TORTUGUERO, COSTA RICA

-My Internship Placement-

June-Sept. 2011

COTERC @ Caño Palma Biological Station...

The Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC) is a registered Canadian non-profit charitable organization founded in 1991, COTERC operates in both Canada and Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, it is based at the Caño Palma Biological Station.

Caño Palma Biological Station is situated approximately 8 kilometres north of the village of Tortuguero on Costa Rica’s north-eastern coast. The Tortuguero area is an ancient flood plain covered by lowland Atlantic tropical wet forest and is biologically the richest ecosystem in Costa Rica. Average daily temperature is about 26 degrees Celsius and rainfall may exceed 6,000 mm/yr.  A narrow, palm-filled canal separates the Biological Station from the Caribbean Sea by only 200-300 metres.

The globally endangered green, leatherback, hawksbill and loggerhead sea turtles come ashore to nest on beaches accessible from the station. There are no roads in the area, and visitors to Caño Palma arrive by boat via a network of rivers and canals.

Working with Turtles...

COTERC and York University initiated “El Proyecto Tortugas”, a monitoring programme designed to study sea turtle nesting activity on an unprotected beach north of Tortuguero National Park on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. The project consists of night patrols, tagging and collection of biometric data.
Track surveys are conducted and turtle nests monitored for signs of disturbance. The stretch of beach being monitored is 5.6 kilometres and the total length walked each night is 11.2 kilometres. Data is shared with the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC) as well as with other turtle projects in the country to help try to augment protection for the turtles on the beach. Tagging turtles in the hopes of gathering further information on their travels during their life cycle is also part of these projects.

Mammals...

Three Costa Rican primate species are found to inhabit the area, including; mantled howlers, white-faced capuchins, and spider monkeys; other large mammals include the jaguar, the tapir, and white-lipped peccary, and many others beyond this. A standardized protocol will be followed while conducting presence/absence data along the black water canals and established forest transects of Caño Palma. Project data provides an improved understanding of demographic parameters, distribution, habitat use, and foraging behaviour.