Today is Sunday June 1, 2014. We started the morning by waking up for a breakfast that consisted of pancakes and bacon (we were really excited about this!). Unlike most days, we were given the morning off and had the opportunity to ponder our research question with other students. We were also able to catch up on any other work that we had to complete.
After a well-rested break, we reconvened for lunch before heading out to our location of the day. After loading the truck, we took a short venture down the road to Man Head Cay. As we previously learned in class, a cay (key) is an island without ground water. This site was unlike most in the fact that we had to swim to an island to reach our destination. This gave us the opportunity to explore both the animals in the water and land. After swimming to the island we had to climb up to the top of the Cay. Here we found numerous iguanas and crabs.
Having the opportunity to see these iguanas was amazing because there are only 500 left in the Bahamas. The previous night we learned about distinguishing female iguanas from males. Some students observed the toes of the iguanas clipped, distinguishing between males and females.
After exploring the Cay for an hour, we hiked back to the beach and got ready to swim back to the beach. After arriving to the beach, we loaded the truck and headed back for dinner. When we finished dinner, the group headed to lab to further discuss our research proposals. Students have developed some very good research proposals and we cannot wait to see how they turn out. Once class finished we headed to bed due to the exhausting swim to Man-head Cay.
Alexander Chugh ’17 and Hannah Cleary ‘17