Mike is estimating resting metabolic rate of frogs from the Amazon to the Andes. Here he is measuring CO2 concentrations in two sealed chambers (Valenti ice cream jars) containing one frog each. At Wayqecha he is taking advantage of our enhanced mobility (our beloved 4x4 Shigella) to expose foothill and cloud forest frogs to some relatively low temperatures (how low they can get I'll explain in the next post! this is something I've just finished doing and that's why I'm writing this post at 2am...). Mike has already done these measurements with many more species at Villa Carmen (another biological station of the Amazon Conservation Association) and at campsites along the slope. We will actually be moving down to the almost lowlands of Villa Carmen tomorrow, that is if we can drive past a huge landslide at 2000m, and install frog agar models to measure temperature and water loss along the way.
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