In the forests of Costa Rica, several species of monkeys were encountered. The most interesting are the coatis. They live quite high up, but the trail also went up the mountain slope
Category: Nature
Night Encounter with the Fer De Lance: Survival Against the Jungle’s Deadliest Snake | December 29 2025, 18:06
Last night, I encountered the most dangerous, most venomous snake in the jungle – Fer De Lance (Bothrops asper) on a path. Generally, local clinics have antivenom and with it, the mortality rate drops to zero, but it’s better not to test it – the venom causes rapid necrosis and disrupts blood clotting. It also has a built-in night vision camera in its head. The system is so sensitive that the snake can detect a temperature difference of just 0.003 °C. This helps it hunt warm-blooded rodents and birds at night, when visual sight is limited.
It’s also super fast. Four and a half meters per second. That’s faster than you can blink. Indeed, if you’re not sitting right in front of its nose, there’s enough time for it to switch to a combat position, allowing you to jump away – so I managed to get by from behind.
Exploding Trees in the Jungle: Nature’s Deadly Defense Mechanism | December 29 2025, 14:08
You can find anything in the jungle at night. A tree exploding with poisonous spikes suddenly.
It’s not the tree that explodes, of course, but its fruits. They resemble little pumpkin-capsules. When ripe and dry, the fruit’s walls gradually stretch, accumulating internal tension. At some point, this “biological device” bursts with a loud pop, throwing seeds at tremendous speeds — up to ~70 m/s covering dozens of meters, the sound resembling a gunshot.
All parts of the tree are extremely toxic. The sap contains irritants that cause severe burns and rashes on skin contact, and temporary or even permanent blindness in the eyes.
There are simply more trees around with spikes (non-poisonous), but long and sharp. Just like the one shown in the series pluribus
Wild Costa Rican Peccaries: My Unexpected Encounter | December 29 2025, 04:21
A wild Costa Rican boar, as part of a small herd, mistook me for one of its own and let me take its pictures. Strictly speaking, it’s not exactly a boar—it’s a peccary. Half of my phone is filled with these little grunters.
Monkey Mayhem: A Day at the National Park | December 28 2025, 00:32
Great photo from today’s trip to the national park. My phone is full of these little monkeys, they were running around by the hundreds underfoot
Costa Rican Parade: Cowboys and Dancing Horses at Tope Nacional | December 26 2025, 21:33
It all started when about 20 genuine cowboys on dancing horses passed us at the intersection. Turns out there are thousands of them here. Tope Nacional parade, San Ramon, Costa Rica
Exploring Open Data: A Deep Dive into Loudoun County’s 1.5 Million Trees | December 15 2025, 15:40
I’m checking out what open data we have in our county to play with data analysis over the weekend, and discovered, for instance, an open database of all 1.5 million trees in the county. The screenshot shows just a tiny part around my house.
Nature’s Deceptive Twists: A Visual Exploration | December 13 2025, 23:33
“How deceptive nature is!” said the hedgehog… Interesting things we encounter when we step off the path
Why Snow Clings Only to One End: A Light Moment on a Heavy Day | December 05 2025, 20:28
Imagine how hard it is for me to live. Walking with the dog and you can’t easily and quickly answer your own question, why is the snow only on one end of the twigs. And yes, they all look in different directions.
Yuka’s Nostalgic Snowy Morning | December 05 2025, 13:43
Wow. Morning. Sleepy Yuka came in, looked out the window at the first snow, looked at me, sighed, and went to lie down in the little circle he loved so much in early childhood, but hadn’t noticed at all for the last few years.
