Snail Guide

These pics are from the Puerto Rico Snail Field Guide.

Yummy

Pinchos (meat on a stick), Bacalaitos (a fried cod/white fish fritter), and hot oil Pulpo (octopus) from the can with ritz crackers....yum....snailer's delight. Nearly all of the kiosks provide these delicious foods. Their mangos and coconuts are delicious as well. But getting the coconuts takes a skilled person...

DayGlo Hammers

So how does one justify buying 3 hammers at $35 a pop? Its simple really, make a game out of it.

Home Depot hammers were purchased initially to pound pvc stakes into the groud. Since the work takes place in the forest the bright orange would be easily spottedin the litter.

"Los Hammeros," perverted Spanglish at its peak, was invented by snailers for snailers. Its like horseshoes. There are 3 teams of 2, you throw your hammer and try to get the closest to the pvc stake (which can easily be placed on a beach :-). If your hammer is the closest, you get 1 point, if you're within a handle, you get 3 points, if you get a leaner, that's 5 points. If your team is desperate for points, you can throw over the head backwards to double your points. (Yes, an over the head backwards leaner has been accomplished). The first team to 15 and winning by 2, wins. There are some other rules but those are the main points.

(no snails are harmed in the playing of the Los Hammeros)

A similar game can also be played back in oklahoma with a frisbee, 4 solo cups, and 4 bamboo sticks. Just ask me another time, lol.

raining in the rain forest....what?!

These pics are before the rain...

The videos below are during the rain! So I'm supposed to gather my last bit of data tonight but there has been too much rain. The thunder quaked the whole mountain earlier, that was amazing.

all work and no play...not for the snailers

So being at El Verde Field Station doesn't mean all work all the time. There is time for exploring, going out to dinner (even if its just pinchos en pinones) and playing pool. With the station full of people from U. Mass., Colombia, U. Conn., Univ. Puerto Rico, Ohio, Chicago, and more individuals working on research from different locations, then all of the REU students (Research Experiences for Undergraduates), there are plenty of people to have a good time with and also talk to about their research and graduate school experiences. (its like I have 10 mentors instead of 1! )

The first set of pictures are from Michael (RET; research education for teachers) and I. I told him about this nice cold swimming hole that's a short hike from the station. When we got there there we saw this tree that fell over the water, so no swimming here for now. Luckily, there are many swimming areas all around. If the rain ever stops (we ARE in a rainforest during rainy season), we'll go to another one. Back in the states I'm creeped out by snakes in swimming holes. Here in El Yunque I dont' have to worry about it. There's the Puerto Rican Boa but its been years since anyone has seen one. And there is a racer, which apparently doesn't come into the forest. So the only large critters in the tributaries and rivers here are fish, shrimp, and crabs.

At least once in the summer the snail crew takes a drive to old san juan for our tradiational dinner and pool playing. Old San Juan makes me homesick for NOLA. We had a nice dinner of Mofongo (plantain based) then some COMPETITIVE (joking of course) pool playing.

So we have tonight off since there has been too much rain and that's great because its someone's 28th birthday. That means good food, good music, salsa dancing, and throwing hammers (to be explained in another post).

Sampling Snails

So once a snail is found in a given site what happens? They're measured and tagged on the spot.

Since I'm not particularly fond of taking my camera into the field with me at night, I took the below pics here at the station during the day to help understanding.

This medium sized Caracola is 22.5mm in diameter.

I gave a temporary tag (using tape for this example) to this snail finding its way up a concrete post. Instead of smiley faces with crazy hair, the snails are actually tagged with 4 different colors of flagging and a letter/number combo. We attach the flagging to the snail with nontoxic super glue. To the best of anyone's knowledge, this does not give a disadvantage to the snails in terms of being prey.

Caracolus caracola

The close up picture is from the snail guide used here. The other pictures are mine.Say hello to my little friends! This snail is the star of my research, Caracolus caracola. Their shell diameters can be about the size of a tennis ball and its believed that they can live as long as 10-15 years. i'm sampling this guy in two forest types: the "forest-forest" and juxtaposed forest that was a coffee plantation. The plantation was abandoned in about 1928. So far, I have found about 4x's more caracolas on the abandoned coffee plantation site than the "forest-forest" site. I will blog more about the research at a later time.