GVI Costa Rica invited to join WWF "ACT" initiative on Climate Change

Field Coordinator, Sara Calçada, attended a regional workshop on behalf of GVI Costa Rica this week. The workshop was run by Ana Fonseca & Marianne Fish for WWF Latin America, for which GVI Costa Rica were specially invited to attend, together with organisations from all over Costa Rica, to share information about their work and learn more about how Climate Change will affect the region and particularly sea turtles, and how to help monitor its affects. The program, known as ACT (Adaptation to Climate Change for Marine Turtles) hopes to bring together researchers from across the region to share information about the issues faced in their research areas, in the hope that "management actions that are put in place now to reduce vulnerability to climate change in the future."

Sara spent time attending lectures, participating in workshops, undertaking training for monitoring air, sand and nest tempertures and measuring beach inclination and erosion. She also gave a short presentation to the group of researchers and experts about the issues we face on our projects.
Sara managed to drum up a lot of interest in the programs, particularly the jaguar predation of marine turtles and obviously left people wanting more as we have several people interested in training opportunities with us on the expedition.

Upon her return to base Sara gave a presentation to the volunteers and staff about the workshop and gave out literature and about the WWF initiative and a video for everyone to watch about the issues faced in Los Baulas National Park.

GVI Costa Rica invited to join WWF "ACT" initiative on Climate Change

Jag walk

Sunday’s jag walkers enjoyed excellent conditions for their 15 miles; overcast and rainy all the way made the going good for scholars Jo and Jess and interns Molly, Helen and Sam.

It was Jo’s first jag walk as patrol leader, and Jess’s first complete
jag walk. A pre-existing shoulder injury had kept her off the previous surveys and
with 17 weeks in the field she was very glad to at last get out onto that long stretch of beach and reach that famous mile 18 marker.

The rain did create a few problems: the marker pens used for dead turtle numbering failed, and the team had to come up with some makeshift solutions (see photos).

Their first turtle carcass was an interesting one: missing its plastron and partially covered by a plastic bag. Analyzing the photos back at base, project manager Sarah Durose later concluded this was a case of poaching. Thus, whilst still documented, it won’t be added to the predation data.

New turtles were few, with nesting tailing off now even on Tortuguero beach, but the team were please to record a high presence of fresh jag prints along the length of the survey. This is part of what makes jag walk so highly prized: knowing they’re out there, watching us watching them...


(Photos: Above: Jess, Sam,Helen and Molly eat their truly enormous sandwiches in the rain. Below: a wet jag walk meant some improvisation for the numbering of dead turtles.)

Jag walk

Around base

Recent incidentals spotting has hotted up, possibly due to Country Director Dave’s last visit, when he was out brandishing the binoculars with much enthusiasm.

Whilst Rich and Jo are often to be seen wandering the garden with their necks craned
up to the trees, other converts are now becoming more apparent:
Russell, Tucker and Helen have all been drifting between the trees, binoculars in hand, bird book tucked under the arm.

The current one-day record for phase incidentals stands at 37 of the board species marked off.

Around base

That's why they call it the Rainforest!

Recent heavy rain at base has let our volunteers know why the rainforest is named the rain forest! With the rainfall peaking at 144mm in a 12 hour period, an eager eye was kept on canal depth for fear of flooding and evacuation. So far the rising canal has been taunting staff and ensuring they are kept on the alert - only to subside a few hours later.

This time last year the base was evacuated for 6 days, which put a stop to
data collection.

“Just thinking about 6 days in Tort with no surveys is horrific!” said Dave, a
10 week volunteer. “It would be fun for a day, but I think we would all want
to get back on track.”

On the up side, the rising water has brought a torrent of wildlife into camp.
A green heron (Butorides viriscens) was spotted fishing for our lost pond fish,frogs can be heard with increasing intensity (though the source is proving to be highly elusive for staff members Jess and Rich) and our COTERC base manager Mike found a caiman loitering on the board walk: “Crikey, he was a whopper!” said Mr Dundee (AKA Mike).

Meanwhile, GVI’s bird surveys continued with increasing uncertainty as volunteers battle against channeled water, and community work has become a rather treacherous affair.

“The path to San Francisco is no longer just muddy, the water is far beyond welly level.” said Anja after returning from a very damp community excursion.

The rain may try to stop us, but volunteers and staff agree that it will have to try harder to put a dampner on life at base!

(Water levels have now returned to normal)

That's why they call it the Rainforest!

Birds, Sea Turtles, Human Impacts, Incidentals, Jaguars...Yahtzee!

Defenders of Wildlife Carnivores Conference 2009
Denver, Colorado, USA.
Grand Hyatt Conference Centre
Central & South America
Longs Peak Room
Moderator: Gerald Zuercher



A common question from the volunteers that contribute their hard-earned cash and time to the expedition is "what happens to the data afterwards?".

Well in a little over two weeks, GVI Costa Rica has presented all of the research programs we are managing to some of the top scientists and researchers from around the world at international conferences in Belize and the USA.

Not only did the research and data receive some great responses and reactions, the diversity and quality of the programs were highlighted as a huge achievement for volunteer research.

As well as drawing a lot of attention to the work and research being carried out we were also pleasantly surprised by the number of researchers who announced that they would be looking into GVI further, not just in terms of potential collaborations or supporting our work, but in several cases as what they thought was a fantastic way to spend their future time-off from work!

We will be working closely with the Costa Rican Environment Ministry to look at the work we have been conducting and how that can be applied to the management of these two beautiful protected areas along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. With years of consistant data from these projects, the hard work of staff and volunteers, and such a range of projects to reflect the immense diversity of the area we are able to begin to build up a bigger picture of what is happening and where management is affective or may need re-evaluating.

You can read more about the work on the left-hand-side of this blog, in terms of reports, abstracts, posters and presentations and find out how you can get involved with GVI here

Birds, Sea Turtles, Human Impacts, Incidentals, Jaguars...Yahtzee!

Denver: The Mile High City

A little different to what we are used to in the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica's Caribbean Coast where we conduct our research. Denver, Colorado, is the setting for this year's conference on Carnivores held by the Defenders of Wildlife, and organisation established over 60 years ago and working with researchers and professionals around the globe. This year's theme is Carnivore Conservation in a Changing World, and is focusing on issues related to climate change around the world. It is being held in Denver - described in the program as being "at the forefront of so many carnivore conservation issues".

After over two-and-a-half years in the beautiful tropical climate, Country Director David Aneurin Jones is experiencing a bit of a climate change of his own! Here's some photos from the Mile High City to get you acclimatised to the happenings over the coming week.








This year's meet & greet was held at the Wildlife Experience centre - a museum of wildife and conservation combined with an interactive learning and animatronic displays. Below are some pictures featuring many of the animals we are lucky enough to see in real life almost every day on the expedition in Costa Rica (and some less so!)

Denver: The Mile High City

Defenders of Wildlife Carnivores Conference

GVI are presenting this week at the Defenders of Wildlife annual Carniovores Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Country Director, David Aneurin Jones is braving the cold of the Mile High City to present our latest piece on work on our jaguar predation of marine turtles study.

Today was the first day of the conference, with meet-and-greet sessions and registration being held, together with a behind the scenes tour of Denver Zoo. Several talks were given by the Zoo's staff, focusing on the carnivores in their collection and how the Zoo is involved in breeding and conservation programs around the world.

Here are just a few highlights from the tour:





Stay tuned over the week for updates from the conference

Defenders of Wildlife Carnivores Conference

Tree frog sighting!

A rare and spectacular sighting in San Fran this week provided a treat for several
lucky GVI team members: a red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas) showed off its astonishing colours for our cameras. (Thanks to Laura for the photos)

Tree frog sighting!

Ex-GVI Costa Rica Volunteer returns at the head of the Habitat Healers

When Bill Valaika was offered a job of a life-time back in August and had to make the heartbreaking decision to leave the expedition earlier than expected he told everyone that he would be back...I'm not sure anyone quite expected what happened next!

Bill left the expedition a changed man, with a drive and zest for life he feared he may never get back. His outlook on life was different and Bill was determined that he wanted to do something to make a difference and help out the place that had given him so much. So Bill did the only logical thing he could do back in his home town of Denver, near the Rocky Mountains...he set up an NGO, Habitat Healers, to clean up beaches(!)

Habitat Healers™ Mission Statement:

Habitat Healers is an international non-profit organization dedicated to saving not only critically endangered marine turtles, but also other species by implementing cleaning and recycling programs on beaches worldwide. By partnering with local businesses, community groups and volunteers, Habitat Healers fosters a safe and healthy habitat for all.

Bill was inundated with requests from an advert he placed on Craig's List, from people to come out to Costa Rica with him and help GVI with their beach cleaning efforts, now at the height of the green turtle hatchling season.

A huge effort was made by the Habitat Healer & GVI volunteers to clear as much of the garbage and debris from the beach as possible - filling more than five heavy duty building supplies bags with literally hundreds of pieces of plastic & human made garbage.

On the second day they spent the day in the Community of San Francisco, with help from Community Interns past & present Cassidy and Amelia. They cleaned up the beach in front of El Cerro and the kids and adults helped clean up around the village, where they helped to make a recycling area, before rounding off the day with some beach football!

A big thank you to everyone that helped make the event the success that it was in raising awareness about pollution, plastics and the effects they can have on our endangered marine turtles, together with many other kinds of wildlife, marine, coastal and terrestrial.

See more pictures of the Habitat Healers here

Ex-GVI Costa Rica Volunteer returns at the head of the Habitat Healers

Late comer to Turtle Beach Lodge

Helen continued her run of good luck on Saturday when she was on surely the best Morning Census of phase, with Russell (and Jo leading). With NRC from the night before and no hatchling watches, the team were on for a pretty quiet survey and saw nothing of interest up to mile 2.

Then,just before Turtle Beach Lodge they saw a turtle track and a small group of tourists sat on a log nearby. The team walked up to the track.

I was just thinking ‘hmm, I don’t see a down-track.’, when I saw a spray of sand flicked up from the vegetation and realised the turtle was still on the beach.

There were three tourists sitting quietly nearby who said they had been there for ten minutes or so. I could hardly believe our luck as I went up to see what the turtle was doing - she appeared to be disguising.

This is a very lucky sighting, especially on Playa Norte, and so late in the season. The team read the turtle’s tags and Russell took some great photos - see right - and video footage.
Jo said,

It was amazing to get a good look at a turtle in daylight, to observe the way they move and what they’re doing when ususally all you get is a grey shape and an eye full of sand. Shame we couldn’t work her too, but that would have been a little too lucky.

Late comer to Turtle Beach Lodge

Jaguars 0 - 12 Coatis

The jaguar camera-trapping team were out this week changing cameras in the National Park when they came upon a group of 12 coatis in the forest. The group moved quickly past the GVI team, but one coati became separated from the rest of them. He stood his ground, eyeing up the camera team before making a break for it to join the others. “It was great to see so many together, and at such close quarters,” said scholar Jess, who was leading the team.

Coati belong to the raccoon family and generally travel in family groups. GVI volunteers should have no trouble empathising with these particular forest inhabitants: bands of coati are active during the day, omnivorous, forage for a variety of foods, and move in groups lead by females. Sound familiar? (with apologies to Rich!).

An ocelot and red brocket deer previously captured on camera traps

Jaguars 0 - 12 Coatis

Digging deep

Sea turtle nest-fate surveys, or "excavations" drew a blank on Saturday, but no one can say the team didn’t try. Despite determined effort from Tucker, Russell and Tom (see photo below), who between them dug half way to Sri Lanka, the only thing the team recovered was the nest ID tag. Night patrols on the beach this week have yielded few results too, as the season inevitably tails off.


However, patrol leader Sarah finally got to work a green turtle this week, thus completing the set (leatherback, hawksbill and green). Having had months of bad luck with green turtle opportunities, she returned to base in the early hours with a big smile.

Night walks will continue a little longer yet, with the final date determined by the number of records on successive days.

Digging deep