TEXT BEING POSTED NOW … PICS TO FOLLOW … WE’RE HEADING OUT NOW ON A TURTLE WALK, WHERE WE HOPE TO SEE NESTING GREEN TURTLES!!!
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Today was an amazing day in Tortuguero! We started the day with a nature walk, and didn’t get very far from the Hotel Icaco http://www.hotelelicaco.com/when we came upon a myriad of bird species, butterfly species, and the industrious leaf cutter ants we have all come to admire.
One of the points shared today by our MVI guide, Mark Wainwright, was that everything around us is shaped by evolution. Nothing in nature is random. Every organism has a purpose and a function in the ecosystem it inhabits. Each also has adaptations that have evolved to make it successful in its niche. Many of these adaptations include symbiotic relationships with other organisms, which we saw multiple examples of on our walk, such as the mutualistic relationship between ants and the fungus they feed the leaves to.
We hope you enjoy the pictures from today’s walk, including some of the bird species such as the Social flycatcher Myiozetetes similis, Rufous-tailed hummingbird Amazilia tzacatl, Green-breasted mango Anthracothorax prevostii, and the Tropical kingbird Tyrannus melancholicus.
BIOL 398 Tropical Ecology & Culture in Costa Rica 