My trip to Brazil over Jan Plan was a very eye-opening experience.  For someone who has never been out of the country, this was a first time experience and I have never seen anything like it.  To have this opportunity was truly wonderful!

In addition to having a lot of fun (of course), we worked very hard and made the most of our time to complete the research projects we planned out.  Almost every night we would go into the field to collect frogs and perform experiments.  My particular experiment involved playback experiments where I would play a frog call and record the response of the same species of frog.  I sampled several species, but mostly Scinax rizibilus, a frog that has five different distinct calls.  From these experiments I have compiled several hours of playback data that has been analyzed.  Several significant results have been identified to date, and more will hopefully continue to arise as the data is further analyzed.

The area where we studied was of particular interest because it is part of the Atlantic Forest, an area of primary forest that is becoming smaller and smaller with human interference.  Due to this destruction of habitat, these frogs may become extinct and it is important to study their habitat, mating calls, and interactions with each other in an effort to provide an opportunity for them to survive in the future.

I would like to thank the Mellon grant and all of those that were involved in providing me with the opportunity to discover such a great place and further my interests in biology.  This was a one of a kind experience that would not have been possible without the help of the Mellon grant!  Thank you!!!