Panama Travel Journal II - Day 6

A. limosus

Day 6, December 13, 2009

Today Jeff and I got an early start. For some reason we never do a morning “hunt.” In traditional “hunting” the mornings are a great time to see animals. Because sometimes the work lasts until 1 a.m. I guess early morning comes too quickly.

We are starting to get a little desperate to find A. limosus. We have around 10 now. Last trip we collected 20 seemingly easier. In fact, on the first trip, Mark found one on the first day by the house. Jeff and I have a goal today to stay out longer and go farther than anyone has even gone. We would hunt from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. By 2 p.m. we had basically found nothing, only a few small frogs that were not our targets. So much for the morning hunt hunch.

Just before 2 however things changed. We had been searching all day for a waterfall type area. It had begun to dawn on us that all the limosus we found were in one small area near a waterfall. Most areas develop field names like “the black palm,” “the Colymba intersection,” “Adrian’s log,” ‘Edgardo’s side stream,” and most of the limosus were found near “Bob’s falls.” I found Bob’s falls on the first trip. I was working around this tough rocky area and pulled a 50lb boulder down on top of me. I fell back into the pool below the falls, the Boulder went between my legs and I went totally underwater sitting on my butt. The only thing I didn’t know is Edgardo named the place to commemorate my big plunge.

This new falls though was more like a slot canyon, and mysterious because no one had seen it. We were hours from our vehicle, we had a good feeling, but were anxious because we had not found any limosus and time was running out.
As we walked down the falls and I see a tiny frog and think, “Another small frog we don’t need.” I knew I should find it though and look. After finding it I looked closely to see it was a tiny baby Antelopus limosus. We were ecstatic! We began a frantic search for more in the surrounding area to find nothing. It was 4 p.m. by now and we decided to head back. We found lots during the “golden hour.” The golden hour is something I call the 6 to 7 p.m. hour. It is the time when daytime species go to sleep and nighttime species move to their perches to call. I began to notice the day before, it was my lucky time. On the way back I described the “golden hour” to Jeff and all-be-darned if he did not look up and find one of the best frogs ever. Hemiphractus fasciatus, a frog that looks like a leaf and is also a marsupial frog. We found lots of Colymba. It was a good night.