The mothbox team has re-assembled in panama for our upcoming expedition. @briannajohns @Hubertszcz and I are leading a crew to do a vertical transect of Cerro Hoya.

This is a mountainous, little trodden national park in western panama that will serve as the ultimate example of the Mothbox's abilities! Our team of 6 plus a documentarian will deploy around 14 mothboxes along the slopes of the forrested mountains. This will let us sample from around 50 meters to 1200 meters forming a vertical gradient. 

The cool thing is all the mothboxes are syncronized, so even though we only have a small crew, all our samples can be taken at the exact same time in the same area with the main variable that changes being the altitude.

The other cool thing about the mothboxes is that their automation frees us up to survey the sites in many other ways. Our crew includes a lepidopterist, an ornithologist, and other conservation scientists who will study the sites acoustically, visually, and even collect soil and air samples!

Wish us luck on this endeavor, we are busy packing and testing all the equipment and food for the expedition!

See you when we get back with lots of fun documentation!