Environmental Education, Science and Research, Volunteers and Visitors / 01.10.2020

Blog by: Mark Laidre, Dartmouth College professor and principal investigator of the Laidre Lab It’s fun to discover new things about nature. That’s why scientists like doing science. And when it comes to the science of animal behavior, I like to think of Osa as a sort of ‘magic well’. My students and I have conducted animal behavior research around the world, with much of our research focusing in Osa, where we’ve spent many years studying ‘social hermit crabs’. At the Animal Behavior Society’s conference in Chicago in 2019...

Volunteers and Visitors / 01.07.2020

Blog by: Carolyn Cook and Makenzee Kruger. This January, our group of 10 undergraduate students and two faculty members from the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta left the cold Canadian weather behind to visit Osa Conservation’s Piro Research Station on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. There, we conducted research on plant survivorship and terrestrial invertebrate diversity within recently established restoration plots. After spending a semester prepping for the field course, we were ready to dive headfirst into the rainforest and put our study designs to the...

Sea Turtles, Volunteers and Visitors / 26.06.2019

Blogpost by Nicole Ross, 1-month Volunteer Before Osa Conservation, I had never volunteered anywhere for longer than a day. I had never been away from home longer than a week. I had never travelled alone. That all changed after volunteering at Osa Conservation. Knowing I would be travelling alone this summer, I wanted to make sure wherever I went was safe enough for a young woman on her own. I had heard really good things about Costa Rica, and how friendly the locals were. I also knew...

Community Outreach, Environmental Education, Science and Research, Volunteers and Visitors / 04.05.2019

By Irene Artiñano Banegas, Student in the first annual Costa Rican Restoration & Rewilding Field Course Restoration & Rewilding Field Course participants travelled across the Osa Peninsula to learn about conservation threats and initiatives in the region. Here, Irene, Osa Conservation staff, other course participants visit the Terraba-Sierpe Wetland. Photo: Michelle Monge I learned a lot during my two months in the Restoration & Rewilding Field Course at Osa Conservation. Our adventures included installing camera traps to monitor the activity of different mammals, walking through the forest learning (and hearing...

Environmental Education, Volunteers and Visitors / 17.04.2019

By Ted May, General Volunteer Many environmentally-aware people, including myself, are attracted to Costa Rica because of the awesome biodiversity there. One has opportunity to explore part of a country that houses 5% of the world’s biodiversity in 51,100 km2– mid-way in size between the U.S. state of West Virginia and the European country of Denmark. Ted May climbing a tree to install an owl box, to create microhabitats to help bird populations. When I arrived as a volunteer at Osa Conservation this March, I was able to explore part of this area,...

Birds, Community Outreach, Land Conservation and Forest Restoration, Science and Research, Sea Turtles, Volunteers and Visitors / 20.03.2019

Blogpost by Robin Morris and Steve Pearce, General Volunteers It seems like yesterday when we walked through the gate to the Osa Verde BioStation (Piro) for the first time in January 2017 and were greeted by a group scarlet macaws in the trees snacking and squawking.  We’re here now for our third winter excursion, and I have to admit we’ve done some cool things the last couple years.   Robin enjoying a two-year-old balsa forest. During Robin and Steve's 2018 visit, they helped clear plants around the small balsa saplings,...

Sea Turtles, Volunteers and Visitors, Wildcats / 31.01.2019

Blogpost by Thomas Kao, Volunteer, Age 14 In this modern day and age, we often forget there is more on this planet than just your home. As a young student with a love for maps, I have always set my eyes on this little corner of the world, an untouched paradise: Osa Peninsula. As I mentioned, I absolutely love maps. I have laid my eyeballs over thousands of them, hungry for locations and searching for something new. However, maps can only tell you so much, and in reality they...

Aquatic Health, Volunteers and Visitors / 12.12.2018

Blog por Lucía Vargas Araya, Coordinadora de Experiencia de Conservación. La autora Lucía Vargas Araya disfruta de la búsqueda de vida silvestre en el sendero. Photo: Laurien Dwars “Hay dos pumas en el sendero”- me dijo mi compañero Leiner por un mensaje que recibí estando sentada en mi oficina en la Estación Biológica Osa Verde el otro día. Emocionada, le avisé a los compañeros que estaban cerca mío, nos pusimos zapatos y salimos rápidamente hacia El Sendero Las Tortugas, donde esperábamos encontrar a los felinos. La entrada del sendero está justo...

Volunteers and Visitors / 19.07.2017

Blogpost written by Sawyer Judge, Volunteer Before going to the Osa for the first time, I was looking forward to seeing rare big cats, incredible crawling insects and of course the famous scarlet Macaw's that thrive in the region. But the Osa was so much more than I could have ever expected and it amazed me from the moment I got here! [caption id="attachment_10222" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo by CIFOR on Flickr[/caption] The taxi ride to Osa Conservation's biological station is bumpy, but with taxi-driver Andi (a man from Germany who has lived...

Uncategorized, Volunteers and Visitors / 18.11.2016

A blog by: Cody Stockert Taking the opportunity to study for a block in Costa Rica is the best decision I have made in my four years at Cornell College. [caption id="attachment_9675" align="aligncenter" width="327"] This beach is located on the Osa peninsula of Costa Rica. My classmates and I accessed it using Osa conservation’s trails.[/caption]                         Why did I go to Costa Rica for class? Cornell College is unique because we have a block plan schedule, which means we take one course at...