Pictures from the Jungle

march 2005

june 3

june 4

june 5

here is a beautiful Boa constrictor that Chuck caught when we visited BFREE in March.

and a Morelet's crocodile that we thought was a log at first.
"Man, that stick looks like a.... CROCODILE!!!"

In the airport with way too much gear (but honestly, how much would you take for 77 days?)

After arriving in Belize City at noon, we sat at the bus "station" as the
center of attention with all of our stuff, then took a 6 hour (school) bus ride.

finally, after dark, we made it to the entrance road to BFREE,
and Jake picked us up in his monster truck to drive the 6 miles back to BFREE!

here is a panoramic shot of the river. note how low, slow and clear. very nice for snorkeling with the cichlids.

Look at this longhorn beetle someone brought to dinner! huge!! he didn't bite me,
but tried his hardest by pulling my finger towards his mandibles with his hooked feet. ouch!

and isn't this the creepiest thing ever? It's a tailless whipscorpion. yuck. (almost life size)

Later that night we found a group of tiny baby tarantulas walking single file! it was terribly cute.
Chuck emailed around to see if this was well known, and apparently there is only one paper about it, from Belize. shucks.

Here is our cute house. The tin roof is awesome in the rain, but heats up like
an oven in the sun. That blue tarp under the water vat is our shower. fancy, eh?
The tree is an avocado tree that regularly drops avocados on our roof!

here are some very common Zebra Longwing Butterflies (Heliconius charitonius) we found
roosting one evening (dusk). Look at that guy flying at the bottom left! awesome!

Here's a female basilisk lizard caught in the act of laying eggs!
And a garden snake (Coniophanes schmidti) who found hers 2 nights later!

Here is a big male basilisk lizard, Basiliscus vittatus, that lives by our
house and tortures Chuck because he can't catch it.

So Chuck was emailing with his advisor Kurt, and Kurt asked if they had his favorite lizard,
the casque-headed lizard here in Belize. We replied, "think so", and ten minutes later look what
a beauty we found!!! a casque-headed lizard or old man lizard, Corytophanes hernandezii.

Then after lunch, Jacob, the manager of BFREE, brought us a vine snake, Oxybelis aeneus, that he found on a hike.
It has a really cool behavior where whenever its moving it keeps it's tongue extended and still, and
the coloration of it's head continues onto it's tongue. But we couldn't photograph that (despite 50+ tries).
Here's a picture we did get.

And here's Chuck demonstrating the proper and not so proper way to hold a snake.

Back home in Texas, my wonderful dog Blue passed away at age 14.
I miss her dearly.

Here is a mother tarantula and her nest full of babies. see that close one in the lower right corner?
the whole right wall of the burrow is covered with little babies! we checked her nest nightly in hopes to see the
babies dispersing, but after 3 nights of hanging out in the burrow, the spiders dispersed without telling us.

Here is a beautiful blunt-headed tree snake, Imantodes cenchoa, that Chuck found as we were walking at night.
Unlike most of our snakes, this one sat pretty for the picture.

Here is a shot of the Transporter, our connection to the world.
It houses the satellite phone and internet. We worship it.

Did you ever wonder where baby Basilisk lizards sleep?
Why in the river, of course!

Here are some big fish at a deep spot in the river.
They make nice swimming spots a little less inviting (the small ones are close relatives to pirhanna).

Kelly brought us a beautiful king snake, Lampropeltis triangulum, that she found while hiking.
Unfortunately, it bit Chuck every chance it got (which is why there are no pictures of me holding it.).

Local Belizeans at play (dice) after a long day of work. Phillipa, Carolina, and Tom.

Jake and Kelly took us to Punta Gorda to stock up on food, and we got so much that the truck was packed!!

That night, while putting away the chickens, Jake found a baby tropical
rat snake at the chicken coop. Here are Jess and Mike holding the snake.

And the at the outhouse (you can always find something cool at the outhouse!),
I found an awesome turnip-tailed gecko, Thecadactylus rapicauda. It also bit Chuck and did not want to let go.

Here's a cool behavior where it licks its eyeball to keep it clean!! Kurt, do you see this?!

Chuck spent all day photographing the snakes we had caught, and they came out awesome!

On our own, today was the day the Marlins left for the states and left us on our own!! ACK!!
Left to right, Jacob, Shaman, Sofia, Carolina and Kelly holding Hyla.

Here is a nice shot up river from the crossing of the Bladen River and Richardson Peak.
Plant people, there are lots of plants in here!

Last night we were twiddling our thumbs at dinner because it has been raining tons and there weren't any frogs out.
then Tom, a Mayan guy who works here at BFREE said "I hear the frogs." "One?" I replied. "No, thousands." Hot Damn!!

this is the famous red-eyed tree frog. looks familiar from the calendars, eh?
these were the first ones i've ever seen in the wild!!

These are the crazy Mexican burrowing toads, Rhinophrynus dorsalis. They live underground and only come
to the surface 2-3 days a year to breed. and WE SAW THEM!! they are the crazy moo sounds in the frogs
chorus. They blow up like balloons when they are calling, and feel like jelly because of their loose skin.
I caught one, but he slimed my hand. and here is a mated pair in amplexus!

This is a small treefrog, Hyla microcephala. My advisor Kent studied them a lot in
Panama and I'm going to see if they have similar calls and behaviors here.

At the swamp we find the craziest things, like this caterpillar with an 80's hairstyle!!
Can anyone tell me more about it?

Tonight there were more frogs at the swamp, including the adorable Hyla ebraccata.
This calling male is a little bigger than life size.

And here is perhaps our favorite picture overall. Chuck's calendar worthy shot of Hyla ebraccata.

Here's a huge millipede that we found walking last night! when we harassed it,
it secreted cyanide at us which dyed Chuck's fingers orangish-brown.

Here is a male anole, Norops lemurinus. Some individuals have amazing patterns,
and he was not one of them. But a good picture, nontheless.

Here is an awesome lizard that the Mayan guys, Tom and Pop, found for us at the sawmill.
It has super powerful jaws and was one of the animals that didn't bite Chuck.
This is a Yellow-spotted Night lizard, or Lepidophyma flavimaculatum.
Isn't he cute? I love that face. So serious.

Here is a racer, Dryadophis melanolomus, that Chuck caught near the kitchen.
They are super fast and only sit still for a brief moment!

Here is a cat-eyed snake, Leptodira serpentalis. We found him hunting frogs at our pond.
He also did not want to sit still and kept diving off the branch.

Ahhh, the beach. nice, eh? too bad it took a whole day of traveling - biking (in the mud),
hiking, hitch hiking, waiting for boats and such, to get there.
He's almost a Corona commercial, isn't he?

Though we wanted to stay at the beach a little longer, we had to set off and
travel back to the jungle. Here is the dock at Placencia as we wait for the boat, the Hokey Pokey.

Two days earlier we had to wait for an hour to catch the boat to Placencia. This man offered me a seat
and brought me mangos. And though we couldn't understand each other (or maybe just I him), we had a nice visit.

After the boat ride and a bus ride, we were at the sawmill and ready to hike back in the 6 miles to the station.
Here is a view from the road of where we start hiking and where we end up 2-3 hours later (to the right of that small hill).

But, because nothing is ever easy, we had to wait out the rain a bit before we started hiking.

But the rain had other plans and rained the whole day,
making the road more of a muddy stream than a dirt road.

At one point we had to drag our dirt-caked bikes through water almost waist deep
and just guess where the road was. Yuck.

That night, because of all the rain, the Mexican burrowing toads were calling again.
We had Pop and Tom help us try to find them, but they were too skittish and we didn't see any.
Here is a shot of Pop, Tom and Chuck all dirty and damp in the swamp.

The red-eyed treefrog, Agalychnis callidryas, lays its eggs on the under sides of leaves,
where they develop into tadpoles and then fall into the water upon hatching.
Here is a shot of some developing tadpoles still in the egg. Isn't it awesome?!!

Although we seem to have very bad luck with red snakes, Chuck managed
to catch and photograph this little coffee snake, Ninia sebae.

We found this cute bug on Chuck's shirt while we were watching frogs. Aren't these amazing antenna?
Entomologists!! I need your help! what is this?

The jungle is a tough place to live, and it literally is eat or be eaten.
Sadly for this frog, Hyla microcephala, calling for mates is a dangerous activity.
Can anyone ID this spider for me?

Later that night we heard a kinkajou crashing through the trees. It actually sat and watched us for a while as I took pictures.
The flash didn't reach him, and so the picture's not so great, but you can tell what it is!

Here is an awesome dragonfly with rainbow eyes that I found in the swamp.
Can anyone tell me what kind it is?

Our friend Jon Richmond studies skinks and desperately wants us to catch one for his research.
We didn't get the right genus, but it is a skink! Mabuya unimarginata. These guys climb around in the space
between the screen and the thatch roof eating bugs and tormenting Chuck because it's so hard to catch them.

The curse of the red snakes!
We have seen 6 coral snakes (Micrurus sp.), but only managed to catch 3 and photograph 1.
They are fast as hell and bite nonstop. Luckily they are always biting rubber tongs or rubber boots
and not Chuck. Here is the one we photographed after much frustration.

I found these two cute teal and pink bugs mating on the lime tree. tsk tsk! Anyone know what they are?

Happy Fourth of July!! There was no celebration here in Belize. sad. Chuck and I hiked out to get our visas
extended in Punta Gorda. But the truck was out of gas so we had to drive 25 miles in other direction first. It was a long day.
On the way back we pulled over and I asked Chuck to take a picture of this really big Ceiba tree on the hill
in the distance, but I think he got distracted by the very strange road signs they have here. I'm afraid of what lies ahead!

This truly is an amazing place to see insects. I almost have more pictures of bugs than of herps!!
Tonight we found a huge clump of HUGE caterpillars on a tree in the garden. They disperse at
night to feed on the tree and come back together every day to rest. What are they?

I'm starting to believe that Chuck really does have a connection with nature. Here he's holding a pygmy kingfisher
that sleeps in our swamp. Chuck slowly puts his finger under his feet and the kingfisher doesn't even know what's happening!!

Today we went hiking up river with the Bladen Park Rangers. It kicked our butts,
but was awesome and we saw some great animals!!

Within an hour of hiking, we found some spider monkeys!!! Unfortunately the pictures
aren't amazing, but you can tell they're monkeys! Who's watching who?

Holy Rock! Here is Canti at Holy Rock, an amazing rock that overhangs the river
with vines to swing off of and holes to jump out of into the river.

We were near the end of the hike, taking a rest at the end of first creek. We told Martin that this was the place where
we took the crocodile picture in March. HE climbed up the bank to look for a croc, and found a fer de lance instead!
"Chuck! Yellow jaw!!" he yelled, and it took both Chuck and me a second to figure out what he was
talking about. Then we scrambled up the bank and saw it!! Isn't she beautiful?!

As Chuck went to catch the fer de lance all of the Rangers ran far out of the way. I stayed close to photograph,
but was so excited that you can see I didn't do a very good job. Chuck carefully hooked the BIG snake
and put her in the bag without upsetting her. Doesn't this picture make your (fellow non-snake handlers) knees wobbly?

Once we all were clean and rested, Chuck put the snake in a tube so we could hold it and measure it (5ft!!).
I convinced Martin that it was safe, but he wasn't too sure. Maybe he didn't trust my grip, but I wasn't about to let go!

Tonight we decided to hike down to First Creek to look for glass frogs (Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni),
but we didn't find any. The stream was flowing very fast and it was difficult to hear any clear calls.
We did however, find this awesome "Tina Turner" caterpillar (ID?) that probably isn't nice to hold.

And because we are always trying to please, we found a Banded Gecko (Coleonyx elegans)
and took more photos of spectacle-wiping for Kurt. Pretty cool, huh?

A little bit further down the trail I found an old man lizard (Corytophanes cristatus) sleeping on a branch
and screamed so loud with excitement that Chuck thought I found a Boa or something!
And this was another lizard that Kurt wanted to see! It was Kurt's night!
Here is the lizard in his threat display when we photographed him in the daylight.

Chuck woke up this morning and sensed something was wrong. The river was extremely loud,
there were frogs calling from the kitchen and the trails had turned into streams!!
He ran to get me and we saw that the river was coming!!!

The first thing we did was grab the baby chickens and put them in the kitchen. The chicken coop normally is quite dry.

Then as we walked towards the river on the "trails", we were in disbelief of what was
happening and how much water was rushing down the trail.

We came around the bend to see the river and were totally shocked!! Now we know where the
water was coming from!!! Remember this river from the calm clear snorkeling pictures?! We barely can!
The river must have risen about 15ft to break the bank and send water gushing up to the garden! HOLY CRAP!
I grabbed the puppies and put them in the river house so they wouldn't get washed away,
but Genevive likes to live life on the edge.

Then we walked up to the Blue Pool to see what was happening, but it is now the Raging Brown Torrent of Hell (according to Chuck).
The river normally has a sharp bend in it, but it decided to cut across that, leaving the whole area flattened and covered in debris and silt.
Chuck took a wrong step and discovered just how much silt there was! He was stuck until I stopped laughing and
realized how creepy it was to be stuck that close to a raging river with huge trees rushing down it.

Here's a shot from CT in May of Chelsea and Chuck (temporarily possessed by Paris Hilton).

Ok, so we all thought the 5ft fer de lance was very impressive. But last night we topped that!!!
We went to put the chickens to bed and found an
8 ft Boa constrictor!!!
trying to get into the cage!!! It all happened so quickly that we can barely remember it,
but we saw the tail, Chuck said "Oh man, that's a BIG one!!", I almost passed out and then I
ran back to the house to get a snake hook. Chuck caught it (at this point she was covered in chicken poop)
and she hissed the whole way as we brought her to show the rangers and Tom and Pop. They were all scared and
only Pop touched the snake. It was awesome!!! Here are some pictures of me and Chuck holding our 8ft boa
back in the kitchen, all gross and dirty. Look at how HUGE and heavy she is!!

We all tried to wake up early this morning to photograph the boa before the Rangers left. Chuck and I don't look so awake.
Here's the obligatory "stretch out big snake group picture".

Isn't this a pathetic looking pup? Here's Copal trying to be a hippopotamus!!
(I wish dogs could talk and he could tell me what stung him!!)

Chuck and I went out to Placencia again to relax and buy some fresh vegetables.
ya know just a quick run to the store. ha! We had Dale Gomez drive us in so we
could stock up on groceries, dog food and beer. (SO glad we weren't hiking!!!)
Look at that clean truck!!

Wouldn't it be a sight to see him riding down the highway?!! Hard to tell if he's got it powering
his bike or he's just out for a joy ride! Apparently riding 6 miles in the mud with a lawn mower on your bike
is worth it not to cut the grass by hand with a machete! who knew?!

Today we went canoed around the lagoon to get pictures of these amazing birds, Agami herons.
There are lots of them nesting on tree islands in the lagoon and they make a funny hissing sound
when you come close. There were also the occasional Boat-billed herons clacking at us
and laughing as they flew away. Look at those feathers! Aren't these birds unbelievably beautiful?

Here is another cute Blunt-headed vine snake, Imantodes cenchoa, that Chuck found along the trail to our house.
This picture is much larger than the snake and its neck (and body) is pencil thin!

Today we took out the fer de lance for some more photos. Here's me looking happy as I hold her.
Put your pointer over the picture to see my reaction when she tries to escape!!

Here is a baby speckled racer (Drymobius margaritiferus) that Chuck found.
This picture is larger than life size and so is his eye! Crazy!

Here is a crazy bug that we found because it flew by us like a helicopter! Boy were we suprised
when we found it! Look at those fake eyes!!! Ok, now we know (with the help of entomologists) that this is a Stink bug
(Genus Peromatus, Family Pentatomidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera)) mimicing a cicada. But we still don't know
why something distasteful would mimic a tasty cicada. Any ideas?

Today we hiked down to the Blue Pool to see how different it was after the flood. Very different!
We saw a crocodile, Tapir tracks, and this troop of Howler monkeys that told us off.
Here is the alpha male making a funny face in between howling at us.

Today I climbed the tower (with a harness). It was great!! What a view! But once I was up
there the sky got ominous, so I hurried down (a huge lightning rod in a storm is a little scary).

The top of the tower is 145ft, and I was even higher than the ceiba tree!
Here is a nice shot of the school house, Forest Hill and Richardson Peak in the distance.

Today Canti, Martin and Eugene (Bladen Rangers) found us some great jaguar tracks in the sand across the river.
Here is a cast of the paw print of a mountain lion on the left, and a huge jaguar on the right.
Both of these tracks were less than 10 minutes from our house! Now we just need to see who left these!!

All pictures and sounds are property of Kristiina Hurme and Charles Smith.
Please do not use without our permission.
Email us at kristiina.hurme@uconn.edu and smithcf@hotmail.com.

Our Summer in the Jungle!!