I have never felt more valuable
than I did the first few days at La Selva Research Station. When I say this, I
do not want to convey myself in a vain manner, but instead I am attempting to
communicate the vast potential for my actions that I was able to imagine. To be
honest, the moment that I experienced this sensation I was completely
overwhelmed.
Two ideas were taking over my brain
at the same instant: the fact that there is an unimaginable amount of things to
be discovered and researched in my new backyard, and the fact that I now have
enough knowledge to find and research them. My future plans were really
shattered in this moment. How could I possibly think about going to medical
school when some unknown cure could be hidden in the natural garden before me? I
suspect that the combination of Albert’s natural history walk in La Selva and
Carlos de La Rosa’s importance of biodiversity presentation sparked my
overwhelming introspective experience.
Our first morning at La Selva, we woke
up to the sound of howler monkeys and many different species of birds. Later
that day, our natural history walk with Albert gave us a visual overload of the
incredible biodiversity of La Selva. I had no idea that I could see such an
abundance and variety of species of plants, insects, fungi, and animals in one
walk. It was both magnificent and incomprehensible. I was very thankful to have
Albert as our guide because he was able to put a name to most species we
pointed at. Other things, like an iridescent mosquito we saw, he could not
identify. A combination of the enormous number of things that do not have names
yet and the impossible task of memorizing all of the names that exist make it
hard to identify things.
A couple days later, we listened to
a presentation given by Carlos de la Rosa, the director of La Selva. He
presented us with a lot of endearing stories. One in particular stuck with me.
He started out by showing us a picture of a butterfly sitting on the eye of a
caiman. He then explained the extent of this phenomena: “It’s weird, why would
a butterfly hang out with a giant reptile?!! Ahh, but there is a reason. The
butterflies are actually drinking the tears.” Carlos snapped a picture of this
amazing act of nature and posted it on the Internet. It was the first time
anyone had recognized the interaction and described what was going on. The
picture went viral and Carlos’ scientific documentation spread across the
world.
Coincidently, I took this picture
of a butterfly drinking the tears of a river turtle before Carlos shared his
story. Albert had pointed out the event and I felt the same need to document
the event as Carlos probably did. After listening to Carlos’ story I
immediately thought of the picture I took. I was participating in the
documentation part of the scientific community without even realizing it.
Although this event had already been accounted for, I thought of the prospect
of taking a picture of something that has not ever been documented. The value
of documentation became clear, as thought of the need for information in parts
of the world where people cannot experience the event firsthand.
After this experience at La Selva,
I have come to realize that being part of the scientific community is actually
much more attainable than I had previously thought. The idea of participating
in research and discovery is much less daunting.
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