Can’t hear you!

English

Dolphin-Watching affects
whistle frequency modulation
in bottlenose dolphins

Picture this: What to do at a party when you try to carry on a conversation, but the music is too loud? A Panamanian doctoral student is trying to figure out how dolphins communicate underwater during heavy boat traffic in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago.

Story location

Text by Sonia Tejada

Animal Behavior Fisheries and Marine Conservation Marine Biology Conservation Biology Global Change Zoology Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet Bocas del Toro Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute purple Rachel Collin
Alternative Title: 

Can’t
hear you!

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Masked singers

English

First Sightings of Lek and
courtship behavior in
wrinkle-faced bats

Male Wrinkle-faced bats lower a flap of skin resembling a face mask when they are ready to mate according to a rare sighting of a lek of bats in Costa Rica.

Story location

Gamboa

Animal Behavior Natural History Zoology Biodiversity Conservation Biology Origins of Species and Societies Gamboa Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute purple Rachel Page
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Masked
singers

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Ñeques, ants and arachnids

English

A journey of growth
and discovery

The first time Dumas Gálvez saw the ant species Ectatomma ruidum under a microscope, he was just a little boy. He was immediately fascinated. A few decades later, as a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), a professor in the entomology department at the University of Panama and a mentor to young scientists, he does research on that same ant species. Listen to him narrate every step of his academic journey: his experiences, mentors, mistakes and lessons learned.

Story location

Panamá

Entomology Ecosystem Ecology Animal Behavior Biodiversity Forest Ecology Disease Ecology Connections in nature: Plants, Animals, Microbes and Environments Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute purple
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Ñeques,
ants and
arachnids

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Uplift

English

Fossil trees on Peru’s Central Andean Plateau tell a tale of dramatic environmental change

As the Earth’s surface transforms, entire ecosystems come and go. The anatomy of fossil plants growing in the Andean Altiplano region 10 million years ago calls current paleoclimate models into question, suggesting that the area was more humid than models predict.

Story location

Panama

Paleontology and Paleobiology Exploration Botany Ecosystem Ecology Life in Deep Time CTPA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute purple Carlos Jaramillo
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Pandemic Challenge

English

Two Panamanians in the service of the common good in Bocas del Toro

Carolina César and Viviana Bravo radically changed their work rhythm: from going out daily to the archipelago, to keeping a research station afloat.

Story location

Bocas del Toro

Bocas del Toro Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute purple Rachel Collin
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Pandemic
challenge

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Baby shark

English

Fishing exclusion zones to help
manage shark populations in Pacific Panama

Researchers identify 11 potential nursery areas of locally common and migratory sharks, which could help support shark conservation efforts in Panama and the region.

Story location

Pacific Panama

Fisheries and Marine Conservation Marine Biology Biodiversity Conservation Biology Ecosystem Ecology Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet Naos Fishing exclusion zones to help manage shark populations in Pacific Panama purple Hector M. Guzman
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Baby
shark

Fishing exclusion zones to help manage shark populations in Pacific Panama

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Sneaky

English

Are bats spying on
their prey in the canopy? 

Eavesdropping behavior in the canopy may answer questions about how acoustic interplay among animals has developed over millions of years in the forest

Story location

Barro Colorado island
Byline: Leila Nilipour

Animal Behavior Canopy Biology Ecology Forest Ecology Biodiversity Evolutionary Ecology Connections in nature: Plants, Animals, Microbes and Environments Barro Colorado Gamboa Are bats spying on their prey in the canopy? purple Rachel Page
Are bats spying on their prey in the canopy?

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