Intern Handover Report

Caño Palma Biological Station

Summer 2012



Complied by
York Interns and COTERC
Travel Details

Booking Tickets and Travel Insurance

Booking ticket and travel insurance can be done at Travel Cuts at York Lanes unless the intern has his/her own travel agent. For tickets we recommend students do some research and get flight quotes from travel agencies, companies' websites (e.g. Nonstop flight in Air Canada might be a good reference) and online companies (e.g. Orbitz, Expedia). Sometimes flight prices found online are lower than those offered by travel agencies. For travel insurance get a quote from any bank (e.g. TD Canada Trust, RBC) or TravelCuts in York Lanes. All you need is your birthday date and the number of days travelling. You may also be covered under your family insurance so be sure to ask as to find the best possible option.

Food and accommodation is provided by the field station. For this internship period, the interns paid US$150 per week to cover living expenses and three meals a day. However this price is set by the COTERC Board and the station manager and may vary depending on cost of living etc.

There are ATMs three hours outside of Tortuguero in Cariari. Make sure to call your bank before leaving Canada to put a travel status on your account for the duration of your trip. Also, make sure your pin number for your bank card is 4 digits (5+ digits and letters don’t work in Costa Rica).

Costa Ricans will most often accept American Dollars and the exchange rate is usually $US1 = 500 Colones. You will find better exchange rates at local banks (bring your passport or a copy they will require it as an ID). Although the conversion rate is tempting, it is not advised to exchange any money on the streets as you may potentially receive counterfeit money in return. Banks in San Jose are often the best and safest option for money exchange. Local businesses generally won’t accept anything larger than a $20 bill, and the money must be in perfect condition. Any bill that has a snall nick ir tear will not be accepted by businesses or banks.

Contact Information

Tel for field station: 011 - 506 -2709-8052

Email: station@coterc.org

What to Bring

1. Dark clothes for turtle walks – long pants (dry fit pants are the best option), long sleeve tops, and a poncho and/or raincoat.

2. For mammal walks- long pants, thick and loose long sleeve shirts (to help deter mosquitoes), hat, mosquito face net, rain wear gear or ponchos.

3. For night surveys (except turtle surveys): A good HIGH power beam handheld flashlight (crucial for mammal surveys). We don’t have night walks but it’s good to have a flashlight for PM walks in case they run late and light is dimming, or the patrol is walking back form the cerro as it gets dark

4. Bandanas or wide-brim hats.

5. Comfortable walking shoes – crocs have been the preferred option. Any sort of waterproof hiking sandal is useful. Do not bring any canvas/cloth or leather footwear for surveys, as the material does not dry in the humidity and will quickly mould.

6. Rubber boots (the station has extra rubber boots if needed).

7. Square-cornered mosquito net and a light blanket (can get a little cold in the mornings).

8. Bring your own bed sheets and pillow covers. You may wish to bring your own pillow. (there are very few pillows at the station, a folded bed sheet is a good alternative to a pillow as it is easy to wash and can easily be hung to dry).

9. Light cotton clothing.

10. Headlamp with red lamp (low glow if possible – for turtle walks-) and a hand held flashlight. It’s also a good idea to bring rechargeable batteries and a rechargeable unit.

11. Large durable water bottle.

12. Medication pills e.g. Tylenol, vitamins, Imodium, anti-histamines, or anything else you feel you may need.

13. Entertainment – music, books, movies etc.

14. Sunscreen, mosquito repellent, bug net for head (for mammal walks), lots of socks, headphones with microphone and webcam (if you want to skype), small laptop if you require more personal skyping and use in general.
Rule of Thumb: You generally want at least two sets of field clothes to rotate through, a nice of pair of clothes for when going out once in a while and general t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, shorts, long pants that you will wear every day at the station.

Getting There

Tickets and Travel Insurance can be bought from Travel Cuts on York University Campus at York Lanes. Recommendations on accommodations in San Jose can be found in guidebooks on Costa Rica or Central America. The Hotel Aranjuez is usually used by the Environmental Studies Field Course in Costa Rica. This is a mid-price hotel. Contact information is:

Reservation from Canada: 1-877-898-8663; local No.: 506-2-256-1825

Address: 19th Street, between Ave 11 and 13, Barrio Aranjuez, San Jose www.hotelaranjuez.com

CACTS Hotel Tel: 506-2-221-2928, 506-2-221-6546, the station has had a long relationship with this hotel and they are very helpful

Galileo Hostel Tel: 506-2-248-2094, 506-2-221-8831

Gaudy’s Backpacker Hostel Tel: 506-2-258-2937(http://www.backpacker.co.cr/)

–Gaudy’s has its own taxi service to and from the airport which can be arranged in advance via email. It usually costs $24US.

On arriving at the Juan Santamaria International Airport, you can get to the city either by bus or cab. Cabs can be accessed outside the arrival area. There are various cab companies found there, but if you’re not sure which ones are legitimate, the valid cabs that are working for the airport are orange, or red with a yellow triangle. The red taxis will generally run their meter, the orange cabs will charge a flat ,government mandated rate. Buses can be caught in front of the airport and passengers are dropped in a downtown station. You can either pay in US or Colones. They do not take Canadian dollars. There is a Cambio (“change” in Spanish) kiosk in the arrival area but you will get better currency exchange at a bank. To travel to the field station you will need to have local currency.

N.B: STRESS to the boat drivers where you are going, and always make sure that cabs have working meters (marias) s before getting in!

The Caño Palma Biological Station[1] is part of the Barra Colorado Wildlife Refuge and is located 5 miles from the Tortuguero National Park and Tortuguero village. The field station came into being with the purchase of the land by Marilyn Cole, a former York University Masters student, and Ozzy Teichner from a Nicaraguan campesino. The name of the station is derived from the canal of similar name that runs adjacent to the property. The canal separates the station from the Caribbean Sea by some 200 – 300 meters. The station is accessed via the canal as there are no roads into the area. Further historical material can be found on the COTERC website, Resources atwww.coterc.org/?page_id=296.

¹COTERC is the administrative arm of the CPBS. It was established in 1991 as a non-profit charity organisation based in Pickering, Ontario. The organisation is governed by a board consisting of biologists, accountants, educators, environmentalists, zoo professionals and media professionals. The board is committed and working actively to protect tropical rainforest.

Life at the Field Station

Facilities at the field station are simple. The interns sleep in assigned rooms and may be placed in the main dormitory. You should bring earplugs if you are a light sleeper. There are flush toilets that are located behind the rancho museum and by the dorms. The kitchen and office are located in the same building, a short walk from the dorms.

Interns have access to the computers and the internet during the course of their stay, but are generally asked to use the internet on weekends and evenings only. The system is high-speed wireless. For the phone service local calls are permitted but should be kept after 7pm to avoid tying up COTERC’s business line. For international calls phone cards can be bought in Tortuguero. A USD$10.00 card will last for 30 minutes to Canada. The cards can also be used on the phone in San Francisco. You can also utilize skype for calling.

Food in the kitchen is communal. You can purchase and stock your own food to supplement the meals provided. It is very informal but usually the station manager will assign cooking duties for dinner with breakfast and lunch being on each person’s accord. A cook comes to the station to help with lunch and dinner when there are more than 10 people staying at the station. The water at the field station comes from a sunken well and is filtered using a UV lamp. Camp duties, such as cooking, are usually rotated and will be sorted out with the station manager. The leftovers are placed into plastic containers and kept in the refrigerator for use when you get hungry at any time. Composting and recycling are also done at the station.

When showering, to save water, everyone is asked to wet themselves, turn off the water, soap up (soap must be biodegradable and needs to be brought down with you) and then rinse off. After your shower you have to sweep the showers to ensure that sand does not go down the drain and to keep the shower clean for the use by other people. There is also a washing machine at the field station but no dryer. There are both open and covered lines to dry your clothes on. When using the washing machine it is very important that you remove the sand from your clothing before placing it in the washing machine.

One option is going to Nicaragua via San Jose, which takes two days of travel (one to San Jose, one to Nicaragua). Take the regular route to San Jose where you will have to locate the Tica Bus terminal. Here are the directions from Paseo Colon (major street in San Jose): San José. Costa Rica. Paseo Colón. 200 meters North & 100 meters west from Torre Mercedes, Paseo Colón, across front Funeraria del Magisterio Nacional (within walking distance of Gaudy’s Backpackers Hostel). This bus will cost you around 20 dollars each way and takes you across the Nicaraguan border. You HAVE to go buy your tickets in person a day before you plan to travel, make sure you go with your passport. They will provide all the documents for you and make sure you have all your passports or certificates in order. While crossing the border you will have to go through immigration for both CR and NIC but it is a fairly simple and easy process. Once back on the bus after immigration the main stops in Nicaragua are Rivas, Managua and Leon. You can take a separate bus from Managua to Granada, which is really nice to stay and is most recommended due to its old style architecture and relative safeness. Leon is really nice as well and both cater to tourists’ needs. There are many things to do once in Nicaragua so enjoy!

Tortuguero National Park was created in the 1970’s to protect the nesting beaches of sea turtles. The beaches of Tortuguero host one of the largest populations of nesting green turtles (Chelonia mydas). Other sea turtles that visit the Tortuguero beaches are the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricate) and on rare occasions the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta). The protected beaches are on the southern bank (right) of the Tortuguero River. On the northern bank (Playa Norte) the beaches are unprotected and there have been high instances of poaching of both turtles and nests.

In 2004 COTERC with the help of York University began a feasibility study to establish the north beach a protected area. When the program first started only morning census was done. The volunteers counted the number of tracts seen on the beach and checked the status of the nests. The volunteers have observed that there were many nests that had been poached.

In 2005 COTERC signed a partnership with Global Vision International (GVI). With a constant stream of volunteers and help from the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC, formerly Caribbean Conservation Corporation, CCC) in developing a working protocol the program was given a boost. In 2006 the study was in full gear. Protocols were developed for both morning and night patrols. In 2007 the poaching rate was still high and after analysis of the threat areas on the beach COTERC applied for license to relocate nests within these threat areas. The contract with GVI ended in 2009. Currently, there is still a high incidence of poaching of not only eggs, but also of the nesting females.

The study site on the North Beach begins from the mouth of the Tortuguero and runs for three and one eighth miles ending at Laguna Cuatro. The length of the study area is marked each eighth of a mile with a marker running from south to north. The width of the beach is approximately 5 to 40 meters. The beach vegetation includes morning glory, rush grass, sea grapes, coconut, sea almond and other tropical trees.

The night patrol was designed to collect as much data as possible on the nesting turtles. At least one team consisting of three to four members walks the study area for a four hour period. More time is spent on the beach when many turtles are encountered. When a turtle is encountered the species is identified, the encounter time is recorded and the stage at which it was encountered is determined (emerging from sea, digging a body pit, digging an egg chamber, oviposition, covering egg chamber, disguising egg chamber, returning to sea). While the turtle is in oviposition the eggs are counted and/or relocated and the nest is triangulated. The triangulation allows the nest to be located for re-excavation if signs of the emerging hatchlings are not found. As the turtle disguises her nest, bio-metric data is taken on the turtle and she is tagged if no tag is present. Biometric data taken includes length of carapace, width of carapace, sights of any previous injuries or tag marks, barnacles and any signs of sickness.

The morning patrol performs the following:

1. 
   checks the status of the nests recorded during recent night patrols
   
2. 
   checks the nests that are due to hatch for any signs of hatching
   
3. 
   records new nests and half-moon tracks
   
4. 
   disguises signs of nests and erases tracks
   
5. 
   excavates hatched nests or nests that have passed their incubation time
   

Objectives (Summary):

1) estimate community composition and species richness;

2) track trends in relative abundance of species over time;

3) evaluate habitat associations and distribution of resident species;

4) estimate the density of the more common species.
In the short term, base-line data on wildlife presence, abundance, and distribution will be collected. Long-term studies will examine temporal wildlife population dynamics relative to human disturbance (i.e. tourism impacts and over a gradient of human disturbance) by comparing data from the Wildlife Refuge to areas influenced by human development. In addition, a vegetation data layer will be mapped and habitat use will be examined in association with forest composition and seasonal climatic changes.

Long-Term Objectives:

• 
  Teach proper mammal identification to study participants, volunteers, and the local community
  
• 
  Ensure the inclusion of local residents in the study when possible
  
• 
  Impart knowledge and appreciation of local wildlife diversity and promote the social and environmental benefits of wildlife conservation efforts in the area
  
• 
  Provide other researchers with basic data on the arboreal and terrestrial mammal assemblage in the region
  
• 
  Utilize scientific knowledge and local knowledge and perspectives to achieve study goals;
  
• 
  Improve and adapt approaches and practices based on changing natural conditions and improved understanding over time
  
• 
  Create long term goals for future conservation efforts
  

There is an abundant but little studied wildlife assemblage in the Tortuguero plains, including the Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge. These species fill important ecological roles and include numerous endangered species, such as jaguar, tapir, peccary and the Central American spider monkey. While significant, long-term research and monitoring has been conducted on nesting sea turtles, little has been documented of arboreal and terrestrial large mammal population dynamics. Monitoring large mammals is vital for a better understanding of this region’s ecosystem, its functions, ecology and status of various species and their habitats (i.e. riparian forests vs. swamp forests). In particular, trends in species presence, relative abundance, density, and distribution are of great value in understanding levels of local disturbance given the change in land use adjacent to protected areas.

Caño Palma Biological Station lies within the Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge (10º 30’ 86” north; 83 º 45’ 88” east), an area of some 812 km2 (200,600 acres). The Refuge comes under the jurisdiction of ACTo. The Ministry of Environment and Energy, ACTo, and SINAC are responsible for the overall management, conservation and law enforcement of the Barra Colorado Wildlife Refuge.

The overall method is based on presence/absence methods as described by MacKenzie (2005).

In the early stages of the study, the boundary between two properties north of Caño Palma Biological Station was used. This trail was approximately three to four kilometers in length, and ran from Caño Palma and Caño Penetencia. The owner periodically cleared the trail of undergrowth to delineate the property boundary and it served as the study’s first transect. In 2010, due to lack of permission to use the trail as we were informed the land changed ownership due to a sale. We proposed a new transect cut with minimal ecological implications, running north of the biological station across the adjacent property which the owner has granted permission for. There are new transects put in place at CPBS and the Cerro (across the canal from the station); see the mammal protocol for details. The transects are as narrow as possible and marked every 50m with vinyl plastic flagging tape or tree paint to facilitate accurate mapping of detection events. Natural obstacles were left unharmed (trees). Each transect is about one kilometer long.

Each transect will be walked with one COTERC staff and up to two volunteers in a quiet calm manner once weekly on a regular schedule. Transcription of data is to immediately follow the walk to avoid loss of any details while the event is fresh in the memory.

Most large wildlife is not seen, but rather indication of their presence through tracks or vocalizations is detected. Laminated track images are used to assist volunteers with the correct identification of the species tracks. A digital camera will be used to photograph tracks which are not immediately identified.

Observers record date, transect identity, weather conditions, and initials field observers at the beginning of a transect walk, as well as the start and end time of each walk. Upon a detection event, the observers record the exact GPS location and closest 50m markers, time, form of detection, potential species identification, and photo image number (if a photo is taken), as well as track measurements. The opportunity to record supplementary information such as activity, diet, height, age and sex of animals sighted, mixed-species associations, and vegetation features are also important. As a general policy, observers should remain on the transect line if viewing live animals and observe for 15 minutes if possible. In some cases, it may be necessary to move away from the transect and approach the animals to make further observations possible. Movement off the transect needs to be kept to a minimum and observations of large mammals should be no longer than 15 minutes.

There have been 36 different species of mammal detected at Cano Palma over the past 4 years of data collection. This does not include bat species. Work from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and InBio relating to ecosystem classification and mammal usage from 2009 is summarized and located at:http://www.coterc.org/?page_id=217. Continued refinement of habitat analysis and spatial mapping with analysis by SAIT in 2010 occurred, and can be located on the same page and indicated by the 2010 dates.

There was little to no data collected in 2010 due to low volunteers and lack of funding to continue the monitoring. In 2011, we continued to monitor for various species and managed to set out secondary comparative transects. In 2012, surveying was done occasionally between the months of January and May. Regular weekly surveying was done between the months of June and August. A new, easy to use database is currently under development to facilitate the entrance and use of collected data.

In 2012, the expansion of the project with a secondary transaction into the Cerro aided in the ability for comparison and evaluation of local mammal populations in variable habitat . CPBS is interested in attracting a PhD or Masters student to produce a third transect much deeper into BCWR where more primary habitat and less anthropogenic influences are felt.