|
|
|
|
I am a third grade teacher in Denver Public Schools
and I am a math/science specialist. I particapated in the Woodrow
Wilson Leadership Program in Costa Rica in the summer of 1999.
This program is sponsored by the National
Science Foundation. OTS, The Organization
for Tropical Studies coordinated the research curriculum at La Selva,
Las Cruces, and Palo Verde.
La Selva Biological Station
Costa Rica has a tropical climate with many diverse species of animals. At La Selva Biological Station in the lowland Atlantic rainforest, many different flora and fauna were observed. Here are many unusual animals and plants: the 3 toes sloth, bromelaids, and vermillaids. Obviously, by looking at my nickname above, you see that I became interested in bats, and I became a specialist, of sorts, in several days on bat guano. We began trapping bats with wet nets on Monday, July 19th at 6:50 P.M. We caught 10 bats in the next 70 minutes. Eight of them were frugivores,Carollia Brevicauda, and Carollia Castanea bats which eat exclusively fruit from the rainforest, and the last two were vampires, which we left go because of the dangers of handling them-they bite right through leather gloves. The second night, Tuesday, July 20th, we caught 7 Carollia Bravicaudas, 2 artibius watsons, and a rare artibius toltecus, which you see if you click on its name. Click here if you wish to read our paper.
Las Cruces
Las Cruces Bilological Station is located in southern Costa Rica, almost
on the Panama border, and next to the Pacific Ocean. It is an example
of a fragmented rainforest, because of the areas around it cleared for
cattle grazing and raising coffee. The Robert and Cathereine Wilson Botanical
Garden is at the heart of Las Cruces. Here is where we studied
three different colors of flowers, and their Hummingbird visitations. Click
here to read our paper.
 |
 |
| The above flowers are Costus Stenophyllus. This plant had the most visits per blossom in our hummbird study. | Below are the other two flowers in our study. Erythrina Coralberry, and the Bouganvillea. Note that even though the coralberry is red, the tubular structures make it a multitubular flower. Each tube had to be consdidered a flower. |
 |
 |
| This is a strangler fig tree that we found at Las Cruces. The original tree is gone, but the fig tree still as the outline of the dead tree which rotted away which allowed the fig to get sunlight at the top of the canopy of the rain forest. |
 |
Palo Verde
Palo Verde Biological Station is located in northwest Costa Rica. Through an agreement with the Costa Rican National Park Service, Organization for Tropical Studies,OTS, maintains a field station within the park. Palo Verde is an example of a tropical dry forest. and lies on a boundary between an exterior marssh and seasonably dry forest underlain with limestone. I worked with a research group examining soils in four areas: where cattle grazed extensively, pasture that lied dormant for 3 years, aa secondary forest, and a primary forest. Click if you wish to read our paper on soils.
Links:
| . |
