This week we have been introduced to more of the crazy animal kingdom living here in Costa Rica. Some of these introductions have been nicer than others.....
First, Miah has declared war on the garrobo that lives in our backyard. What is a garrobo you may ask? Well, it looks like a giant iguana and apparently tastes like chicken (we don´t know from experience, although the battle may come to that). We have been working on a garden the past couple weeks and finally got our first watermelon plants to sprout. They lasted about two days before Miah found the garrobo in the garden and no more plants. Since then, Miah has been trying to chase him from his home and has finally filled it with concrete blocks and dirt. It is yet to be known the garrobo´s next plan of attack.....
Second, we had a very interesting Valentine´s Day that included a mother turtle. Our friends took us on these crazy ¨roads¨ (more like 4-wheeler trails) to a secluded beach and we built a huge bonfire. As the guys were looking for more firewood, they found a sea turtle coming on shore to lay her eggs. We watched her slowly make her way up the beach and dig a large hole. Another group of people showed up who wanted to steal the eggs after she laid them (unfortunately, turtle eggs are popular down here). One of the girls in our group tried to convince them that this turtle was sick and the eggs would be bad, but we´re not sure if they listened or not. We left around 1am before she had finished laying all the eggs, and the others were camping nearby. It was surreal to watch the entire process though and we will definitely go during the height of turtle season at the end of the year to watch hundreds of turtles lay their eggs.
The next day we went to another nearby beach for Miah to get another try at surfing. Besides, not realizing the tide was coming in and it sweeping away all our stuff, we had a great day. As we were leaving however, Miah was stung by a bee. His foot quickly started swelling and continued to grow for the next couple days. We found a clinic that gave him a shot and some medicated cream and slowly his foot has been returning to normal. It is still a size or so large than the other foot though.
Last night, we saw our first armadillo rumaging around the yard. They look a lot like giant, armored rats and are suprisingly agile. We don´t know if he plans to make a home nearby as well, but hopefully he makes a better neighbor than the garrobo....
Team Wander
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4 comments:
If one can trust the Internet, the garrobo should lose interest in your foliage as it matures. If you can get bird cloth and plant in straight rows you should be able to cover each row with a supported bird cloth frame until the leaves start to bulk and harden up. You might even get away with using four such rows to frame an uncovered central area if the texture of the mesh is disagreeable enough to walk on. Or there's the sticky-trap tape to use as a border.
The tale of the insect sting concerns me---that description sounds a lot like an allergic reaction, which typically escalates with each subsequent exposure until it becomes fatal. Were there any other symptoms than the edema?
The armadillo will be another matter. They're not herbivores but they root and tunnel looking for insects. If this one starts rooting around in the garden, quarter-inch or half-inch hardware cloth would be a better cover and you'd need to bury at least a foot of it on all sides.
One other possibility is to hang a floppy fence around the plot, supported at enough points to keep it up but suspended on slightly slack lines away from the supports so anyone who climbs on it will cause it to move---ideally in both x and y directions. That might be enough to discourage casual visitors. The foot of rigid barrier below ground will still apply---dillos are expert tunnelers.
Or maybe you could train the armadillo to eat garrobos?
If you can't get enough of the garrobo in your garden, there is "Garrobo the Movie"...which, it just so happens, even has a sequel.
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