Sharp Things

Prickly Bombacopsis quinata with iguana leg and nails.

For about 2 days I was ill with some odd fever and G.I. unhappiness that left me without energy. Great guilt surrounds lost field days but I found I was too unfocused to write notes and I went to bed. Luckily, the downtime was short-lived.

The Pochote tree above is the smaller of two trees that create 'Big Tree'. Amazing to see iguanas climb up its branches, rest on its thorns, stretch from those sharp points to eat leaves now and flowers during the height of the dry season. (This tree is an IUCN red list threatened species.)

Kaplan as a slug on a log.

Males quietly creep around the edges, coming a few meters into the station, slipping back behind a building or further into the woods. Their camouflage is very effective.

Tomorrow is more testing, a visit to a potential second study population, and finishing some writing. It rained twice this evening so should be a buggy day. Oddly, the bites, though annoying, aren't giving me waves of histamine so that I need to retreat. Not to test the fates, but I can hope I'm developing a smidge of resistance.