July has been a great month for us here at Cloudbridge, with many beautiful wildlife images taken by our program participants and our staff members. It has been very nice to bear witness to how our staff member Anthony Garita has been honing his photography skills, and we are sure that you will enjoy the beautiful images featured in this blog, including the glass frog above. Anthony´s photography is currently being shown in Spain as part of a showcase of Costa Rican nature photography, and this honor is certainly well-deserved. Do you recognize the waterfall that is featured in the show´s poster?
Closer to home, July has been a relatively quiet month here, after the festivities of the Cloud Forest Festival last month. Of course, our research and volunteer program is always quite active, though this month saw the departure of various research interns who had been with us for some months. The research lab has proved to be an important resource for our program participants, and we are pleased to begin decorating the lab with the beautiful herbarium images developed by our former research intern Louise Illot. As for community participation, this month staff members participated in the Canaan Festival with a talk about wildlife of the Talamanca mountains. Likewise, Cloudbridge has recently joined the local Chamber of Tourism, CATURCOCHI, and now forms part of the chamber´s environmental committee.
Program Participants
July was a month of many departures – many of the people in this picture are no longer with us, and we hope that they will apply the skills they learned at Cloudbridge to their coming adventures. We are happy to have received new researchers who will continue to study the amazing biodiversity we have here on the reserve.
Hi I’m Tash, I’m a research intern from the UK studying the biodiversity of dung beetle communities in Cloudbridge. I’m a Zoology graduate, nature (and hiking) enthusiast and, equally enthusiastic, vegan chef! Looking forward to bringing all of this to Cloudbridge over my next few months here.
Hello, my name is Anne Mia. I’m from Germany and I volunteered at Cloudbridge for 2 months. The bird life as well as the primary forest surprised me the most. I loved to listen to the sounds of the forest with all its animals. The community is really fun and the potluck Thursday was always one of my highlights every week. I was really happy to get to see some spider monkeys on my last survey day.
Hello my name is Tristan de Roquefeuil. I come from Paris in France. Currently I am studying at Purpan engineering school specializing in environmental sciences. At Cloudbridge I study bird adaptation to high altitude, diversity and morphology. Passionate about adventure and a taste for discovery, I can’t wait to discover what the jungle has in store for me
Pics from around the reserve
Suggested Reading
– This July has been the hottest on record, with heat waves in large parts of North America, Asia and Europe as well as colossal wildfires in Canada and the Mediterranean. All of this has a direct impact on health and well-being, with vulnerable populations suffering more due to lack of adequate housing and other factors.
– Wildlife are also suffering from these conditions, with catastrophic coral bleaching off the coast of Florida, where ocean waters have reached the temperature of a warm bath.
– Unfortunately, these extreme temperatures are driving an increase in energy consumption, leading to a vicious cycle where the effects of global warming are driving the consumption of even more fossil fuels.
– In the face of this crisis, it is important to foster our sense of community and our ability to talk with one another. Fostering respect and empathy towards others will enhance our resilience in the face of the many social conflicts that will only be exacerbated by climate change and the crisis of extinction that we are living through. Barbara Kingsolver is an excellent storyteller whose book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a personal favorite. This is her conversation with the New York Times about her current bestseller Demon Copperhead.