After completing CAIP installation, we took a day off to do laundry and give our bodies a much-needed break. But after our day off it was time to begin maintenance. The lightning round.
For maintenance, the goal is to check the CAIPs. Are the cameras taking pictures of animals or mostly leaves? If there are pictures of leaves moving, we would removing those from the frame to preserve battery life and make the process of sorting pictures simpler. Are the AudioMoths recording when they should? If not, we would need to replace them.
Aside from investigating those two questions, we are replacing batteries and SD cards during this time. After maintenance, the CAIPs will be left for ~ 4 months (the estimated battery life) to collect data. It is crucial that everything is working properly.
Since the CAIPs are already installed, the Big Shot was retired (thank goodness!). The climbing lines are already set, so maintenance will be a quicker process than installation.
Day twenty-two, back to Del Rio. Although I have a checklist and I've run through the maintenance process on the ground, the process will be much trickier in the trees. There are many small parts that can easily be lost if dropped. To figure out all the mistakes that can be made, I did both climbs on our first day of maintenance.
Unscrewing the AudioMoth cases in the canopy is beyond nerve-wracking. The recorders themselves are glued into the cases and the batteries are Velcro-ed in, but the screws and microSD cards are easy pieces to lose. There's a fairly large margin for error. I exercised extreme caution and it worked out well.
Even though the equipment in the Del Rio tree had only been running for two weeks, there were already pictures of kinkajous to look at!
Side accomplishment: I made a pun so terrible, Becca jokingly 'quit' the project. We take walking sticks with us when we hike and she had grabbed the stick I typically used, so I asked, "Oh, not a fan of your walking stick anymore?"
She glanced down for a second, not realizing she'd grabbed the wrong one. "No, I like mine quite a lot, but I don't think it likes me back."
"Oh, so I guess you could say it's a sticky situation?" She went dead silent, trying not to laugh, and walked away for a few moments.
The tree off of the cordillera almost went perfectly. As I was removing the microSD card, it stuck to my thumb as I pulled away...and then proceeded to fall to the ground. Thankfully, Becca was quickly able to recover the lost item. Phew.
Following maintenance, we hiked our stuff down to the very first tree we climbed. It's weird to be returning to the start of it all. But I was too exhausted in the moment to remissness much.
Getting back to the bamboo house, we were in store for a huge surprise. Groceries! Normally groceries are delivered every Monday. Because of the holidays, we've had to go to town when we can (or have someone else get what they can) and it's been difficult to estimate how much food we'll need and how long items will store. On this day, we returned to a surplus of food after we had been running low on supplies.
Both of us were exceptionally excited.
Miles hiked: 3.58
PB&J's eaten: 91
Day twenty-three, today I began climbing up the very first tree we installed. During installation, the sun had been setting so I didn't properly see the setup. Now climbing in the morning, I instantly felt excitement to look at the pictures. The camera is facing a cavity that has collected water. And the wildlife is definitely taking advantage of it.
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| Collared araçaris taking a bath |
Before I could get a good look at the photos, I was distracted by the sound of leaves rustling. Several mantled howlers were moving around in trees eye level with me, maybe 20 meters away. My reaction was torn between awe and nerves. The last thing I wanted was for the howlers to throw dung my way. Rather than take any pictures, I hurried through the rest of the maintenance as they kept their eyes on me and moved in closer. Eventually, their path diverged away from the tree, but I am still in awe at how close they were to me.
Becca went through the process of checking the next tree and the process went smoothly. Unfortunately, the tree required a bit of trimming. Most of the pictures were images of leaves moving, but that is why we did a maintenance period right after installation. Otherwise, the rest of the day went smoothly.
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| Perfect spot to take a short break from a long hike |
Miles hiked: 5.21
PB&J's eaten: 93
Day twenty-four, it finally happened. Rain...well rain during the day. While I was up in a tree, drops of water trickled down. Momentarily, I thought I could push through it without issue. The drizzle suddenly transformed into a downpour. Becca was quick to send up her parka and I threw it over myself to create a dry work environment.
As I delicately went through the procedure of checking the equipment, I noticed something different among many photos of wind. A sloth! I nearly fell out of the tree due to excitement. I've wanted to see a sloth in the wild for many years, and now I knew there had been a two-toed sloth climbing on the branch I was sitting against!
The rain let up before long so there we did not have to worry about dealing with a slick rope. Instead, another challenge faced us - our hike.
Hiking after a downpour with heavy equipment was a challenge. At this point, we were in cloud forest, so the trail was already slightly muddy. The rain from just an hour before made the situation worse.
Many spots would take your feet in so deep that you could lose your boot trying to free yourself. Others were a trick of balance- especially since we were traveling downhill. Can you hold yourself upright with a counterweight on your back? For me, the answer was no. I ended up sliding or skating down the trail more than I walked down it. Without question, my pants were entirely covered in mud by the end of the day.
Just as our frustration became palpable, something caught my eye. A giant worm? No, something else!
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| If you look closely, you can see its tongue sticking out! |
A limbless lizard! The critter may look like a snake, but due to internal anatomy, it is actually a lizard! They spend most of their time underground, except for when heavy rains flood them out. They are a pretty rare find, and both of us were positively thrilled to find one. Any annoyance we had at the hike was gone in an instant.
From that point, the rest of the day proceeded as planned. We visited Friday the 13th and Becca took care of maintenance without issue.
Miles hiked: 6.8
Total mileage: 132.5
PB&J's eaten: 95
CAIPs checked: 6
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