Reflections

I created a short, 5 minute movie that encapsulates my trip. Just click on the video below. I hope you enjoy!

I have spent a lot of time reflecting on this amazing opportunity that was given to me. I realized in Brazil how little field biology I have done in my science journey. Almost all of my coursework has been lab-based, and I realize now how much this has biased my teaching. This trip gave me the experience and the inspiration to include more field work and ecology in my curriculum. For that I am grateful to Earthwatch, the funders of education fellowships, Ellen Wang, Miguel Barroeta, Mata, and the nine other teachers who were on my team. I learned so much from all of you. In addition, I want to thank my Headmasters, Linda Nathan and Carmen Torres, my intern, Kim Conrad, and my husband, Justin Smith, for supporting and encouraging me in this endeavor. It clearly was an experience of a lifetime!

Otters!

The otter project was very different from the herps project. We spent most of our time on or near the river hoping to see a glimpse of two types of otters: neotropical and giant otters. Miguel Rico Barroeta, shown here on the left, was the principal investigator.

Neotropical otters' scientific name is Lontra longicaudis because "Lontra" is the genus name for otter, and the species name "longicaudis" means "long tail." Since we were unable to get any footage of them, the picture on the left is from the Earthwatch website. They are found in Central and South America and tend to be solitary creatures. There is not enough data on the neotropical otters to know whether they are a threatened species or not, which highlights the importance of this research.

Giant otters tend to travel in families, and each one has a unique throat marking that researchers use to identify individuals. To do so, scientists must draw the throat markings by copying digital pictures or video. Here are some of my drawings that the researchers will be using. I was hoping to make my visual arts students proud! (C'mon, they have to be better than my drawings in class!)

We also found some "campsites" for the Giant otters, where they do what we called the “poop dance.” They all use the same area to use the bathroom, and they always mix the excrement before they use the area. No one really knows why. This is one campsite we found. We collected this and washed it. Then, scientists take the remaining fish scales and bones to figure out what the otters have been eating.

Because the wet season floods most of the banks otters use to set up camp, we had difficulty spotting otters. In the end, our team of teachers was lucky to see 2 neotropical otters, and 3 giant otter sightings. Only the last sighting, shown in the video here, was long enough to really study. This family of giant otters stuck around for 30 seconds in plain view, and I was lucky to get this video footage. I am excited that Mr. Barroeta will be using this footage to help identify the otters in his research.

An incredible adventure!

Since the internet was down at the our research site, I was unable to post information about our daily adventures. So, I will try to summarize my experience and learning on the amphibians and reptiles project, the otter project, and my overall reflections on the trip.

Amphibians and Reptiles:

We called this project the "herps" project, which is short for "herpetofauna." (Of course, "herps" is not to be confused with another similar 2 syllabus word!) Ellen Wang, pictured on the left looking for frogs, was our Principal Investigator. This means she is the head scientist in charge of the research. Dr. Mata Kiefer also joined us. Mostly, we were looking for new species of

frogs, lizards, and snakes that had not been identified before. We did this by walking very quietly through the forest trying to catch them, and by checking traps that the scientists had set up previously that looked like this:

One of my fellow teachers caught this snake that was unfamiliar to the researchers. Using a identification key, we helped identify the genus of this snake, which is Tantilla.

Here are some of the frogs my fellow teachers caught that were strange to the scientists.

Ms. Wang preserved them after we caught them, and our team of teachers helped her tag them. If they are new discoveries, scientists must have these specimens as proof. They recently emailed pictures of these frogs to fellow scientists to confirm

their hypotheses. One of them was really interesting, because when predators approach it, it shows its backside like the picture on the right. Can you figure out why?

The most exciting adventure during the herps project was the night trek. We headed into the pitch dark forest to look for frogs. Ms. Percival from Boston Day and Evening Academy and I felt quite ridiculous wearing our headlamps and mosquito headnets, but were quite glad we had them on in the end!

That particular evening, the researchers were trying to match the many frog calls and the frog species. Ms. Wang found one, whose scientific name is Leptodactylus podicipimus, while it was making its sound. Even though I was knee deep in piranha-infested waters in the pitch dark with mosquitoes swarming everywhere and even though I thought I had a snake on my leg for a moment, it was exciting to be there for the discovery! I was able to catch some great video footage of it, which is below. I was so excited when she told me that she might use it for her research! Hope you have enjoyed reading this information about herps. Coming soon is some information on the otter project!