Visiting the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Today we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve! We took a guided hike around the forest and our tour guide was amazing. Almost immediately we spotted an azure hooded jay that was eating lizard. The tour guide said that he has never seen a bird in action eating a lizard which kept the bird distracted enough for us to take lots of pictures. Soon after we heard the bird call of the Quetzal. The Quetzal is an endangered species but we did see some efforts to rebuild the population with some boxes that were built in order to protect their nests from other predators. The Quetzal kept evading us but we were fortunate enough to track one down by following it's call. We also saw a female purple throated mountain gem but the female didn't have the fluorescent colors to help them camouflage easier since they are the ones taking care of the young. Besides birds we spotted some howler monkeys, millipedes, and a ton of other animals. 

The guide was talking about the changes in the forest that have taken place and how before there was always constant rain but now there are stronger showers which is causing more erosion. Also the clouds are moving to higher elevations because of the higher temperatures. The stronger winds and erosion are causing more things like landslides and falling trees. Once an area is cleared out, one of the first plants to grow is a secropias which are fast growing tree that can grow up to 3 m per year. They also have hollow trunks which allows them to move their resources to the leaves and stem rather than the trunks. The cloud forest have a lot of competition for light and space so many epiphytes have adapted to growing on trunks are eventually generating soil from old dying epiphytes that were there before them. 

I could go on with all of the things that I learned today about the cloud forest. This was definitely one of the most interesting tours that I have taken and am still in awe with everything that this ecosystem has to offer. 

 

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