Non-Chimpanzee Forest Encounters

February 21, 2010

When I first arrived here at Kibale – I was so focused on learning as much as I could about the chimpanzees that everything else in the forest somehow faded into the background. As I spend more time at Kibale though – I am slowly noticing and recognizing the other amazing aspects of forest life. I have become fascinated with the butterflies, moths, and insects here. I sometimes find myself distracted by their stunning colors and wing designs while I'm trying to watch a chimpanzee. The caterpillars here are also amazing (even if I hate them because they continually find their way into my clothes and give me rashes). The caterpillars tend to be very vibrant with "don't touch me – because I'll make you itch like hell" colors or camouflage incredibly with their surroundings. Thus, here are some photos of my non-chimpanzee forest encounters.

First, some butterflies:

Caterpillars...some of these are surprisingly good at resembling sticks, but pretty much all of them are capable of making my fingers swell up for days if I accidentally touch them. The caterpillar with yellow spikes particularly scares me!:

Frogs! These guys are hard to spot - and even harder to chase around for a good photo...but the end result is worth it:

Spiders. Okay, I only have one spider photo posted - but this one was really cool. You may need to click on the photo and zoom in to see it, but the spider is black with neon yellow markings. The web had two parts - one vertical wall-type part (shown), and then another horizontal floor-type web. Both webs were white with neon yellow strands interwoven through them. I noticed on a later encounter (after accidentally walking through one of these) that the neon yellow strands are shockingly sticky...shockingly:

Moths. Dean and I have fun capturing photos of these guys outside our house at night:

Flowers. I just have one...but it's a beauty:

Miscellaneous Insects: (anybody know what the blue one on the bottom is?)