Day 41 - La Selva

It's always disappointing when project ideas don't work out. I spent most of yesterday afternoon watching this fantastic bird here called the Montezuma Oropendola, but couldn't think of a great project to do. Well, I thought of a couple . . . but no one else got very excited about them, and the thought of doing a project by myself was really intimidating. So I joined a group studying bullet ants (more about them in a minute), which I just can't get very excited about. I'm trying, but I just don't really like ants, particularly ones that are gigantic and can inflict extreme pain. I really want to do my project on birds. Well, it's the last one in Costa Rica, so hopefully it will go all right, and I'm working with two people I haven't yet. If all else fails, it will be a good experience.

Oh, and here's a little tidbit about bullet ants:

"Human Sting Reactions: Sting victims' reactions have been described by Bequaert (1926), Weber (1937, 1939), McCluskey & Brown (1972), Schmidt (1990) and Morgan (1996). Intense pain typically lasts 3-5 hours then lessens over the next day. Severe pain may be accompanied by trembling, perspiration, nausea, and inability to use an injured arm or leg. Some South American Indians intentionally applied stings during tribal manhood rituals (Bequaert 1926) and medicinally to treat rheumatism and similar ailments (Weber 1937)."