Teacher as Student
Along the way I try teach some of what I have learned about tropical forests. Or about wilderness survival. Or tracking and seeing. I teach about the importance of gliding through the forests, not stomping blindly, and seeing, hearing, and smelling everything around them. From this the forests come alive. The sight of tapir tracks come into view. The smell of big cat pee mixes with flowering orchids or rotting vegetation. Hidden monkeys are discovered by telltale sounds. Invisible frogs and insects are seen within leaf litter and snakes are observed hiding in vegetation or slipping back into the forests. It is a magical experience.
Matt and Lilly record information from collected moths. Many hundreds of species have been identified from the reserve under April’s tutelage.
Faye removes a bird from a mist net. Under Frank’s guidance migratory bird patterns are tracked and where applicable birds are banded for even more data collection.
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[…] purpose of this most recent trip was outlined in a previous blog entry along with some documentation of the vegetation of the area. When I sat down to prepare the reptile […]