Today was our first day working with the leaf cutter ants! We started harvesting our leaf cutter ant colonies with Dr. Pinto, and to start that process we went out into the rain forest to look for the nests of the two species of leaf cutter ants, acromyrmex and Atta cepholates. We were taught how to identify the leaf cutter ants, their foraging trails and homes, and to dig for the fungal gardens. The battle to find an Attas colony with fungus and (even better yet) an attainable queen was great! Out we were, supplied with our shovels, spades, plastic containers, and labeling markers to collect the Attas ants and their fungal gardens to create gardens of our own for study. We encountered a bullet ant and Joe even suffered a battle wound from a foraging Attas ant (yes, there was blood drawn. Don't worry parents he survived!). Once we had our ants, fungus, and queen collected we ate a wonderfully delicious lunch and got ready for riding horses up the foot of a volcano! Since it was my first time I was a little nervous, but after a while, getting use to riding a horse it was very enjoyable and fun! The views and trails were fantastic and it was a great experience! Once we got back we had diner and then got back to science! We looked at the bacteria cultures from yesterday and to end the day we made nice cozy homes for the Attas ants we had collected!
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