RARA AVIS NEWS LETTER 10 - OCTOBER 1999

Greetings to all from a rainy afternoon at the Waterfall Lodge !

The beginning of October is upon us, and with it come heavier rains. As we sit comfortably sheltered from the tropical downpour that is hammering the roof over our heads we contemplate the events of the passing few months and the changes that are to come. Rara Avis, a place with a long and inspiring history is gearing up for a bright future. This first edition of the newsletter is our attempt to keep our friends closer to Rara Avis, even if they may be far away.

So what has happened recently ?

Of course, we experience exciting animal sightings on an almost daily basis, but the last three months have turned out to be exceptional. Our already impressive birdlist could be expanded with no less than 5 new species, bringing the total number of species recorded for the reserve up to 366. One of the new additions - the Wing-Banded Antbird - is only known from our neighboring countries Nicaragua and Panama and has not been reported for Costa Rica yet ! Apart from our new birds, some of the more elusive old-time visitors turned out in large numbers. Several Snowcap and White-tipped Sicklebill Hummingbirds were sighted, as were Sunbitterns, Three-wattled Bellbirds and Bare-necked Umbrellabirds. The Great Green Macaws have been around for a few weeks now and small flocks of these rare parrots are seen occasionally.

Continued surveys of the herpetofauna of Rara Avis turned up an additional 5 new species for our area, some of which are extremely rare. Red-eyed Treefrogs and Striped Poison-dart Frogs were long expected to occur here and their occurrence in Rara Avis could finally be confirmed. Since a few months, the treehouse is permanently inhabited by a pair of large Turnip Tail Geckos (affectionately called Bob and Bertha) and several overnight visitors to our treetop cabin have made acquaintance with them.

On the mammal front we can report that we are having more and more peccary sightings around El Plastico. Considering that these wild pigs were hunted to near extinction before the founding of Rara Avis, it is very encouraging to see their natural population recover now that their habitat is protected. The same goes for the other large mammals, such as Tapirs whose tracks are encountered in large numbers. With the return of the peccaries we also see their predators come back and on a number of occasions in the last few weeks we have seen Puma tracks in the tractor road. A new mammal species for Rara Avis, the Honduran White Bat, has recently been paying us a visit, catching insects around the lights almost every night.

After a long period in which the projects that have always been the backbone of Rara Avis were more or less abandoned, we have started to revive and expand them successfully. The butterfly farm is in Wilberth's very capable hands and now boasts stable breeding populations of a number of species. Recently, we installed the first of a series of butterfly traps in the canopy to investigate the species that inhabit the treetops. Last month, visiting Mexican butterfly experts discovered in Rara Avis a butterfly species that is now extinct in Mexico. This particular species is being bred in one of Las Horquetas' butterfly farms, owned by one of the people trained in Rara Avis. Currently, Mexican national park authorities are investigating the possibility to release some of the butterflies from Las Horquetas into enclosed test sites to study the potential for reintroduction of this species in Mexico.

Wilberth has also constructed a new shadehouse to house the stained-glass palm project, and as soon as we have the necessary supplies we will start producing palm seedlings again.

The orchid house and canopy farming project is growing so fast that we have to keep adding new sections to the shade house to keep it from bursting out of its accommodation. We seem to have mastered the flasking techniques necessary to grow orchids in test tubes, and an enormous number of seed pods awaits flasking. All the orchids in the project are collected from fallen trees and branches that fell from the canopy after storms. A number of these orchids is placed on plastic grids and hauled back up in the canopy on a pulley system. We recently flasked the first seeds from an orchid that is located on the first 'canopy farming'-grid, put in place by researchers from the Bioproca foudation, two years ago. The success of this novel technique, developed by Bioproca, will put Rara Avis back in its leading position in the sound and sustainable use of rainforest products.

As a result of our work with the orchids we are also gaining more insight into the composition of the orchid flora of Rara Avis. So far we have identified 153 species and the list is growing every week. Again we are doing some remarkable discoveries, for example we identified a species that has only been recorded once before in Costa Rica.

Slowly we are getting a little more media coverage again. Costa Rican national TV filmed a three-episode documentary in the reserve, which aired recently. Rara Avis was also the backdrop of a French documentary on Dr. Donald Perry and his canopy research.

Donald Perry is again involved in a joined effort with Rara Avis to start an international institute for canopy research. This institute will be a non-profit organization focusing on education and research, and will involve some revolutionary canopy access systems. At this moment we are in the process of installing the first of the new tree top structures.

Not only is Rara Avis going to be home to a treeclimbing school, we are also getting ready to design a curriculum for highschool students. It that will allow them to attend school in the middle of the jungle, for up to an entire semester.

As you can see we have enough on our hands for awhile. Although things have been quiet around Rara Avis for a long time, we are more alive than ever !

Hopefully this brief account of our current and future plans will make you feel closer to us again, and keeps the spark alive. If you would like to know more about any of our projects or on the biodiversity in the reserve, please visit our website at http://www.rara-avis.com. If you can't find the answers you are looking for there, please don't hesitate to contact us. We greatly appreciate any type of feedback. We also encourage you to forward this newsletter to anyone that might be interested in our work. You can help us showing the world that there are other ways to save the rainforest !

Until the next time !

Laura, Sarah & Twan