Population ecology

This morning I woke up early downing my coffee and scarfing my breakfast of musli and yoghurt. I am in a hurry to prepare a lecture and accompanying powerpoint by 10:00am. I am lecturing on population ecology this morning followed by errands. Picking up Big Blue from the mechanics shop once again then meeting Alejandro at the airport with Coral. Alejandro is an amphibian expert from Catolica Universidad de Quito. I say expert loosely here because he is a university student only 18 years old. His enthusiasm for amphibians and ID collection is far beyond his years though and last year he discovered a frog previously thought extinct in the Gasualpampa valley where we are going. Examining the leaves of a huge bromeliad broken free from the canopy crashed down on the forest floor Alejandro found a Dendrobates previously thought extinct and not seen since 1995. Of course this discovery is huge in the scientific world and in the wider world in general. After all it is no longer the age of discovery. Our time is now being called the information age right?

We are flying Alejandro in to come out to the field with us and help capture and ID frogs, many of which are threatened or endangered. The tropical Andes have a tremendous amount of amphibian diversity and endemism after all, and if your not familiar with that lingo endemic means found only in that one place, one forest type, one valley even. Specificity, and as they say of the tropical forests, common species are rare and rare species are common. Meaining there is so much specificity that rare species are found everywhere, locally abundant and common species are also there but diminished in the sea of other forms of life everywhere. It is a place for specialists over generalists, hence so much diversity. Anyway, Alejandro is a great guy and a true gentleman. I learn he is originally from Venezuela though for political reasons he and his family have fled Venezuela and moved many places, Spain, Ecuador, etc. He speaks impeccable English, is an avid photographer and aspiring biologist with foresight beyond his years. It makes me think of the things I was doing when I was 17? ...hmmm, yeah.

After picking up Alejandro at the airport Coral and I hustled him over to the Universidad de Azuay, down the street from our house where I snapped this huge colorful agave close up hanging spikily over the wall I pass every day. Alejandro gave an excellent lecture to a packed room full of professors, students, and members of Foundacion Cordillera, like Catherine who warmly hailed it as a huge success. Collaboration courtesy of our class. That makes me feel as happy as one of the frogs perched grinning in his photos. Close ups of these beautiful strange amphibians close up and personal. Like aliens from another world, fantastic dragons and hobgoblins. Now I cannot wait to mee them in person! We leave for the field tomorrow. A weekend of night time frog catching in the cloud forest awaits.

Get ready...