Final Post-Seth

Alright guys, its our last day here in the keys and the distant sounds of Margaritaville bid us to voyage to Key West. However, first there was business that needed tended to. Over the past 8 days the 11 of us in the Tropical Zoology class had split into 3 groups to study a vertebrate of our choice, living in the keys. The fish group with their super-adaptibility, acclimated themselves like fish of the genus Gambusia, to change their fish of choice when presented with an insurmountable obstacle; No Rivulus marmoratus. The lizard groups were also diligent in their efforts. Regardless of the fact that they secretly wanted to be part of the fish group. Honestly, who wouldnt though? So I can't blame them.
So this morning everyone slept in and we met up in the lab at 9. It was time to present our research to the rest of the class. The fish group stepped up and set the standard for grade-A performance. Just kidding about that, I thought that everyone did a great job and should be proud of what we accomplished this week. We learned a very important part of science by conducting our research, sometimes after all of your work, you are left with more questions than answers. But its those questions that drive the field and are just as important as the answer you originally sought. That's enough of my rambling.
Now we are cleaning out our dorms. Packing, sweeping, trying to consume all the food that we bought, and preparing for the night out ahead of us. Then in the morning we begin our trip home for a late afternoon arrival home on friday just in time for a delicous home-made meal that tastes of sweet victory. Thanks for checking out our blog this week. We all had a great time and will carry these memories for the rest of our lives.

Joe- This trip was awesome! I learned a ton about mosquito fish (the useless fish) and also lab techniques. I made awesome friends, and I know we'll all be keeping in touch.

Kelly- Surprisingly, Joe didn't cheese it up as much as in his blog. Seriously though, these past 8 days have been incredible. Snorkling, kayaking (paddling out and sitting), bridge jumping, boating, spearfishing, assaying, blood drawing. mangroving.. I couldn't have imagined a more awesome research trip. Time to start saving for Tahiti.

Lauren - Wow! This trip has been amazing! I mean, what could be better than taking a 4-credit class in the florida keys, and learning more in two weeks than you would have in 15?? I learned how to snorkel, catch lizards with a noose pole, say I love you in Chinese, that Italian women don't take their husband's last name when they get married, how to write a real scientific paper, how to present a real research project, how to play "over the rainbow" on a ukulele, how to drive a boat, and I got to meet some pretty incredible people. It was a blast and I remember thinking at least once everyday, "Wow, I never knew that....I better remember it." It was a great experience and I will miss everyone!

Chiara - Awesome trip! I met very good and nice American students and profs, I had a great time snorkeling, seeing sharks and barracuda, catching fish, fish printing (that's normal for a fish guy!), tasting excellent international dinners, working with a good fish group team and learning a lot of techniques and many american slangs! Pretty cool to be my first 10 days in US!!! Thanks to everybody!

Julie - It was awesome having this class be the last one for my undergrad. I learned a lot of new things like if I put my hand near a goliath grouper it will try to eat it, how to catch anoles with a noose, and that an iguana can crawl all the way across the room in a cotton bag. I also learned many new scientific techniques that will help me out in the future. I had a great time and was happy to meet everyone. Go lizard group!

Amber- Well, we had tons of fun on this trip. It was a little intimidating going into this class not knowing anyone, but it didn't take long for us to all get acquainted. I love the diversity that we had here, I spent a lot of time attempting to learn bits and pieces of Arabic, Chinese, and Italian. It was awesome, although I'm pretty sure I butchered the pronunciation of all of them :) We all got our own nicknames and I can proudly say that I am the Official Lizard Wrangler! :) This has been a great experience and I hope to stay in touch with my new-found friends! :) On a side note, I also kinda fell in love with lizards :P

Halle- I wish we had more time here to actually explore and not just be stuck in the lab. However, I am very glad I was in the fish group because I made some good friends and we actually got time to do things after lunch, like bridge jumping, spear fishing, kayaking, etc, unlike the lizard groups. Im really happy I came.

Day 8-Stephanie

Today was quite the interesting day here in the Florida Keys. Both lizard groups and the fish group were hard at work for most of the day interpreting their data and learning what writing scientific papers is all about. All I can say is, as interesting as it is, it can be quite the frustrating process. In the end though, after a long night tonight of paper and presentation writing, all groups are confident that they will prevail (FINALLY!!!). The lizard groups did get to have a bit of fun today, traveling to Key West Botanical Gardens to release their 56 lizard subjects back into the wild. On the way home, we all decided on official nicknames for each other to put on the shirts we're designing to commemorate this incredible experience. Everyone got to fish print t-shirts with Dr. Londraville using dead Needle Fish and Silver Jenny's caught in the fish group's sein. It's quite the interesting process, covering dead fish in fabric paint and pressing them into t-shirts to make designs. It's especially interesting when imprints don't work out and people use needle fish noses as paint brushes to complete their designs. All in all, despite the painful process of writing scientific papers, everyone had a good time. Tomorrow, beginning at 9 a.m., all groups will present the results of their experimental studies, then it's off to Key West for a day of fun and festivities!!! As excited as we all are about completing our research, I think that I speak for everyone when I say that it's sad that tomorrow is our last day here. It's been a great time and everyone has made a lot of friends, so we'll all be sorry to leave. (To say nothing of how much prettier it is here than back in Ohio). I do know, however, that I personally will not be missing the termites living in the walls by my bed, or the constant overhanging smell of sun tan lotion.

Amber and Julie teaching Shihao (Travis) about snuggling.

The lizard group hiding under a fallen palm tree leaf (or secretly basking in their infinite superiorority to the fish people).The lizard people (minus Amber) doing their best lizard impressions.

Chiara fish printing with a fish.

Needle fish nose-pin for rotting fish smell.

Day 7-Marlene

Today was another day here at the Florida Keys; we all got up really early and headed to the lab. The lizard groups were working really diligently, while the fish group was just chilling around. We got really excited when lunch time came around, Amber made us rice with beans, and we also made grilled cheese (it was really good). After lunch it was time to get back to

work 

Halle and Amber made us brinner (breakfast for dinner)….they made bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and great hash browns. Other than that today was one of the quieter days.

the lizards were getting a manicure :)

The fish group + Shihao ( Travis) went spear fishing but didn’t catch anything…..They also jumped off a bridge which I was told was really exciting.

Halle working it while washing dishes......

The amazing Lizard groups eating lunch

-Marlene Shahata

Day 6-Halle

Today started off with lab work in the morning, and we (the awesome fish group) got all of our salt water fish samples done. However, the lizard folks seemed pretty bummed about the info they were getting... but lunch hit so no worries for an hour.
Joe and Kelly were feeling so good about the fish groups progress that they decided to go kayaking around the island, and Shi Hao and I followed. After a little trip in the mangroves off shore we decided to try to get to Monkey Island, which can be seen directly out front of our dorm. We only made it about half-way before we decided to turn back, but we vowed to try it again another day.

Back to the lab, and the fish group made real progress before dinner, getting our fresh water fish samples, all our lactate readings, and getting about half way done with LDH testing. Half the lizard people were having a hard time with their force meter, so Pete had to fix it. The other half were running anoles along a track and have loads of fun looking at tiny pictures of toe pads (sarcasm). Some of the people got to go on a grocery trip and saw key deer along the way--they're about the size of a medium sized dog.

Chiara and Marlene made a wonderful Italian dinner! It was seasoned chicken, pasta with home-made tomato sauce, and bruchetta with a surprise desert of milky way rice crispy treats :D We were all very excited about the whole dinner but especially desert. Then Dr. Londraville taught Lauren and Chiara how to play ukulele.

Going back to the lab, we realized that we can't put the salt water fish samples back in the freezer so we have to do all of our experiments tonight... we were wanting to break early and watch Pirates of the Caribbean, but oh well. As for the lizard group, I think most of them are doing well except for some bumps. Steph summed up her attitude with "Thank you for listening to this edition of not letting me explode in someone's face."

Day 5-Shihao (Travis)

Today we changed our schedule. We switched the snorkeling part to the afternoon and the research part to the morning. This way our lizard people could have more time to catch the brown anoles at Key West Botanical Garden (They close at 4 pm). So we got up early in the morning as usual, ate breakfast, grabbed our nooses and bags, and we were ready to go. The fish people would have to do their studies at the lab near our dorm. That would be quite salty for them I guess, you know and shrug. (Joe and kelly were helping me to become americanized). Well we arrived there at about 9 am, and things went quite well. We got about 30 lizards in 2 hours. The exciting thing for us, is that while on the way back, there was a green anole eating pollen or bugs in a flower. I could not go without it i guess. So i gave it a shot for catching, using the noose that I made from a tree branch. They call it "old school". It was not aware of me at all, and it was way easier to catch comparing to the "invadors". My companions were so excited to see that cute green lizard. I felt good about it too. But what was even more suprising was that Stephanie shouted to us that there were two iguanas out of the gate. We rushed there, one was like 3 feet long and black, and another small one which was green and about 1 foot long. Well i kind of joked about whether or not I could catch that little one. They said, "no, you can't, because the noose is too small and everyone is heading to the car." But i still tried anyway and i saw a small one under the rock by the river. It was not afraid of me at all. So i just did the same procedure and bam i got it and showed it to my people. So after that i became the lizard authority. Feels pretty solid i guess. lol : ) People got more excited and wanted to play with it afterward. We went back, ate luch and gathered with the fish people, and went snorkeling. It was also an exiting experience. We saw a couple of big reef sharks and the dive people saw a really big turtle and stingray. It was a really good day down under in the keys!!

Shihao Hu (Travis Hoo)

Day 4-Joe

"You can't catch me"

The current mental state the lizard crew.

We drew blood!

Staying positive without any fish.

Hello all! Today started off again with another morning snorkel adventure to the reefs. The entire class witnessed all sorts of interesting fish and sea critters including sharks, barracudas, goldentail moray eel, and my personal favorite, blue tang! The sea sickness situation is improving and everyone was able to spend a little bit of time in the water. After snorkeling and lunch, the fish and lizard groups went their seperate ways to continue the pursuit towards solving their respective biological questions. The lizard group sped off to the botanical garden to catch anoles. A successful trip left them with seventeen specimens to study. The fish group (the better of the two groups) went to collect the Rivulus traps that had been previously empty for the past two days. Down on our luck, however; we perservered. A different species of fish, Gambusia , were collected, and the experimental design was revamped. All of the groups experiments are currently underway and despite previous challenges, everything is proceeding "swimmingly." Pun intended :-) The lizard group is commenting on the intricate process of proposal writing, as well as the trials and tribulations of toe pad measurement. The best group made leaps and bounds on keeping fish alive and finally drawing blood to obtain a lactate reading! The sun is shining and spirits are high as we approach the fourth day of snorkeling and another day of research!!!!!

P.S. The lizard group is having trouble holding on to their anoles!

Day 3-Amber

Today was an eventful day. We all woke up early, ate breakfast, and got ready to go snorkeling/diving. The nice lady at the dive shop gave out motion sickness medicine to anyone who wanted it, which really helped some of us out. We had an awesome time diving/snorkeling! Several neat animals were seen, such as some sort of squid, a reef shark, stoplight parrotfish, an arrow crab, spiny lobster, and many more. :) Overall, the trip was a success! Especially since no one threw up today. Yay!

As far as research goes the fish group wanted me to report that they have been having some issues and had to trudge through 90 degree swamp water for data that ended up useless. But it's not for nothing! In biology, finding out something that doesn't work is just as important as finding something that does! The two anole groups are doing fairly well, we've had to change our ideas a bit, but it looks like it will all work out after all! Woo Hoo! We'll be heading out and catching some specimens tomorrow. Let the anole wrangling begin!! :)

We had some pretty awesome Sloppy Carloses (Spicy Sloppy Joes *Julie's invention*) and tater tots. :)

There's a pretty awesome storm going on with tons of rain, lightening, and thunder. We're just hoping that it doesn't interfere with tomorrows activities.

-Amber Hurlbut :D

Enjoy the Pictures!!! :)

SPINY LOBSTER!!!

Dr. Londraville getting some underwater shots with his camera

A French Angelfish

A gorgeous brain coral with christmas tree worms attached

Halle sending some peace out to you all

Day 2-Dr. Londraville

Well the students are really busy-which is a good thing . Our typical day has us loading up the van at 820 to head to the dive shop, then 2 snorkels/dives on the reef, and back for lunch about 130. Yesterday was a beautiful day on the reef-lots of reef shark sitings, with some rays and a turtle. I saw a goliath grouper (~300 lbs) but did not get a picture. Some of the group were not feeling well on the boat and ended up feeding their breakfast to the fish, but they are going to give it another try today (Thursday). In the afternoon we split up to find fish and lizards. The fish group found some fish but not the fish we are looking for-more attempts today. The lizard group caught plenty and started some measurements with the racetrack. Dinner was tacos with watermelon for dessert. I crashed about 1030 but the class was still at it in the lab. It's a good group-I'm sure some good data (and learning) will come out of this trip.

Day 1

Yay!!!! We finally made it to the Mote Marine Laboratory in Summerland Key in Key West (which is, by the way, the most southern point of the USA) after 22 hours of driving. The weather is amazing and the island is beautiful. Today we got settled into our dorms and while doing so, we found termites infested in one of the girls' bunks. It was our first insect experience! We later practiced snorkeling and went grocery shopping and Dr. Niewarski cooked dinner for us tonight. It was delicious pasta and sausage with salad. We witnessed a huge iguana who became our friend through ukulele serenade. (thanks to Dr. Londraville). You can view the picture of him below. We named him Grandpa Steven Ralph Iguana. We are really excited to go snorkeling tomorrow morning. We are going to take a boat to the coral reef and spend a couple hours there. Then we are going to get our research projects started.

Lauren Brown and Julie Thompson : )

Above: Our Island Paradise View from our dorm rooms at the lab. Isn't it gorgeous??
Above: This is Grandpa Steven Ralph Iguana, the ginormous iguana that we befriended. See the fence stabbing his fat???

Above: This is all the students when first arrived. Kelly, Joe, Amber, Stephanie, Halle, Julie, Travis, Seth, Marlene, Chiara, and Lauren