Cofrin Center for Biodiversity

Winter Interim: January 4, 2010 - January 17, 2010

We are accepting applications for this year's course.

The UW-Green Bay travel course to Panama will provide an opportunity for students to conduct a variety of exciting field research projects in collaboration with the world famous Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Proposed projects will include surveying tropical birds and bats in pristine tropical rainforest, collecting fossils in the Panama Canal Zone with a team of Smithsonian paleontologists, comparing soil animals and spiders in lowland rainforest and cloud forest, and monitoring marine organisms in a Caribbean coastal ecosystem. A generous subsidy from The 1923 Fund of Dr. David Cofrin makes this once-in-lifetime experience available at a very modest cost per student (about $2000). The number of students will be limited to 7 (plus 3 from St. Norbert College), so acceptance for the travel course will be competitive. Students will be selected based on the relevance of this course to their career goals, previous field experience, and academic record.

Tentative Schedule and Trip Highlights (note this is tentative as all arrangements have not been finalized)

We will fly into Panama City and spend the night in a hotel near the airport. You will have an opportunity to enjoy traditional Panamanian cuisine and relax after a long trip. The next day we will fly to Isla Bocas in the Carribean and the STRI Marine Biological Station. We will spend 3 nights there and students will stay in modern dorms with gourmet meals prepared by a Creole chef. We will survey benthic invertebrates using the station's glass bottomed boat, snorkel, and hopefully see dolphins. We will also be capturing video of wooly possums and help bat expert Maurice Thomas as he sets up mist nets to capture bats. We will record information and record vocalizations. We will visit La Grota, a cave on the island known for its bat colony. We will also set up motion sensitive cameras to record wooly possoms as the forage at night. There will also be time for you to visit Bocas town or to go birding or more snorkeling! We will fly from Bocas Town to David in the central mountains and spend 3 nights in the cloud forest.Conditions at Fortunas are spartan and we will be cooking ou own meals and "camping" in the engineering barracks. We will sample arachnids with Dr. Draney, go birding with 2 UWGB grads now conducting research at the site, and collect some bat data. We hope to visit the hydro-electric facility which is the largest in Panama and provides over 30% of the country's electriciity. We will end our trip at Gamboa, the Smithsonian's main tropical forest research area. We will spend 5 nights at the Gamboa schoolhouse dormitory, with local cuisine prepared for us by the Smithsonian staff. We will be joined there by Dr. Choudery from St. Norbert College who will take us fish sampling in streams along Pipeline Road. We will visit the famous Barro colorado Island and take a guided tour of the forest there. We will visit the main STRI lab in Panama City and visit a local market that sells fair trade products made by Indigenous peoples of Panama.We will visit the locks that control the water levels in the Canal and learn more about the history and engineering of this amazing structure. We will collect arachnids in a dry forest and you will have the opportunity to view the rainforest from above in one of the Smithsonian's 400 meter high canopy cranes. We hope to have evening lectures by Smithsonuan researchers. And of course, there will be time for you to watch birds, visit the nearby resort and relax before we fly back to the frozen tundra!

Note this itinerary is a sample only and may differ as plans are made!

Panama City (1 night) 4 January
Bocas (3 nights) arrive 5 January—leave 8 January
- Snorkeling and dolphins (1 morning)
- Invertebrate survey using glass bottom boat (2 mornings)
- La Gruta cave tour (1 half day)
- Bats with Maurice (3 evenings)
- Camera research with possums (3 evenings)
Fortunas ( 3 nights) arrive 8 January—leave 11 january
- Hike of the ridge (1 half day)
- Mornings bird research (2 half days)
- Tour of the hydro-electric facility (1 half day or full day?)
- Spider research (2 half days)
Gamboa (5 nights) arrive 11 January –leave 17 January
- Travel to (1 half day)
- Tour at BCI (1 day)
- Spider research at BCI (1 day)
- Canopy cranes (2 half days or 1 full day)
- Tour of the locks (1 half day)
- Pipeline Road birding and nature center (1 half day)