Leaf Cutters and Chicken Coops

Okay, so I must say, yesterday’s first picture was kind of a lie. There was no iguana in the picture. However, before you all stone me, let me add that there WAS a large iguana-like lizard; it just wasn’t an iguana… but I didn’t know that at the time. Apparently, it’s called a “Wish Willy” and they are related to iguanas, but with less frills and a grayer color. Didn’t find him? Keep looking, he’s there—promise. :) Meanwhile, are you ready for round two? The one hiding in the picture below is younger and thus harder to distinguish between the two species. Probably also a “Wish Willy,” but I’m not going to say, “Can you find the Wish Willy?”

Can you find the iguana?

Speaking of Belizean creatures, I have a new favorite fascination: leafcutter ants! These things are large and crazy. They can strip the leaves off of an entire tree overnight. I saw a bunch of them carrying large leaf chunks in a line that stretched 40 feet away in both directions—one direction leading to a giant tree (actually the same one featured in yesterday’s iguana picture) and the other leading to a giant mound with several other long lines leading in. These crazy buggers strip the leaves not as food or building material. Instead, they take all the leaf chunks and toss them in an enormous pile deep within their mound where other ants help it decompose so that it becomes the perfect fertilizer for a very specific fungus to grow and they actually eat the fungus that grows on their decomposed leaf piles! Isn’t that totally remarkable? Ants may be invasive and annoying sometimes (especially given my mild allergy to their bites—thankfully none of these guys bit me!) but I find them absolutely fascinating to observe. Apparently, some leafcutter colonies have been found to contain over 7-8 BILLION ants—that’s more than there are people on earth! By the way, all of this leaf-cutter ant knowledge is just what other team members told me, so you can correct me if there are factual inaccuracies.

Leaf cutter ants are hard to take pictures of, but look closely. Do you see the leaf chunks they're carrying?

 

Zoomed in more, yet still not very effective at relaying the amazingness of these little buggers.

 See the giganto-ant there checking up on the little minions? These are particularly vicious looking overlord leaf cutter ants who follow the progress and protect the trail of ants.

Well, today fellow team member Chloe and I finished the chicken coop we were working on yesterday. Now that we’ve built one, subsequent coops should be much easier. A lot of this project was described yesterday, so I’ll let you read that post, but today was great fun working with more of the boys to help them build the coop. One of them, Justin, is actually 18 and leaving soon for the University of Belize where he will be studying Computer Science. I talked to him a lot about the local computer expertise levels and incorporated it into some local research I’m doing for some projects I’m planning personally. More information on those projects coming soon. Meanwhile, here’s some pictures from today’s chicken coop project:

Chloe and Justin install a hinge.

Stapling down the chicken wire.

A finished chicken coop! Yay!

Sorry this post is so short. Been a long day with an unusual evening, but all is well in Belize. Tomorrow is one of our days off, so I think there is some adventuring in store. :) 

This is Ken signing off for another day.