In my last terrestrial focused blog post, I showed some of the animals I have seen so far, however everyday I continue to see more and more new species. Some of the other non-marine species I have seen so far include the:

Zebra longwing butterfly (Heliconius charithonia), a black butterfly with yellow stripes and markings. This butterfly is native to Jamaica.

An orange spiny orb weaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis), these spiders come in many different colors, and have 6 predominant spines on their head, a hard shell like abdomen, and are native to Jamaica.

Ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres), a shoreline, highly migratory bird. native to Jamaica. These bids have a unique behavior of flipping over rocks, shells, and other debris to locate and eat invertebrates.
***Ruddy turnstones are not terrestrial animals, they are considered to be coastal or marine birds

Some other honorable mentions are the various number of bat species we have right within the ground of the marine lab. These bats are very active right around dusk, feeding for an hour or two, then calming down, before sometimes feeding again before dawn. Professor Dr. Warren also brought a bat sound detector that helps identify the many species of bats. The detector also modifies the bats echolocation sounds to a frequency that is audible for the average human ear. There are also many turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) that fly within the grounds as well. These vultures are dark colored with heads that look similar to that of a turkey. Because they are a species of vultures, they are scavengers. They are also known as “johncrows” in Jamaica.

Dante