Well we're well into the early wet season, but I'm a little behind in these blog posts. Many organisms tend to emerge after the first rains start the build. Here I have a couple of wonderful turtles! Once the rains started, I was seeing at least one turtle per day. Here are two that I saw within half an hour during a walk home from the monkeys in the afternoon. I love seeing turtles in the wild, there's an aura about them that donates instant happiness as soon as you come across them. Perhaps one can attribute this feeling to their utmost innocence; certainly a "flight" response animal (besides snapping turtles of course), but in their unique way of fleeing into their portable home. No one can argue that this behaviour is not cute as hell.
In addition to turtles, we often find many adult insects emerging, bird songs amplify the chilled forest fog, and the monkeys stop resting and starting running almost non-stop! In particular, this is a time when the short-lived insect congregations grace us with their presence. First, the fireflies gradually build in number over a period of a week or two until they reach capacity, yes, capacity In. The. Jungle. Picture a firefly disco that enables three-dimensional views of the forest in pure darkness during early hours of the night. It's completely mind-blowing! This level of firefly density lasts only one or, if you're lucky, two nights in the year. Possibly my favourite night of the year in Santa Rosa, however, I have yet to experience the late rainy season from September until December. I'm very excited to see the kinds of rain I will experience then! Second, the adult sexual termites (that's what entomologists call a caste within a social insect family that usually possesses a pair of wings for the sole purpose to fly out of the colony to mate) gravitate towards all light fixtures. Therefore, our well-lite buildings in the park are flooded with flying termites! This, however, is more fascinating than disturbing especially since the termites are busy with one thing on the mind, and it's not to bite or disturb humans...This event lasts ONE night in the year. Quite a remarkable behaviour if you ask me. However, this year, in Santa Rosa, not only was the flood of termites less dense than previous years, but it was about a month and a half late! The rains commenced way too early this year. We were experiencing relatively heavy rains in February! We are not supposed to have rains like this until May! This has really put a wrench in a lot of the natural processes in the forest. For example, Santa Rosa is a tropical dry forest and most of the tree species here are deciduous, therefore loose their leaves. However, because of the early onset of the rainy season this year, the leaves on the trees started to grow in April when they are not supposed to grow again until early or mid-May. I am guessing this disruption facilitated the irregularity in termite sexual emergence. Regardless of whether you understand the science behind this story, the point is that the irregularity I'm talking about should sound familiar to you. It seems as though there are many irregularities happening worldwide especially this year and mostly to do with climate. That is an increase or decrease in rain, storms, temperature, etc. Everyone knows of at least one story of some irregularity happening nearby to them. Should you be alarmed? I think so. What can we do about it? I'll get back to you. For now, take note that this story is not unique and there are many similar stories that directly or indirectly effect humans around the world.
Photos:
Top: Kinosternon leucostomum adult. Bottom: Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima juvenile.
