The Jungle Ghost

This entry is rather overdue, so a very very belated ‘boo!’ to you!

Over Halloween weekend, my Tropical Ecology class took our first fieldtrip into the jungle and it was most certainly a memorable one. We went to ‘La Selva Biological Station’ in Sarapiquí on the Caribbean side of the country. The trip was an incredible learning experience and gave me the chance to apply what I have learned about ecological processes in a real world setting. I even got to see one of the world’s deadliest snakes!

A bit about the biological station:
My class spent two days and one night at the research facility and our job was to observe and learn as much as we could. The Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) is a non-profit organization that runs the La Selva as well as two other stations in Costa Rica; Las Cruces and Palo Verde. La Selva is the second largest reserve (4037 acres) and was founded in 1963. The topography of the southern region is extreme; La Selva sits at approximately 35 meters in elevation and quickly jets up to approx. 3,000 m at its southern border, Braulio Carrillo National Park. Over 61 km of trails run throughout the reserve and are used by scientists, students and faculty daily. So basically…biologist Disneyland! A collection of every piece of research ever conducted in La Selva is on reserve in the station’s library, that place rocks. During my short time there I really only got a small taste of what La Selva has to offer.

In the evening we went on a nocturnal adventure into the jungle. The forest is as alive as ever at night and feels completely different from the day time world. Equipped with nothing more than some flashlights and nerves of steel, we followed one another down the dark path. Our guide would shine his light into the vegetation and we would all look for the reflection of animal eyes. This reflection was key in finding various species of frogs, bats, birds and bugs. As we walked along, I couldn’t help but feel a ghostly presence tracing along behind. It was probably just my imagination running amuck but the deeper we went into the forest, the closer we came to booming muffled bass drum, BOOM.BOOM.BOOM - Much like the one from Lord of the Rings when one of the dumb hobbits awakens the troll in the Dwarf cave. It could have been a group of biologists have a 'field day' (literally) or something that I never care to find out. All I know is that it all too suddenly just...disappeared.