{"id":31443,"date":"2021-06-01T10:22:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T15:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=31443"},"modified":"2021-06-01T10:22:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T15:22:51","slug":"scientist-tunes-katydids-smithsonian-site-panamanian-rainforest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/scientist-tunes-katydids-smithsonian-site-panamanian-rainforest\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientist tunes in to katydids at Smithsonian site in Panamanian rainforest"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Christian Ziegler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When the sky turns dark over the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the howler monkeys become silent, the katydids start singing and dancing. Most of the researchers living on Barro Colorado Island in Panama are asleep, but a few scientists are awake for the bugs\u2019 performance held each evening in the Central American rainforest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe sounds of the night are part of my research,\u201d said Sharon Martinson, a scientist who shifts between the Panama facility and her home in Wyoming. \u201cI spend all of my time listening and thinking about the music of the insects.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The\u00a0Tropical Research Institute<\/a>\u00a0attracts hundreds of researchers who are interested in learning about the plants and animals that inhabit tropical rainforests. The nearly 100-year-old island reserve, which is in a man-made lake in the Panama Canal, has labs and bedrooms for the visiting scientists. It also has a thick canopy of trees for the critters, including spider monkeys, anteaters, three-toed sloths, toucans, glass-winged butterflies and more than 100 species of katydids, which are related to grasshoppers and crickets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMore research has been done here than nearly any other place because the Smithsonian, in relationship with the Panamanian government, set aside this land to study and understand tropical rainforests,\u201d Martinson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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