Day 4 of my Pantanal Adventure

Ola! This morning, I worked with Ellen Wang, the principal researcher for reptiles and amphibians. There were two other teammates joining us, Chinloo and Heather. We traveled to the rainforest in a jeep. Along the way, we saw a fox, but it ran away before we were able to take a picture of it. We also encountered three Jaburus (Tuiuius) and took beautiful pictures of them.
Upon arriving at the traps that had been set up the day before, we found a variety of amphibians (including nineteen little frogs), a few lizards, a gecko, and three enormous tarantulas. I had a hard time capturing the frogs and lizards from the traps with my bare hands. Helen Wang was very kind and patient with me and helped me to feel more calm and comfortable.
In the afternoon, I worked with Ellen Wang, Chinloo, and Heather in the lab. After some delicious Brazilian home made food I thought I would be more relaxed. However, when I went to work with the creatures in the lab my heart started to pound faster. (We had to hold, measure, and weigh them). At first, I had difficulty keeping the frog under control as it was trying to jump off my hands. With the assistance of Ellen and my teammates I felt more calm with the frogs and was able to weigh and measure eight of them.
Late in the afternoon, I worked on the computer entering the data we had collected. Then we attended a presentation by Ellen Wang about her amphibians and reptiles research. Ellen stated that there have been very few studies in the Pantanal on amphibians and reptiles. She also mentioned that of her research goals include investigating the richness and abundance of species as well as the animals’ trophic relationships; food resources, and diet. She also studies the different environmental condition in the Pantanal and how they affect the design of effective conservation strategies.