Curso Gigante 2014

We’ve just wrapped up the Curso Gigante for this year!  This 2-week field course provides an introduction to tropical ecology and evolution for Panamanian and Central American undergraduate students.  This year we welcomed 4 students from El Salvador (Universidad de El Salvador), 1 from Costa Rica (Universidad de Costa Rica), and 8 from Panama (Universidad de Panamá, UNACCHI, and Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá).

Thanks to our fantastic group of instructors and guest lecturers, we were able to cover a diverse set of themes this year, including statistics, evolutionary biology, plant-insect interactions, parasitology, plant ecophysiology, animal behaviour, paleoecology, marine biology, mangrove ecology, entomology, community ecology, and bioacoustics.

Highlights including overnight trips to STRI’s Barro Colorado Natural Monument and Punta Galeta Marine Laboratory:

Insect group with Brian Sedio, Barro Colorado Island. Photo: Marlon Atencio

Night hike on BCI. Photo: Raiza Segundo.

Group shot at the Punta Galeta Marine Laboratory. Photo: Melissa Cano.