylan, and Jack. Highlights included going feet first outside of the raft down a level 1 rapid!
Raft guide Gerald led (from left to right) Ireland, Izzy, Fernanda (our instructor) and Danika. Highlights included epic naval warfare with other rafts and nearly launching Ireland out of the boat!
Raft guide Hanzel led (from left to right) Elyse, Serenity, Ms. Duggan, Chloe, and Kailey. Highlights included nearly getting left behind by Hanzel and needing to swim to catch up!
Raft guide Luis led (from left to right) Luna, Riley, Cesar (our instructor, and Tova. Highlights include showing everybody else what it means to live the Pura Vida!
Raft guide Steven led (from left to right) Owen, Jake S., Mr. Morel, Tosin, and Talon. Highlights included spinning through a level 1 rapid like a washing machine!
Thanks to the keen eyes of our guides, we were able to identify some of the birds that we were high on our bucket list, including this Toucan! We also saw Kingfishers, Egrets, and Tiger Herons.

Credits:

Created with an image by Didier San Martin - "Quartier périphérique de San José, capitale du Costa Rica"