8 July

Still not being used to the time difference we all woke up nice and early. We first got a tour of the camp: the kitchen, dorms, welcome centre etc. We then had a meeting with the research coordinator, Jen, who also focusses her study on frogs. She will help us set up the project and train us to hopefully not walk past all the frogs as most of them are very small and brown, some only 20 mm.

Our initial plan of pitfall trap surveys we are going to have to adjust as the frogs here can easily climb out with their sticky feet. Instead of placing the bucket in the ground, with the edge at the same level as the ground we are going to make holes halfway in the buckets in which the frogs will hopefully enter. With the lid on the bucket we hope this will create a more ‘safe space’ for the frogs which will make them stay. Our plan of walking transects of 1 km we also have to change to about 150 meters as otherwise we will be walking through different habitats: old growth forest, natural regeneration and planted regeneration.

In the afternoon we went on our first hike around the Rio path where we saw a whole group of white-nosed coati. Some parts are very steep and a walking stick is a must, but the views are so amazing. I could sit there for hours watching the clouds roll over and through the mountains. Back in camp it turned out we had just missed 4 armadillos visiting camp while we were away. There is so much to see! In the evening we managed to spot two screeching owls just outside camp.