Greetings from Caño Palma Biological Station!

Well it has been a very busy last few months here at Caño Palma and many exciting things have been happening. With help from former COTERC board member Josh Feltham and his family, who arrived in September, the boardwalk on the Colibrí trail has been completed and we now have an elevated, sturdy boardwalk covering the entire 200m of the trail. This will enable us to conduct research in the wettest times of year while allowing the forest to regenerate by reducing the trampling effect on vegetation and wildlife around the trail, helping to lessen our footprint on the forest. It will also allow the tourists that come to visit the station a chance to walk through the forest and learn more about the area. This project could not have been possible without a
generous donation from Dr Steve Furino of the University of Waterloo. Thanks again for your support.

The boardwalk has been used almost daily since its completion. Josh has been bringing tourists, CCC bird banders and both GVI and COTERC volunteers out on night walks looking for anything and everything they can find. They have had quite a bit of luck and have found such things as tarantulas, small opossums, many species of frogs and such snakes as the Northern Cat-eyed Snake (Leptodeira septentrionalis), Common Snaileater (Sibon nebulatus) and the always popular Blunt-headed Vine Snake (Imantodes cenchoa). It has also been used by visiting researcher Liam Fahley. Liam has been continuing the study that was started a few years ago by Todd Lewis and is searching the trail and station grounds nightly looking for Annulated Tree Boas (Corallus annulatus) and Ringed Snaileaters (Sibon annulatus). The heavy rains and flood waters came and went, but due to the boardwalk (and a canoe needed to get to it!), the research continued.

We also had visiting researchers come to the station that were part of a project involving 3 international universities. Dr Juan Monros and his research team from the University of Valencia in Spain, along with researchers from the University of Leon in Nicaragua and the University of Costa Rica came to the station to study the Manacari forest of the area. They were here identifying the bird, plant and reptile life that live in this forest and they are looking to compare these findings with other Manacari forests in Costa Rica.

So as you can see, there have been some exciting things going on at Caño Palma. Add to this the sighting of a Boa constrictor (Boa constrictor), Bromeliad boa (Ungaliophis panamensis) an Eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) and the release of 97 Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricate) hatchlings into the sea from an excavated nest and you can see why this place is so special.

March will be here soon enough and with it will bring COTERC Chair Tom Mason and his group’s annual visit to the station. It is a great way to come and experience the station, see some amazing wildlife and help out with the sea turtle and mammal monitoring programs.

I invite you all to come down to Costa Rica and visit the station and find out for yourself why people fall in love with the area.

All the best for a happy 2009,

Jonathan Willans,
Manager, Caño Palma Biological Station

Originally published in Raphia Winter 2009