Gibson’s World

This Spring Break, we decided to go to Costa Rica with J.D. Willson (a herpetologist we know from South Carolina) and look for herps and other animals with him. In Costa Rica, we went to Selva Verde, La Selva Biological Station, Bosque Del Cabo in the Osa Peninsula, La Sirena, and Playa Nicuesa. In each place we saw tons of wildlife and had a really good time.

Selva Verde and La Selva Biological Station: First, we flew from Seattle to Houston to San Jose and then drove 1½ hours to get to our hotel, which was pretty boring. By the time we got there, it was already 11:00 PM. J.D. had gotten there earlier and had showed us what he had found. Then, we just had to go on a night hike to see if we could find anything. We were soon rewarded seeing a Parrot-snake, a Cloudy Slug-eater, a Turnip-tailed Gecko, and various other anoles and amphibians.

The next day, we woke up to some Howler Monkeys “howling” right outside our bungalow. Then, we went down to break-fast and then on a morning hike. It was very successful finding two Hog-nosed Vipers, a Green Vine Snake, lots of Poison-dart frogs, many anoles and Whiptails, some Green Iguanas, a Green Basilisk and a couple of Eleutherdactylus frogs. That night we went on a long night hike though the jungle. After a couple of Slug-eaters, we went for a really long time without seeing anything. So, Sterling, my dad and my mom all gave up and went to sleep. Of course, then everything started to come out. We quickly saw a Forest Toad and a Red Coffee Snake. As J.D., the local guide, and I started to head back to the hotel, he realized that we hadn’t seen a Red-eyed Tree-frog. So, he took us down to the pond and found two of them for us. There were also TONS of toads hanging out by the pond. Then, the local guide left and J.D. and I did another night hike around the hotel garden. We soon found a Blunt-headed Tree-snake, three more Red Coffee Snakes, and a Smokey Jungle Frog. I was amazed at how long and thin the Blunt-headed Tree-snake was in contrast to its HUGE bulging out head and eyes!

In the morning, J.D. showed us what he had found before we got to Selva Verde. I knew what it was going to be, but nobody else did, because we wanted to keep it a surprise. I hadn’t seen it, though. He opened his snake back and took out a Central American Coral Snake! It was really exciting, because that was one of the snakes I’ve always really wanted to find, but never have. We were already off to a good start. Then, we went to La Selva Biological Station. We found lots of cool birds there, and also saw a baby parrot in a nest with a Coati right next to it. The day before, the same Coati had eaten the other baby parrot and now was after this one. We temporarily scared it away, but we were pretty sure that it would come back that night and eat the baby parrot. As we started down the trail, we told our guide that we would like to see a sloth. Within about 30 seconds, he found one for us. The guide said that they had seen an Eyelash Palm Pit-Viper the day before and we told him that we really wanted to see it, so he agreed to try to find it for us. Sure enough, about 2/3 of the way through the hike he spotted the bright yellow snake we wanted to see. It was amazingly colorful and we could even see the eyelashes on it. When we got back our hotel at Selva Verde, we found some HUGE Green Iguanas, a few Black River Turtles, and a Tawny Tree-frog that night.

Bosque Del Cabo, Osa Peninsula: The next morning, we left to go to Bosque Del Cabo on the Osa Peninsula. We met our guide, and we stared off by going to a pond. At the pond, we found lots of Spectacled Caiman, some Brown Basilisks, and tons of Whiptails. That night, we went to some other ponds and found about 5 Northern Cat-eyed Snakes, a Milky frog, a Gladiator Frog, some more Smokey Jungle Frogs, lots of Cane Toads, some little tree-frogs (Hyla Ebercatta), and as we were going back to our hotel, we found a Masked Tree-frog in the swimming pool.

In the morning, we went on another morning hike and immediately found a new dwarf gecko, some anoles, a really awesome Casque-head Lizard, a new Whiptail, a Brown Vine Snake that J.D. spotted, and some other various frogs. In the morning we went flew to La Sirena in Corcovado National Park. We went on a hike and found a bunch of cool stuff. We saw a Tapir sleeping about 20 yards away from the trail, a really cool poison-dart frog, and a new anole for us on the trip (Norops Biporcatus). Then we took a plane to Playa Nicuesa, which would turn out to be one of the best snake places of the entire trip.

  Playa Nicuesa: When we got to Playa Nicuesa, we immediately knew that it would be a great place for snakes when they told us that they had seen three different snake species the night before we got there. So, we couldn’t wait to check it out. First, we had dinner and then went on a long nigh hike through the jungle. It started off great with a moss-colored Eyelash Palm Pit Viper and then later a baby Northern Cat-eyed Snake. After a while, it slowed way down and we didn’t see much for the rest of the hike, except for a few frogs. As usual, my dad, Sterling, and the local guide left and went to be. But, J.D. and I continued herping. Once again we saw all of the cool stuff when everybody else left. We started off with a cool Coniophanes fissidens (Brown Debris Snake) that I spotted near the boardwalk to the lagoon. Then we went down to the beach and we found another Cat-eyed snake sitting right on the Yoga platform (maybe he was waiting for his yoga lesson?…). On the way back, J.D. spotted yet another Cat-eyed snake in a tree. The Cat-eyed Snake had just eaten a frog, so J.D. somehow got the snake to throw up the frog that he had just eaten by squeezing the frog up towards the snake’s head and the out of its mouth. It was really cool, but kind of disgusting.

The next day, we woke up and as usual, went on a pretty successful morning hike. We went to the place where one of the guides had seen two Bushmasters not long before we got there (a few months). Since they are vipers, Bushmasters can stay in pretty much the same place for a long time waiting for something. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the Bushmaster, but we did see a new type of poison dart frog for the trip (Phyllobates vittatus), a new species of skink for us (Mabuya Unimarginata), and two Aquatic Anoles (Norops Aquaticus). In the afternoon, we took some kayaks out and kayaked around in the ocean which was fun. That night, we went on short night hike with a group before dinner (about 30 minutes). Although, we didn’t think that we’d see very much since it was such a big group and it was only for about a half hour, we was proved VERY wrong. Right away we spotted a Mussurana crossing the trail and about to crawl under a log. When everybody gathered around the log, our guide flipped the log and we all got a great look at a really pretty, bright red, juvenile Mussurana. Finally, after everyone had gotten good pictures of it, we left him the snake and continued looking. Not long after, we found a Leptodactylus species (a frog) which was cool. Only about 10 minutes later, I spotted a snake in the low branches of a bush. At first glance, I thought that it might be a cat-eyed snake because its head was hidden in the bush, but it turned out to be the  endemic and fairly rare Red-eyed Tree-snake (Tripanurgos compressus). It was basically a brown snake with reddish blotchy bands, a white head, and red eyes. I was really excited because it was rare in the area and it had amazing colors. As we headed back to dinner, we found a bunch of HUGE Cane Toads, a few Tungara Frogs, and Cloudy Snail Sucker. After dinner, we went on another night hike. Once again, we didn’t see anything interesting until everybody but J.D. and I left. About a minute after they all left, we found a Fer-de-Lance crossing the trail. We only saw it for a couple of seconds, so neither of us got a picture. We continued hiking and found another juvenile Mussurana (it was close to where the first one was, so we thought it was probably the same one). Then, we didn’t find any thing for a while, so we decided to head back. When we got back to the hotel, we went through the restaurant and J.D. somehow spotted a cryptically colored Fer-de-Lance coiled up right outside the restaurant. We were thrilled and we both got some good pictures of it. In one night hike we found four snake species and three new ones for the trip!

Overall, it was a really awesome trip with 14 snake species, 35 individual snakes, 22 species of lizards, 2 crocodilians, 1 turtle, 39 reptiles, 20 frogs, 2 toads, 22 amphibians, 61 herp species, 20 mammal species, and over 120 birds! The trip to Costa Rica was definitely one of the best trips we’ve taken and I can’t wait to go back to Costa Rica and explore some of the places that we haven’t gone yet.

Hermit crabs are really interesting animals. They take empty shells from sea snails and live in them for a little while. They have to change shells sometimes, though. If a hermit crab has a shell too small, it won’t grow as fast and it’s more likely to be eaten.

Hermit crabs live all over the world and there are more than 500 different species of them. Most of them live in the water but there are at least 15 different terrestrial species. Even though a hermit crab is called a hermit CRAB, hermit crabs aren’t closely related to true crabs.

Some big hermit crabs can grow to be as big as a coconut and might have a sea anemone on its shell. The hermit crab and the anemone both get a good deal, though. The sea anemone gets the hermit crab’s left-over food and a ride, and the sea anemone scares away all the fish that might want to eat the hermit crab.

A hermit crab reproduces by laying eggs. Once the eggs hatch and the baby hermit crabs come out, they all run to the shore hoping to find an empty snail shell that fits them. To survive, they feed on algae and debris. Some hermit crabs can live up to 30 years (I hope my hermit crab Cow lives that long)!

While we were in Phuket, I found two hermit crabs on the beach. I named one Cow and the other Purple. Cow was cool because his shell was black and white, so he looked like a small cow. I really liked playing with them and hope to see more hermit crabs in Africa, South America, and Antarctica :-).

Fun Facts:

1. Hermit Crabs live in colonies of more than 100 hermit crabs. They don’t do as well by themselves.

2. Hermit crabs are called hermit crabs because they are like a hermit living alone in a cave even though they live in colonies.

A skink is a really cool type of lizard. Skinks are the most diverse and successful group of lizards and are found worldwide. One reason why they are doing so well is because of their good sense of smell, sight, and hearing. Like other lizards, skinks can also lose their tail, but some can only lose their tail once. Even though skinks are doing so well, there are still some species of skinks that are endangered. The Blue Mountain Skinks, White’s Skinks, and Broadhead Skinks are some examples of skinks that are either endangered or threatened.

One reason why I think skinks are such cool reptiles is because they look different from almost all other reptiles. Skinks usually have short legs or none at all and their whole body is covered with smooth, shiny, overlapping scales. These scales are striped in bright reds, oranges, blues, yellows, blacks, and browns so they blend in almost perfectly in a garden. Pacific Skinks are the best skinks at camouflaging. These skinks can change colors, like chameleons, in a matter of seconds. This is probably why there are so many skinks in and around gardens. If you happen to have a skink in yours, don’t try to kill it because when skinks are in a garden, it usually means that your garden is healthy. Skinks are also really nutritious and help gardens a lot. They help almost as much as fertilizer!

If you asked some skinks what their favorite food was, most of them would probably say insects. Some might say spiders, earthworms, isopods (a type of crustacean), or lizards, though. Every once in a while, a big skink might eat a small rodent, but since the average skink is rarely longer than 200 mm, they can’t eat anything too big. The longest recorded skink was huge (350 mm long!).

So far on our trip, we have seen a Rainbow Skink, a Many-lined Sun Skink, and a Speckled Forest Skink, but I hope to see more of these amazing reptiles. So, next time you see a skink, instead of ignoring it, remember how important and helpful they are to people!

Fun Facts:

1. There aren’t any venomous skinks, but there are two types of venomous lizards (the Gila Monster and the Mexican Bearded Dragon). They both live in the southwestern part of the United States and northern Mexico.

2. Some people own skinks, iguanas, bearded dragons, leopard geckos, or even monitor lizards as pets!

3. Skinks have eyelids that blink, but other lizards don’t even have eyelids.

4. Many lizards can change color according to where they are like the chameleon.

5. The Collared Lizard is the fastest type of lizard recorded.

Bananas are really interesting plants. They are also one of my favorite fruits and are rich in Vitamin A, B6, C, and potassium.

Bananas are grown in 132 out of 192 countries and the world produced 72.5 million metric tons of bananas just in 2005! The top producer in 2005 was India which produced 16.8 million metric tons of bananas. Second was Brazil with only 6.7 million metric tons. Next were China, Ecuador, Philippines, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Thailand, Columbia, and Burundi.

One tree of bananas usually weighs from thirty to fifty kg’s and there can be from 60-400 bananas on a tree. Bananas are non-seasonal so the banana tree can produce bananas all year round. Not all bananas are green or yellow. Some can be red or purple!

Banana plants are usually from 2-8 meters long and their leaves can be up to 3.5 meters long. Since the leaves are so big, people sometimes use them to serve food on. Some people take dried bananas and grind them into banana powder. They can also be used for banana ketchup, banana pudding, banana splits, banana sauce, or even banana rum!

Bananas are one of my favorite foods and these were some facts about them.

Snakes are really interesting reptiles because all snakes can swim even though they are thought of as land reptiles. Snakes are also carnivores and don’t chew their food. Because of that, they can die from trying to eat something to big. Did you know that some anacondas and pythons can go for up to a year without eating after they’ve had only one big meal?!

You also probably didn’t know that snakes evolved from a type of lizard and that most pythons and boa constrictors have super short, stubby hind legs that act kind of like suction cups.

When a snake swims, it moves its tail side to side but they can only move forwards. Only sea snakes can move backwards. Snakes swim using surface tension. We did an experiment and found out that a metal needle can also float because of surface tension.

Lots of people have been bitten and/or killed by snakes in certain countries. Of the 22,000 Americans bitten by venomous snakes every year, less than 20 die but in Africa, 1,000,000 people get bitten a year and 20,000 people die. In Asia, 4,000,000 people get bitten by snakes and 100,000 people get killed by them a year.

Snakes are one of my favorite an animals and these were just a few facts about them. The only thing I don’t like them is they’re hard to find and that they bite. I have only seen the black tiger snake and the common tree snake, but I hope to see more in Asia, Africa and South America.

Fun Fact: When snakes are charmed in India, they don’t move because of the music. Snakes can’t hear. They move from the charmer moving the flute or their feet. Snake charming is banned in most places in India.