For real this time...

An actual coral snake. But the first was a pretty good mimic, huh? We all bought it. When we did finally decide that our mimic was a King snake we took it out and handled it. It was the first snake I've ever held! Even though it's bite is harmless, it does bite... and proved it to our professor... and that was enough for me to be plenty nervous.

 

Last night we went on a night hike to brainstorm ideas for our first independent project. The brainstorming fell short, but we had a good time. As we walked, night hawks kept flying up in front of us as we disturbed them from their perches on the road. When we made it back to camp, we ran right into a hognosed viper, which is also poisonous, and very aggressive. We had to jump back a foot to avoid its lurch towards us. And then tonight, we saw a tarantula. So many predators! 

But don't think we just mess around. We've been working really hard... The last two days I've been slaving around in the forest and meadows capturing butterflies! (40 species of butterflies if you were curious.) We identified them to look at the biodiversity of areas of the forest that have received different levels of disturbance. Turns out more disturbance = more butterflies. 

Madeline