One of the parts of my course I had been looking forward to from the very start was the field course. At Hull there are multiple options on where you can go, but for me the obvious choice was the Atlantic rainforest, Brazil. Despite being only around 8% of its original size, the forest has a rich biodiversity, being home to 60% of all of Brazil's threatened species. This fact also makes it an important site for conservation worldwide.
After a very long day of travelling, we arrived at the reserve natural vale in the central section of the forest. The reserve covers 23,000 hectares but was originally purchased to grow the invasive eucalyptus tree, in which case the remaining primary forest would have been lost. Luckily, the company instead invested on making part of the area attractive to tourists, but closed the majority for scientific research only. Going with the university, we were lucky enough to explore both areas.
The first day was spent around the accommodation and tourist side of the reserve. Beginning with an early morning walk focused on the birds we got our first glimpse at the immense variety of species. With Red-rumped cacique (Cacicus haemorrhous), palm tanagers (Thraupis palmarum), hummingbirds (Trochilidae) and plain parakeets (Brotogeris tirica) right on our doorstep, alongside lesser kiskadee (Pitangus lictor) and yellow-fronted woodpecker (Melanerpes flavifrons) hiding in trees around the corner the vibrant colours were a long way from birds we commonly find in the UK. A second walk later in the day took us in to our first section of primary forest; every tree had a different texture and tone with vibrant red fungi and unusual insects filling every crevice. Flying between the different plants were several butterfly species, most of which were in the Hamadryads or Heliconius families along with a couple of glass-winged species. We saw many more of these when we were lucky enough to visit the sites collection. This had hundreds of seed, fruit and insect specimens.
It was the second day however which I was most looking forward to, as this was the day we got to go deep in to the larger section of forest. This area is made up of a few different environments, the types we visited were the musanga, tabuleiro and the wet lands. Of these the tabuleiro is the type of forest most think of when they think of the rainforest, with trees towering well over the other forest sections. Musanga is the opposite, with smaller trees and a much higher ground density as the sandy soil prevents the tall trees thriving. The wetlands are how they sounds, with a much lower canopy the main focus is on the areas water bodies.
Before even leaving the accommodation site my day had been made as we spotted a group of tufted capuchins, Cebus apella in the jacana trees, Pouteria multiflora by reception. The playful group, which we then saw again several times over the week continued to jump around the trees above us for around twenty minutes before we left for the main forest. Some of the species we saw in the forest however couldn’t be beaten, form tent caterpillars (Malacosoma) to orchid bees (Euglossini) and trapdoor spiders (Ctenizidae), up to the forest only rabbit species (Siloy lagus), tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) and even a cougar (Puma concolor) being spotted, everyone saw something they found amazing.
The majority of the rest of my week was spent focusing on my project, which I decided to do on the correlation between head size and bite force across bats species in different diet groups. This was amazing to do. Unfortunately for us the week we went was close to full moon so less bats were flying, and due to a heavy wet period after a couple of dry years the number of mosquitoes, who didn’t care how much Deet you put on, was insanely high. However every time we got a bat it was worth it. Over the week we used three techniques. First was the traditional use of mist nets in an open space. After this provided very little data we decided to go to a roost, something we were told is good to avoid unless particularly desperate. This was very successful, catching over 40 bats, in four different species, but wanting a bit more variety we tried one more technique. This time putting the net over the lake we were able to catch a few species which would normally fly too high for the nets. Positioning them like this however meant they got caught when going down to the lake to drink. I am now in the process of analysing the data we collected.
Overall we caught nine species, Vampyressa pulsillia, Artibeus litulatus, Anoura geoffroyi, Corollia perspicillata, Trachops cirrhosus, Desmodus rotudus, Moloussus rofus, Moloussus molossus and Glossophaga sorineia. These species included bats that ate diets of nectar and fruit all the way to frog eating and vampire bats. Of these, my favourite was the Trachops cirrhosus, the frog eating bat. One of the larger bats the species has large ears and a nose leaf both of which aid its ability to echolocate in order to find food.
Throughout the week we saw so many other species it would be impossible to name them all, but as we produced a field journal I am glad that I will always be able to refer back and remind myself of everything which stood out to me. One part that made the trip so good was the fact I had an amazing group of people to share it with. Every second was filled with fun and jokes and everyone having a good time. This combined with the breath taking experience of being surrounded by so much wildlife and variety made it a week I will never forget.
I took hundreds of photos and videos throughout the week, some of which can be seen below. For more, have a look at my home page gallery, or for video clips, go to my video page!
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