16 July 2002
Just past the Crocodile Bridge is the Carara Biological Reserve. Here we got our first taste of the heat and humidity at the Pacific coast.
Leaf-cutter ants can carve trails on the forest floor. The nest on the left is alive--the ants use the cut leaves to make a mulch to grow a fungus for food. The nest on the right is sporting a fungus that is toxic to the ants and has killed the nest.
QuickTime movies: Leaf-Cutter Ants (2.7 MB) Mimosa (2.3 MB)
Updated 7/23/02