BIO359-Field Biology
Monteverde Institute, Costa Rica 2004
June 17th (Thursday): San José
Arrival to Costa Rica
Arrival and check-in at Hotel Cacts
Orientation and Introduction to the course
Dinner
Lodging: Hotel Cacts
June 18th(Friday): San José and Santo Domingo, Heredia
Introduction to the History and Biodiversity of Costa Rica
The Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBioparque) is a non-government organization whose goal is to catalogue the biodiversity of Costa Rica. This enormous project started with cataloguing all the species of insects in Costa Rica, and has branched out to include plants and molluscs. INBioparque was developed as an answer to an increasing demand for information about the concept and importance of conserving biodiversity. INBioparque is an educational and recreational center where visitors can see samples of the biological diversity of Costa Rica, thus helping people understand the importance of preserving our biodiversity.
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to the National Museum of Costa Rica
12:00 Arrival to the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio)
Lunch en route
1:00 pm Site visit
Lecture on Bioprospection
5:00 pm Arrival to Hotel Cacts
6:00 pm Dinner
Wrap-up discussion
Lodging: Hotel Cacts
June 19th (Saturday): Puerto Viejo, Limón
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to Puerto Viejo de Limón
Stop at AVIARIOS (Sloth Rehabilitation Center)
Check-in at Hotel Almendros y Corales
Lunch
Pm Lecture: Sustainable Ecotourism Design
Time to spend at the beach
6:00 pm Dinner
Lodging: Hotel Almendros y Corales
June 20th (Sunday): Puerto Viejo, Limón
7:00 am Breakfast
Kekoldi Indigenous Reserve
6:00 pm Dinner
Lodging: Hotel Almendros y Corales
June 21st (Monday): Sarapiquí
Neotropical Center
The rich biodiversity of the Sarapiquí region of north-central Costa Rica make it an essential field visit for Monteverde Institute course participants. The Sarapiquí River is known for its spectacular wildlife, students will typically take a three-hour motorized boat trip up the Sarapiquí River. Three of Costa Rica’s four species of monkey are often visible, along with sloths and an array of aquatic birds. Banana plantations also reach right down to the water’s edge providing a good example of monocrop agriculture, and the entire process of banana production is explained as well as the social, economic and environmental impact in the region.
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to Sarapiquí via San Juan River
1:00 pm Lunch at Garza Azul
3:00 pm Check-in at Centro Neotrópico Sarapiquí
Orientation
5:00 pm Lecture: The Impact of Hydroelectric Projects in the Sarapiquí River
6:30 pm Dinner
Lodging: Centro Neotrópico Sarapiquí
June 22nd (Tuesday): Sarapiquí
La Selva Biological Station
La Selva is a biological station owned and managed by the Organization of Tropical Studies (OTS), La Selva was originally designed purely for research, and offers laboratory facilities for scientists. The station also conducts its own research, funded by outside sources, such as collaborating on the huge InBio project to catalogue every single living species in Costa Rica.
6:30 am Breakfast
7:30 am Depart to La Selva Biological Station
8:00 am Guided walk
Noon Lunch
1:00 pm Visit project
3:00 pm Return to Centro Neotrópico Sarapiquí
6:00 pm Dinner
Lodging: Centro Neotrópico Sarapiquí
June 23rd (Wednesday): Monteverde
Alternative Sources of Energy and Monteverde region
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Travel to Monteverde via Arenal
Lunch en route
Stop at Hot Springs
5:00 pm Check-in at Monteverde Student House
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Orientation to Monteverde
Lodging: Monteverde Student House
June 24th (Thursday): Monteverde
Introduction to Cloud Forest Ecology
The Monteverde Region is home to over one-third of Costa Rica’s wealth of flora, including over 450 species of orchids and more than half of Costa Rica’s 850 bird species including the famed and endangered d Resplendent Quetzal. The focus today will be on cloud forest ecology. Student s will explore the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. At the Hummingbird Gallery we’ll see Fogden’s natural History slide show and after that at least 7 different species of hummingbirds feeding on the feeders. After lunch you will have a couple of hours to walk the many trails on your own looking for Howler Monkeys and the famous Resplendent Quetzal .
6:30 am Breakfast, box lunch
7:30 am Depart to the Cloud Forest Reserve
8:00 am Guided walk
2:00 pm Orientation walk around Monteverde
6:00 pm Dinner
Lodging: Monteverde Student House
June 25th (Friday): Monteverde
Environmental History
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to the Monteverde Institute
8:30-10:00 am Spanish Classes
10:30 am Lecture: Environmental History
Return to the Monteverde Student House
Noon Lunch
Free time
Lodging: Monteverde Student House
June 26th (Saturday): Monteverde
Sustainable Agriculture
Finca La Bella is a cooperative farm located in the upper portion of the San Luis valley close to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve and the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. Families are currently producing coffee, milk and vegetables, and are conserving soil, improving yields and reforesting with local species. Visitors to Finca La Bella have the opportunity to learn about some of the sustainable production systems currently being used at the farm, and can enjoy interacting with local rural families. Finca La Bella is immensely important from a conservation point of view because it requires the creation of an economically and ecologically viable land mosaic for a successful buffer zone. This land has a high wildlife habitat value by providing food, shelter and breeding areas for native species and a combination of cultivated land and forest patches. The farm also provides connections between forest patches in the upper San Luis valley, strengthening critical biological corridors between major conservation areas at altitudes with relatively little forest cover.
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to the Monteverde Institute
8:30 am Spanish classes
10:30 am Depart to La Bella Farm
11:00 am Site visit and discussion
Lunch with a local family
2:30 pm Return to Monteverde
Free time
6:00 pm Dinner
Lodging: Monteverde Student House
June 27th (Sunday): Monteverde
Biological Field Investigations
7:00 am Breakfast
8: 00 Depart to the Monteverde Institute
8:30 am Spanish classes
9:30 am Visit various sites for data collection
Noon Lunch
Pm Data collection/time to process data
5:30 pm Dinner
6:30 pm Bat mist-netting with Dr. Richard LaVal
Lodging: Monteverde Student House
June 28th (Monday): Monteverde
Biological Field Investigations
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to the Monteverde Institute
9:30 am Visit various sites for data collection
Noon Lunch
Pm Time to process data
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Presentations
Lodging: Monteverde Student House
June 29th (Tuesday): Monteverde
San Gerardo Station
Part of the Monteverde Conservation League’s property, San Gerardo is a biological station on the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica. It is classified as Atlantic slope premontane rainforest. In 1991, the Monteverde Conservation League (MCL) bought most of the land in the San Gerardo area for inclusion in the BEN. They used funds from a debt-for-nature swap. Some landowners did not wish to sell or leave their land so the MCL entered into an agreement with community members to provide sustainable development of the area to improve local livelihoods, and to serve as an example to other communities. Funds were obtained for the construction of housing, a visitor center, laboratory space and an access road. A biological station was opened in 1994. Designed for researchers, San Gerardo now permits students to visit and enjoy its panoramic views of Arenal Volcano and trek through its surrounding forest. However San Gerardo has not been the successful sustainable development project that was once envisioned. Students will have the opportunity to visit the old abandoned town and discuss the social, economic and environmental issues involved in this development. Interpretive hikes may be taken both day and night, led by a local naturalist guide. Several sightings of the rare umbrella bird have been made by visitors to San Gerardo.
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to the Monteverde Institute
8:30 am Spanish classes
10:00 am Depart to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve
10:30 am Start hike down to San Gerardo Station
Check-in at the dorms
Noon Lunch
2:00 pm Guided walk
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Night walk
Lodging: San Gerardo
June 30th (Wednesday): Monteverde
San Gerardo Station
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Guided walk
Noon Lunch
Pm Lecture: History of San Gerardo and Social Cost for Conservation
6:00 pm Dinner
Lodging: San Gerardo
July 1st (Thursday): Monteverde
Forest Fragmentation and Biodiversity
The Monteverde region boasts not only cloud forest but wet Atlantic and drier Pacific slope forests. The latter are especially threatened by rapid development and deforestation. Many animals migrate annually down the slope and across the continental divide as they follow the ripening of fruits with the changing seasons, including the endangered three-wattled bellbird.
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Start hike up to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve
Noon Lunch at the Bellbird Conservation Center
2:00 pm Lecture: Natural History and Conservation of the Three- Wattled Bellbird and site visit at the Bellbird Conservation Center
6:00 pm Dinner
Lodging: Bellbird Conservation Center
July 2nd (Friday): Santa Rosa National Park
Las Pumas rehabilitation center takes care of injured wild cats and provides a home for those that cannot be released back into the wild. Las Pumas provides visitors with the unique opportunity to see all of the six neotropical cats in one location.
6:30 am Breakfast
7:30 am Depart to Santa Rosa
Stop at Las Pumas, wild cat rescue center
Lunch en route
Pm Check-in at the dorms of Santa Rosa
Orientation walks
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm lecture
July 3rd (Saturday): Monteverde Santa Rosa National Park
Santa Rosa National Park is found in north-western Costa Rica. It is an area of dry tropical forest, which, contrary to popular belief, is actually richer in biodiversity than tropical rainforest. Santa Rosa is ecologically unique because dry tropical forest is rapidly diminishing in Costa Rica. Here participants can study the acacia ant, mangrove forests and visit a nesting ground for sea turtles. But Santa Rosa is also an area of great historical and political significance; the site of many important events and battles in Costa Rica’s history, such as Casona. Students will explore some of these sites of national significance and learn some of Costa Rica’s political history.
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to Cuajiniquil
9:00 am Snorkeling at Muñecos Island
Noon Lunch
Pm Visit Junquillal Wildlife Refuge
Time to spend at the beach
5:00 pm Return to Santa Rosa
6:00 pm Dinner
July 4th (Sunday): Santa Rosa
FREE DAY!
Lodging: Guanacaste Conservation Area
July 5th (Monday): Rincón de la Vieja National Park
Rincón de la vieja is an important active volcano. It protects the cloud forest that feeds the Liberia aquifer. From this reservoir of water depends the most important populations of Guanacaste province. Also it receives the altitudinal migrants from Santa Rosa National parks during the dry season.
7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am Depart to Rincón de la Vieja
9:00 am Walk in volcanic trail
12:00 m Lunch
1:00 pm Walk to Laguna azul
5:00 pm return to Santa Rosa
July 6th (Tuesday):
Walk to Playa Naranjo and lecture on Mangroves)
July 7th (Thursday): San José
7:00 am Breakfast
8:30 am Depart to San José
Lunch en route
Pm Arrival and check-in at H. Cacts
7:00 pm Farewell dinner
July 8th (Friday): On to new adventures!