Into the Pantanal!

Hey guys! I'm writing a bit early today and maybe I'll get a chance to write tonight too.

I'm sitting in the classroom area right now trying to cool down from the morning's activities. It is about 90 degrees on average with humidity that makes it feel like 97 degrees. It's surreal to me that I have to date these with a February time stamp, since I am conditioned to believe February is cold.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We spent the morning repairing amphibian/reptile traps. The concept and design of the trap is simple, but genius. A plastic barrier is placed between and over traps in a line of 8 traps; the traps consist of barrels sunk into the landscape so they are less noticeable to the animals. The black plastic sheeting is held up by poles of naturally-growing brush--the fencing is tied to each pole or stake to ensure stability. Another stabilizing factor, to make sure the string doesn't rip through the plastic is to duct tape the portion of the plastic that the string is poked through. The purpose of the fencing is that a frog, reptile or any number of other creatures will follow the fence after the barrier ends up in their path (because they're trying to get around it). Inadvertently, the creature will follow the fencing until they drop into the barrel trap. When spring comes, I would like to go outside with you guys and make similar traps to catch creatures. We can find out what creatures move around during the day, and then what creatures move around during the night. I think it will be fascinating and fabulous. By the way, it took us 3 hours to repair 4 lines with 4 traps on each line.
The area we were in is the only salt water lake in the area called the Salinas, which means "salt water lake". Different bird species live here than in other areas of the Pantanal. Check out the great pics from today.
Have a great snow day! That's quite a storm system over you guys! Skiing anyone?