the coot and i

The weirdness that is my life goes on unabated. I came back from the gym to the department at 10:15 pm, only to come face to face with an immature coot in front of the Gilbert building. It was probably dispersing from a nearby nest, perhaps near Lagunita and was attracted by the lights. I jumped off the bike and ran after it. I thought I saw a leg band. It ran towards the bike rack and leapt off to the receiving area's parking lot 5 m below. it sat there, dazed and i biked around the building and down into the lot, when it took off running behind the cars and then the massive trash bins. i banged on them, the coot ran into nook 2 feet tall. i crouched and entered but it ran right past me at what felt like 20 km/hour, a fat gray thing with stuby wings, legs of an ostrich, and feet of a clown. i kept running after it in the parking lot, hoping a cop would not come down and see me in biking tights and a tanktop running after a flightless bird. the bastard then entered the dense thicket on the way down to the lot. it is 5 by 15 meters and pretty impenetrable. i looked at the ground level and pushed my way in, getting scratched in the process. i kept making a racket, hoping to drive it towards the other end where there is a wall and it is less open. i was below the windows of the chemistry building and it occurred to me that if a cop came then, it'd be very hard to explain what i was doing there (i am looking for a flightless waterbird that somehow got here in the middle of the night and that you cannot see right now). i finally got him trapped at the other end but it ran back and forth and my flying tshirt missed it. it went back to the dense end and i decided that only running through it like an elephant could maybe scare it. after some minutes of searching, i finally gave up at 10:45 and popped out of the 2 meter tall thicket, only to come face to face with a thin blond girl leaving her lab. A Middle Eastern man in tights and a tanktop that pops out of a thicket in a dark parking lot in the middle of the night is every woman's nightmare and just as i was waiting for her to scream, i saw the young coot sitting on the pavement between the two of us and shouted "catch him!" and ran after the bird. She flailed her arms not much different than the coot flailed its stubby wings as it took off running again, but this time i was determined. the coot was cornered and just as it turned away to run again, i threw my tshirt over it and my aim was accurate. as the girl looked at me in shock and awe, i explained that this was probably a dispersing juvenile from a nearby pond. i was disappointed to see that what i thought was a leg band was just the leg shining in the light. i took him to my office and put it in a dark box to release it tomorrow morning at a nearby pond.

Importance of bird banding (ringing)

Here is another story that shows the importance of banding (ringing) birds. These birds' record-long lives would not have been known without the identifying bands (rings) they had.

http://www.birdwatch.co.uk/website/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1502&Itemid=32

Costa Rica: Snakes, San Jose and Sarapiqui

Snakes and snake bites

CR is rich in snakes but you would be lucky to see these shy animals, many of which are not poisonous. Nevertheless, be cautious in especially the lowland rain forest. The biggest poisonous snake is the bushmaster (matabuey) but one of the smaller ones, the eyelash viper also needs caution. It will often curl on branches and even leaves at eye or arm level. My friend and top costa Rican ornithologist Jim Zook was bitten by one in the middle of the Braulio Carrillo National Park. He tied his arm to his body to minimize blood flow, hiked to his car for two hours, and after a week in hospital when his arm was the size of his leg, he made it without any loss, so can you.

Make sure to keep the bitten area as immobile as possible, like you would do with a broken limb. Sucking the venom or cutting the area to get the blood are not effective and increase the spread of venom. Use a tourniquet above the area that is bitten to keep the venom from spreading. One of the most dangerous is fer-de-lance (terciopelo) that often bites campesinos clearing the fields. La Selva research station is particularly rich in snakes, but bites are exceedingly rare. Coral snakes and sea snakes are exceedingly poisonous too, but are quite shy and with small fangs and you would have to try hard to get bitten


Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqu and La Selva Biological Station

Until 50 years ago, when the road was completed, this was one of the most remote parts of the country. It still has some amazing forest, very accessible at La Selva biological station, a crown jewel of tropical forest research. Only researchers can stay overnight but you can stay in the town nearby and do day tours with expert local guides. Animals are not hunted so can often be seen in proximity. It is also a fantastic place for birds and snakes. Nearby Selva Verde lodge is also a favorite of wealthy birders.

Rara Avis, designed by the biologist Amos Bien, is a little-visited haven in the middle of 3200 acres of montane rainforest. Reached from the village of Horquetas, 11 miles south of Puerto Viejo De Sarapique, the four-hour hike or tractor ride is half the fun of going there. The resulting seclusion means you will be far from the beaten path and fully lose yourself in the rainforest, while benefiting the local community. Also great birdwatching.

San Jose, the capital

Although San Jose is a pretty disappointing capital for Central America, its climate is quite pleasant. Violent crime is on the rise, with the "Coca-Cola" area and the market especially risky. Also be careful around the bus terminals and stay with your luggage until the bus is ready to leave. Hotel Bougainvilla provides a relaxing oasis if you can afford it. Highly recommended and good-priced is Hotel Amistad http://www.hotelamistad.com/, in a peaceful part of San Jose, close to a great restaurant and within walking distance of the city centre and the zoo. Top choice of scientists passing through. They arrange excellent day tours all over the central valley and up to La Selva. In the city, try to visit Zoo Ave, Jade Museum, Spirogyra butterfly garden and the World of Snakes. Be aware that Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo, Quebrada Gonzales trail (others not very safe) is only one hour away from San Jose and is a great example of Caribbean foothill rainforest. Nearby is the aerial tram, also recommended.

Bears, guns and pepper spray

This is a comment on this article:

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/bear-attack-not-to-worry/#comment-118114

I had a personal experience when pepper spray was catastrophically ineffective against a grizzly in Alaska. I worked for Dr. Colleen Handel's USGS NBS bird project in Alaska's Wrangell-St Elias National Park in summer 1997. We all had to carry bear -grade (2 million unit) pepper sprays. One of the assistants was attacked by a grizzly in June and she hit the bear right in the face with the spray. The bear slammed her down, she got into the tortoise position and got slammed down twice when she looked up. She finally gave up but the bear walked away after some time. Fortunately her field partner had ran off to seek help. They evac'ed her to Juneau where she had over 300 stitches and came back to the project after a month. Brave woman. Three weeks later, they found her pepper spray can completely chewed up by the angry bear. Seasoning I guess.

After this, we got trained by the Feds and a former bear poacher in a plea bargain in the use of Navy-issue shotguns with three-inch slugs. We had to keep the safety off to be ready to shoot in the dense spruce forest with little visibility.

One day I was measuring a tree with two others, the guns on the ground. I heard a rustle and looked up to see a griz charging from 20 yards away. I opened my mouth to shout "bear" but no sound came. I ran to the gun. With two colleagues around me, I decided not to load it as I was turning. I flinched in expectation of the bear slamming into me. When I turned, the bear was running away. The other biologist had shouted "Dont run" at me, which was enough to scare the bear. The whole thing was less than a second. Until that point, I was not sure if I could shoot a majestic grizzly, but I was glad to have the gun. Later that summer, I spent two weeks in Denali National Park backcountry, backpacking alone without a gun, sometimes a quarter mile away from a griz. I still think a gun is not necessary 99.99% of the time. And there is a thrill about not being the top predator out there.