Life In The Field

Jill Arnott

Yesterday was my favourite day yet on the expedition. Four of us set out bright and early to set up the first mammal transect for the mammal project. We got dropped off at the end of the transect furthest from the station and to our surprise has to jump from the boat into the canal in order to get into the forest itself. After being in the jungle for only moments we saw our first wildlife, howler monkeys up in a tree. The majority of our day was spent wading through waist deep water and mud trying our hardest not to get stuck. We managed to find a fallen tree where we could take a little break and a grassy knoll to eat lunch on amidst all the water and mud. After lunch we continued wading through the transect passing many poison dart frogs along the way. Around the midpoint of the transect, the land is a bit higher and therefore drier but I somehow still managed to get water up my nose. As we neared the end of the transect we all agreed that this had been the most intense yet amazing day thus far on the expedition. The jungle is a huge and fascinating place and this was the perfect opportunity to explore it and to top it all off the transect can now be used to collect data.”

Jill Arnott