Snail guts, crocodiles, and a sunken ship

Snail guts and empty
snail shells

Taking hermit crab blood

You know you’re in Panama when you’re eating breakfast and an iguana climbs up a tree right outside the window. What a great way to start the day! We spent the entire day in the lab, playing with the hermit crabs we had gathered yesterday. The first experiments involved watching each crab move towards a visual cue, with no odor. The second part was much more interesting. We used the odors of fish, algae, hermit crabs, and snails. First we had to collect the snails, which meant snorkeling! We explored the mangrove forest near the shore and saw an abundance of amazing creatures. We spotted barracudas, an octopus, up-side-down jellyfish, arrowhead crabs, stingrays, cleaner shrimp and lots fish. It was amazing to see the amount of biodiversity right off the dock! We were able to collect a good amount of slimly snails from the submerged pillars. Extracting the snail odor involved removing the squishy part from snails and then soaking them in water. For the hermit crabs, we had to remove them from their shells by heating up the back of their shells with a heating rod. Then we used a syringe to extract their blood. The fish was dissected and the seaweed was mashed up. All the extracts were soaked in water for an hour before we used the odors plus the visual targets to see if the crabs responded. It was pretty gruesome, but that’s the nature of science!

A hermit crab without a shell!

Shortly before dusk, we spotted a crocodile chilling on the side of a pond and a baby swimming nearby. We were able to get within 10 feet of the bigger one before it slipped back into the water!

Unfortunately, we didn’t finish all the experiments in time. We couldn’t continue them after dark because the crab behavior changes at night. Instead, after dinner we decided to check out the small town of Boccas del Torro. It was absolutely spectacular! The town is alive with many different cultures, from the locals to the tourists. We went to a restaurant/bar called Barco Hundido (Sunken Ship). It was probably one of the coolest eateries I have ever been to! It is an open space, some of what was covered by a roof, the rest was under the stars. Docks expanded out into the water and you could actually see the outline of a coral-covered boat under waves. This place was actually built around a shipwreck! Off to the side, they even had a built-in touch tank with stingrays and sea stars. We spent a lot of time dancing to the Carribean music and playing with the marine critters.

We ended up returning to the research center quite late. It was fun exploring the culture of this Panamanian town. Sometimes I get so fascinated in my research that I forget to appreciate how fascinating the local cultures can be!