the mile marker

this week’s news from Jalova Biological Research Station, 5th february 2010

country directors invade

Base hasn’t looked so neat and tidy since five minutes before our volunteers arrived...
On Wednesday we welcomed a mass invasion of GVI big cheeses in the form of most of the company’s
Country Directors. In Costa Rica for a few days, they dropped
by to cast a collective eye over the new expedition base, and
we’re pleased to report that they liked what they saw (thus
making this editor’s job a lot easier this week). Represent-
ing expeditions from Guatemala, Kenya, South Africa, Thailand
and, well, St Albans (ok, that would be GVI’s UK office) our
visitors took the tour under the guidance of our own Field
Co-ordinator Sara, and Country Director Dave. Also with the
group was Stephan, who will soon be stepping into Dave’s role
and was keen to see what he’d got himself into. After heading
up the Patagonia expedition for three and a half years Stephan
was finding the tropical heat a little challenging, but otherwise
is clearly looking forward to making his home at Jalova.
As well as inspecting the base, our visitors were eager to chat with staff and volunteers on the expedi-
tion. Over lunch (the directors had apparently bought up the entire stock of Tortuguero’s best bakery on
their way over), and several gallons of coffee, the exchange of stories, ideas, and no doubt email addresses
flourished. Did we talk? It’s possible that the beasts of the jungle were reaching for earplugs before we
were done.

survey news: bird!

Bird survey reccies continued
this week, with more promising
routes assessed. Progress was
briefly halted by our propeller
catching a few weeds, but with
Rich at the helm and a little help
from Jo (see photo) we were
soon back in business.
Sierpe Viejo and Caño ‘Austra-
lio’ (named in a moment of in-
spiration by Rich, thanks to the
presence of Australian volunteer
Emily in the boat) both look
very promising for future survey
work.
Rich has had a busy week, and his
personal highlight has to be the
incontrovertible sighting of the
legendary and elusive Agami Below: boat maintenance on the go:
heron (Agamia agami). Rich and Jo keep things running smoothly
Eye-witness accounts have it that on bird reccie
Rich lost control of the boat and
‘did a little dance’, such was his
excitement at finally getting to
see an agami in the flesh. As it
happened, the agami had some
competition from a particularly
fascinating iguana which was di-
verting the attention of most of
the boat at the time. It was only
when Rich pointed out, calmly,
that there was something more
interesting to see that binoculars
were appropriately aimed.
A GOOD
NIGHT IN
This week, one of the UK’s
better traditions was brought to
our jungle home. After days of
secretive plotting, whispering in
corners, and shuffling of papers,
Rich and Russell were ready to
entertain us all with the first ever
GVI Jalova Pub Quiz. Although
there were sadly no pint glasses in
evidence, peanuts were dished out
to add an air of authenticity.
Six teams hotly contested the
rounds, which included history,
sport, general knowledge, geog-
raphy and music. I am asked to
remind readers that the team “Hey,
Look At Me!” excelled in the ge-
ography round (thanks Anja, Molly
- harrassing the editor works.)
Closely fought then, but the win-
ners were Men Behaving Badly
(Jonathan, Harvard, Andrew and
Jeremy) who got to down an ex-
clusive bottle of vintage Frontera
for their troubles.
Thanks to Rich and Russell - we
look forward to the next one.
survey news: mammals
incident report
Another good week for inciden- came across a coral snake on
tals comes to an end, and here the trail.
are the highlights: Finally, the mammal transect
Anja and Leonie were having a team were treated to the sight
chat on the beach right outside of a couple of Chestnut man-
base on Thursday morning, when dibled toucans (Ramphastos
they were lucky enough to see swainsonii) perching above them
a Northern Raccoon (Procyon on the trail as they returned to
lotor) strolling by. The raccoon base. All good data for inciden-
was foraging in the vegetation, tals, and a reminder perhaps of
with its head down and its tail how lucky we are to be so im-
up, and seemed unconcerned by mersed in Costa Rica’s awesome
the presence of GVI representa- biodiversity.
tives as it scuttled on its way.
Jag cams were out in
the week and caught
a glimpse of an agouti
and a red brocket deer.
The deer was apparent-
ly as interested in them
as they were in it, and
stopped for a long look
before blending into the
forest.
On the primate moni-
toring survey this week
the team had an exotic
encounter when they
The mammal
transect team
had another good
week, with two
endagered species
- tapir and jaguar
tracks recorded
on the transect. In
fact they saw tapir
tracks twice and
jaguar tracks three Above: coral snake and
times. Tapir tracks chestnut mandible toucans
(thanks to Linda and Sara
are huge (at around for the photos)
18cm across) and
once seen never
forgotten. Early re-
sults are promising
then for this route.