# Panama's Highland frogs: notes from an EVACC volunteer



## Matt Mirabello (Aug 29, 2004)

It was suggested by a couple people that I post my emails and experiences in Panama here: Below is the first and second email I sent out:
haven’t written anyone an email to anyone yet to let you know how Panama
is going. Things have been busy here and time has flown by. I have been
here for 4 weeks! I will try and give a brief synopsis and will supply a
link to some pictures I have posted.
(I apologize in advance for the disjointed nature of the content of this
email, I wrote it sporadically when I had time)

On February 10th at around 2 pm my plane landed in Panama City. I got a
taxi to the bus terminal and got the last seat on a bus to El Valle de
Anton. My luggage was tied to the roof of the bus. The 57 mile (95 km)
bus ride took about 2 and a half hours. When the bus arrived in El Valle
I was dropped of at the grocery store down the road from the hotel. I
decided to walk to the hotel with my entire luggage. I didn’t realize it
was a km! I stopped half way there to get a soda.

There was another volunteer here when I arrived, Meredith. She was from
the Baltimore zoo, the studbook keeper for the Panamanian golden frogs in
the United States. I have my own room, though I have to share it with
some insect cultures and frog supplies. It works out well since I
maintain the insect cultures anyway.

The internal internet adaptor in my laptop was giving me lots of trouble
when I first got here. It would work, then it wouldn’t work, then it
would mysteriously work again. It was even affect by simple things like
my changing which usb port I put my mouse into. I uninstalled all the
software that was associated with it on my computer and deactivated the
windows XP control of the internet. So far that has resolved all of the
problems!

During my first days here a Helicopter landed on the lawn of the hotel. I
found out it was the helicopter of the president of panamas wife. she is
paying for the construction of the new market and is here to see the
progress. her guards were here too.

My first weekend in Panama was Carnival (the central American equivalent
of Mardi Gras). The celebration lasted from Friday until Tuesday. There
was parades, food, beer, and lots of water being thrown at people. We all
went into town for fun on Saturday and Sunday.
Every 3rd day the frog cages are cleaned out. This involves collecting 3
species of plants from the surrounding area, trimming them, bleaching
them, rinsing, and then putting them in an empty cleaned out cage/tank.
The cleaning of the plants has often been complicated by the sporadic
unavailability of clean water. They are paving the road that also has the
water line buried under it so every now and then the construction crew
breaks the line and we don’t have running water for a day or a few hours
(happened 3 times already).
Part of caring for the frogs involves collecting food for them. Every
other day we go out to the fields in the area and collect katydids,
grasshoppers, and roaches. The grasshoppers here have very large
pinchers for cutting plants and defending themselves. We have to cut the
pinchers off with nail clippers before we feed them to the frogs. The
frogs also eat termites that we are collecting from above ground nests. 
We collect half of a nest and it lasts about a week.
One frog species in particular only eats frogs and lizards so every 2
weeks we need to go out and collect geckos to feed the frogs. Very
little is known about the species and its specifics of reproduction are
only speculative.

After Meredith left Shawn came. He is a zoo keeper in Wisconsin. Shawn
wanted to climb up Cerro Gaital so on a Friday three of us went around to
the north entrance to the national park and took the trail up. It was
surprisingly wet in the forest of Gaital, which explains where all the
water in Rio Anton was coming from. The peak is clouded over at some
point every day. The mountains are very steep, at points we were walking
a ridgeline to the top. The wind was very strong and almost able to blow
us off balance. On the way up there was a fantastic view of the
surrounding mountains and valleys. In one of the pictures I took you can
actually see the hotel I am staying at, you can see the round fountain in
the front and the large field.
http://www.frognet.org/albums/Panama2007/Panorama_6.jpg
There also some other panoramic shots posted to the gallery.

On the way back down the mountain we heard some Dendrobates vincenti
calling in a tall tree covered in bromeliads. Cerro Gaital is a
protected forest. It has signs along the trail describing different
biological points of interest. When we got to the bottom and outside the
park we collected some termites for the frogs to eat. We were tired so we
got a bus to take us back to town. Once in town we got a cab ride to the
hotel for 25 cents each.
The hotel puts all its garbage in a hole in the back of the property. 
After it dries they set it on fire. It usually burns in a contained
area. However this time the pile was large and the surrounding are was
full of dead dry grass. The fire spread and was working its way to the
forest (which may or may not have caught on fire). With the help of the
hotel staff we stopped the fir with buckets of water, fire extinguisher,
and cutting back areas it hadn’t burned yet.
Mountain fire
We told Edgardo about hearing Dendrobates vincenti on the ridges of
Gaital, he decided we should head back up to try and catch some. We
brought a local teenager with us who could climb the trees to get to them.
This time we went up the steeper side of Cerro Gaital. It takes less
time to get to the summit but it is harder work. If there were no trees
on the mountain it would be a near impossible and extremely dangerous
climb. The main reason to go up the harder side was to look for
Dendrobates vincenti on both sides of the mountain. The hard side to
climb is even harder to get back down. We did hear D. vincenti on both
sides of the mountain just short of the summit. However the trees that
the frogs were in are much to tall for anyone to safely climb. The small
frog once inhabited the entire mountain, and even down into El Valle, but
now it is restricted to the taller trees of Gaital. These trees are about
a 6 to 9 meter climb to the top where they are full of bromeliads that the
frogs are living in.

There has been some breeding success with a couple of the species here. 
Two pairs of Anotheca spinosa have laid eggs that have hatched into
tadpoles. The tadpoles are eating and getting bigger. Even more
interesting is a pair of punctoriolus that laid a clutch of eggs. This
species has direct development of the eggs, in two months little frogs
with hatch from the eggs. The eggs are clear so you can see the eggs
developing into froglets.

The food is amazing (I should really take pictures of it). My Spanish
speaking skills are the best when I am ordering food, especially
breakfast. Eggs for breakfast are usually accompanied by thick maize
tortillas, fried dough, or bollos (boiled maize in a banana leaf). The
meat dishes for lunch or dinner have great flavor. They are served with
rice, patacones (fried plantain), French fries or sometimes manioc
(Yucca). The price for a good meal ranges from $10 to $1.50. The best
restaurant in town is Sta Librata, their food is good and the place is
nice to be in. I also find that I can get a good fast meal from the
smaller café type places. They just have steam trays with the choices for
the day.
On Sunday there is a large market in town where there is food and local
crafts. The market runs everyday but has the most vendors on Sunday. I
will be sure to pick up some of the nice items they have for sale there. 
The food at the market is also good, there are street vendors here just
like in NYC.
There will be more varieties of fruit at the market once they come into
season. Right now there is a lot of citrus, pineapple, papaya, plantains
and bananas. I am slowly watching the mangoes on the trees get larger,
though I think I will miss mango season by 2 weeks.

It is exceptionally windy in El Valle this time of year, especially by the
hotel which is at the base of the mountain. The winds are like those
before a rain storm comes back home, however no rain. The wind comes in
and hits the east side of the Hotel and then whips around the side of it. 
If I open the window to my room it will right through it.

In the last week I have been out to Rio Maria three times (river Maria). 
It one of the areas that the frog declined was studied and observed. It
is located on the mountain just outside El Valle. The soil there is more
reddish/orange unlike the white or black soil or El Valle. Just a year
ago Rio Maria had so many tadpoles in it you couldn’t see the bottom of
it, you could look under a single leaf and find 3 species of tadpoles
there, the sounds of frogs calling was deafening, and golden frogs were
everywhere.
Now there are no golden frogs, only a couple other frog species calling
and breeding, barely any tadpoles in the stream (which now has lots of
algae growing in it). In only a year chytrid fungus has obliterated the
amphibian diversity and population.
The habitat still looks beautiful, the trees, the rocks, mosses, ferns,
birds, all in tact. It is as if someone set off a frog killing neutron
bomb. Though in the future the effects will be seen of removing frogs
from the ecosystem. Even if chytrid did not hit the area it is in
serious risk due to development. The forest and streams are slowly being
destroyed by roads being build for homes that will be built.

Next week I am going to Cope (co-pay), a town to the west of here to help
collect samples for a study on invertebrates and ecosystem budgets. It
is much smaller than El Valle and also nearly frogless.

Will keep everyone up to date. Feel free to send me emails and check out
my picture gallery.
(and if you are feeling generous you can donate money to http://www.saveafrog.org)

Photo Gallery:
http://www.frognet.org/gallery/Panama2007

enjoying Panama,

Matt


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## Matt Mirabello (Aug 29, 2004)

Here is letter number 2:

I suppose I am due to send out another update. It has been about 20 days
since my last update and being that I am in a new location it warrants
another email. I arrived yesterday in Panama City at 2:30, got an
unexpectedly extended (but still no more expensive than usual) cab ride to
the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution. Joe Wright, a colleague of
my advisor (Joe Yavitt), graciously offered for me to stay in his duplex
in Gamboa and paid my registration fee ($60)
So, how and why did I end up in Gamboa for my last week in Panama? I
Guess I should pick up where I left off.

“Next week I am going to Cope (co-pay), a town to the west of here to help
collect samples for a study on invertebrates and ecosystem budgets. It is
much smaller than El Valle and also nearly frogless.”

I never did make it to Cope, will reserve that for my next trip.
According to the photo record of my trip picture DSCN0671.JPG is where I
will begin.
March 9th was the first day of moving frogs from the hotel to
EVACC. The
tanks in EVACC were set up simply but not in a temporary way. The tanks
and drilled on the bottom with two holes. This is then covered with a
false bottom made of eggcrate covered by black landscaping mesh; all
supported with cut 2 inch PVC sections. This is then covered with a
layer of medium to small sized rocks and wet sphagnum moss. Plants in
pots are add or cuttings from plants that will root themselves easily.
Branches and cork bark pieces are also provided for species that need
them. These setups will need the moss changed about every 3 months. All
the tanks are hooked up to a misting system to keep the humidity high,
temperature down, substrate flushed clean, and hopefully stimulate
breeding in the frogs.
Edgardo needed to drop of Dr Matt Whiles at Panama City, and on
his way
back the next day he would return with Dr of veterinary medicine Brad
Wilson, Ron Gagiardo of the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Robert Hill of
Zoo Atlanta (who were arriving that night). I never did mention Dr.
Whiles in my last email. If I recall properly he is an ecologist at
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He does work in El Valle and
Cope on stream ecosystems, studying how loss of tadpoles in the stream
may affects the entire forest food web. I remained in El Valle to watch
Pepe and the frogs. The next day when the
Panama city crew arrived I got reacquainted with Ron and Brad and met Rob
for the first time.

A couple nights later we went out to La Gaita, a peak in the Altos
Del
Maria. It is on private property, and in the not to distant future may
be one of the last refuges of frog habitat on the property. Our primary
goal was not to collect frogs but to collect plants assisted by the
expertise of Ron Gagliardo. It was nice to see Ron operating in his
element, with much excitement showing us which plants to collect. Before
the plan collecting began we were distracted for a bit by a Bothriechis
lateralus that was resting on a small tree at the base of the mountain
trail. We managed to get some decent digital pictures with the cameras
we had, the snake was in an ideal pose and setting. The only other
specimen from the area was found last year and had to be preserved since
it would be used to publish an official range extension for the species.
We managed to collect a lot of great plants that night for frog
tanks as
well as a lot of roaches to set up breeding colonies. The highlight of
the evening occurred just as we were leaving the trail. Edgardo heard
more than one Hyla fimbremembra calling, we stood in only moonlight for a
few minutes to wait for it to call again to hopefully locate it. The
frogs did not call again, but it is good to know they are still surviving
at La Gaita
Ron had to head back earlier than the rest of the Altanta crew, so he
took the Rana mobile to Panama city late on the night before his trip
back (to maximize his time in El Valle). The car was left at Hotel
Marparaiso, and would be picked up by the next crew coming in from
Houston.
While walking with Brad I “discovered” an interesting plant in
Edgardo’s
backyard. It was a star like whorl of 6-10 leaves and it was stuck to a
cement wall. After looking a bit more I found some that were not opened
up yet. They were in fact a germinating seed! The seeds have a sticky
part that lets them attach to a surface to grow on, the sprouts occur
over patches of bird droppings thus I guessed they are dispersed by them.
However concrete is not the intended surface for this particular plant.
It turned out to be the seed of a plant I noticed a month earlier. The
plant seems to attach to the host tree and taps into its vascular system,
taking water and nutrients. I am not sure if the plant returns the favor
to the tree it grows off of by contributing some of its photosynthate to
the host tree. I took lots of pictures of the different life stages of
the parasitic plant and hope to identify it when I get back.
The Houston Zoo crew was a group of 4. Two from the Houston Zoo
(Peter
and Sarah), one from PA (Bill), and a documentary filmmaker from NY
(Dan). Dan made a documentary on Puffins. Most of their time was spend
surveying what needed to be done at the EVACC facility, getting footage
for the documentary, and filming Interviews with key people on the
project. It turns out that all the people on the Houston crew lived in NY
for some period of time, 3 of them were born there. It was good to have
New Yorkers around and some really funny stories were told over dinner.
Brads flight out was the day after the Houston Crew left. He
wanted to
hike up Cerro Gaital before he left, since he never had a chance to get
up it in his 5 trips to Panama. Edgardo was busy working with the
Houston crew on their last day in town so me, Brad and Rob went up Cerro
Gaital. We were hoping to catch some Dendrobates vincenti. We got a
ride to the gate of the park, so it made our hike a bit shorter. On the
way up we did not hear or see any Dendrobates vincenti, or any frogs for
that matter. When we got to the top of the mountain Robert heard
Dendrobates minutus calling but after an exhaustive search was unable to
see or catch any. On the way back down I saw what I thought was a
Dendrobates vincenti jump out of a bromeliad as I was looking in its
central axle. Halfway down the trail I got a cool picture of a
slimemold, though most people do not appreciate them like I do.
Edgardo picked us up at the park gate around 5pm. We were on the
mountain for 5 hours! On the ride back we nearly ran over a snake that
was later identified as a juvenile bird snake (insert scientific name).
A couple days earlier I caught an insect on the lawn that was
intermittently glowing blue from its abdomen. Most of the glowing
insects I saw were glowing yellow or green, so it caught my eye. I kept
him for a bit trying to get a decent picture of him. Every time I tried
to take pictures of it I would have the glowworm song echoing in my head.
I have no idea where I learned it, but for some reason this insect made
me think of it. Ironically it turned out to be a glow worm!
Just before Brad left my external hard drive died. The hard drive
I got
specifically for this trip! Luckily I didn’t lose anything that wasn’t
on my computer in NYC. All my pictures for this trip are on my laptop,
the cameras memory cards, and burned to CD. The main frustration with
the external hardrive is that I will have to send it in for
repair/replacement.
Paul Crump of the Houston Zoo came to El Valle just after the rest
of his
coworkers were leaving. His goal was to help as much as possible with
getting frogs moved to EVACC and out of the hotel.
There were some electrical issues in one of the Frog rooms at EVACC so the
moving of frogs from the hotel had to be halted. At this point there was
more than enough help on hand and only half the number of frogs there used
to be at the hotel (which maintaining took the most amount of time). I
decided that it would be best for me to find a conducive location for me
to work on my thesis. There was no place decent at the Hotel so I emailed
my advisor and colleague at STRI to ask for recommendations. That is when
I was invited to come stay in Gamboa for a week and live rent free!
However before I left El Valle I wanted to go to the Sunday market and get
gifts to raise money for frog conservation, some for friends/family, but
most importantly some nice stuff for me! I got two nice shits and some
trinkets from a Kuna family at the market. They had noticed me over the
past 6 weeks and were curious why I never got anything until that Sunday.
I told them I was leaving on Tuesday, they insisted I take a picture with
them. I am not a tall guy, but in the picture with them I look like a
giant!
I spent the remaining 2 days in El Valle getting my things
together and
getting lots of pictures of the landscape. I forgot to mention that I
will be giving a talk at International Amphibian Days on the Panama
project. I just found out last week! So I wanted to be sure I had all
the picture resources I would need to give a great presentation.
So as I mentioned earlier. I made it to the Smithsonian in Panama
city
around 3 pm after a 2 hour bus ride and a 3 minute taxi ride. I got
signed in and given a new ID badge. I had some lunch, went to the
library to check email and then went to the Tuesday Seminar. It was a
talk on seed dispersal and genetics.
Afterwards Joe Wright took me to the grocery store to get enough
food to
feed myself for the week. I was a bit tired of chicken and beef so I got
some pasta, sauce, and frozen and canned fish.
I am staying in the apartment next to his at the duplex that the
Smithsonian rents for him and his wife and 7 month old boy. I am staying
with a researcher from England who has been down here for the last month
or so. He leaves Panama the day before I do.
I walked down to the shipping area of the canal where a lot of work is
done on passing ships, tugs, etc. It was the only place to locally get
lunch. All the canal workers eat there, it was $2 for grilled chicken and
rice (it was really good and made me miss summertime). I picked up a
fruit from a cashew tree on my way back from lunch. I wanted to see how a
raw cashew tasted. I immediately discarded the fruit and kept the seed,
when I got back to the house I cut it open and ate the raw cashew. It
wasn’t bad but wasn’t great, will add it to my list of things to eat when
I am in a survival situation only.

Later I hiked in a protected forest in Gamboa. There is an observation
tower at the top, I opted to go right through the forest since I couldn’t
find the trail. When I got to the top of the ridge I found an Asphalt
paved road. I followed that to a path that led up to the observation
tower. Once I got there I realzed that I also could have taken cable car
ride to the top (run by the Gamboa Resort). I much preferred the walking.
The tower was tall and cleared nearly all of the trees. I got some good
shots of the canal and hiked back down to the house.
On the way I stopped to look at a sturdy cement bridge that crossed over a
gully that was 25 feet deep. At the bottom was a crocodile. He was about
4 ft long, he seemed to be stuck down there, but judging by his weight he
was healthy and happy.

Last night I finally got to cook! I didn’t have much in the kitchen but
managed to come up with the following meal:
Pargo Blanco Fish steaks marinated in orange juice, soy sauce, ginger,
salt, pepper, garlic and chives. Cooked with onions and peanut oil in a
cast iron pan.
Served over brown rice and accompanied by a green mango, tomato, onion,
and corn salad all of it topped with bean sprouts.

I am sending this email from a Macintosh in the computer lab on Barro
Colorado Island. I am just here for the day. I wanted to see the nature
reserve during the dry season as well as check on a couple things I didn’t
get to see last time due to time constraints.

This Mac is driving me crazy so I will write more later about my
excursions on the island. For now I need to go change my clothes, eat
dinner, go to seminar, and catch the boat back to Gamboa


Hot and sweaty and covered in ticks
Matt[/code]


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Very interesting and thanks for sharing... Nice pictures as well.


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## slygecko (Feb 10, 2007)

Hey Matt,

Thanks for sharing that. It sounds like a lot of fun, yet at the same time, terribly depressing. So many devasted places. I enjoyed your pictures.. but you should throw some labels in there for the uneducated... are the green and black darts the D. vincenti? I like the hemiphractus and the centrolenid too (I'm learning my frogs in herpetology!). Keep up the good work.

Later,
Nick


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

I don`t know if Matt will have the time to post over the next 2 weeks. He`s still fighting the good fight and probably has limited access.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Thanks Matt. This stuff is great, just like reading Marty Crump! Good luck. I’m very sorry that I’m won’t get to see your presentation at IAD.


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

One of my favorite reads are expeditionary journals. Very fascinating, I guess it takes those alike (taking time to view/compare clumps of soil and such) to run across (while not missing) the once (likely forever) unnoticed.

Want to hear more about that (true) parasitic plant (I assume it's the fern in the gallery perched on the concrete wall). That slime mold looks a lot like (if not exactly like) the ones I've seen in a couple of my tanks. I always considered this an indicator of strength in the health/ecology of the soil.

Cool stuff, great work.


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## rmelancon (Apr 5, 2004)

Matt Mirabello said:


> ...Hot and sweaty and covered in ticks
> Matt[/code]


I think I just made up my mind about ever going out in the field in Panama...


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

Reminded me of days working on the botany project and the herp project in Ellington, Missouri. Couldn`t be too much worse than 90f and 90% humidity there and tick hatches covering your arms.
I`m going to try and go.


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## TDKelley (May 30, 2005)

Matt,

Thanks for sharing the letters. I'm looking forward to seeing your presentation next month at IAD.

Todd.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

Matt,

It is good to hear about your experiences. I am really looking forward to some of the seminars, especially yours, this year.

Melissa


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