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Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Have Antillean Manatees Crossed the Panama Canal into the Pacific?

Over half a century ago, a group of manatees from Panama's Caribbean region of Bocas del Toro was flown into the Panama Canal to control the abundance of aquatic plants in its water reservoir and prevent the proliferation of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. Where are they now?

Bat lands on a speaker to collect a baitfish reward

Does This Ring a Bell? Wild Bats Can Remember Sounds for Years

Researcher May Dixon discovered that frog-eating bats could recognize ringtones indicating a food reward up to four years later

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A Yellow Submarine Explores the Depths of the Panamanian Pacific

Six scientists from Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador spent two weeks exploring the recently expanded Cordillera de Coiba marine protected area, an unknown region to science. This is what they saw.

Ricardo Moreno on the field

Can Humans and Jaguars Coexist? A Wildlife Biologist Uses Technology and Education to Reduce Conflict

From tracking large felines across the continent to helping rural communities protect biodiversity, Panamanian biologist Ricardo Moreno turned his childhood dream into a mission

Secretary Bunch atop the canopy crane

Secretary Lonnie Bunch Visits the 'Farthest Rock From the Sun of the Smithsonian'

The Secretary visited facilites in Panama and got to see the important science being done at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute first-hand

Baby biodiversity in the ocean

'Python of the Sea' Study Highlights How Marine Biodiversity Can Be Dramatically Underestimated

Most ocean life remains to be discovered. Because fish and many other animals that live in the ocean often have larvae or other, microscopic life stages that drift freely in ocean water, counting species by genetic barcoding of plankton samples adds to counts of species recorded as adults and is a highly efficient way to understand what lives in the ocean and how biodiversity changes as we modify the ocean environment

El Coral beach fish trap in Saboga Island, Panama

See a New Interactive Map of Indigenous Fishing Practices Around the Pacific Rim

Dedicated to “the Ancestors who stewarded the ocean” an interactive story map created by the Pacific Sea Garden Collective reawakens traditional ways of harvesting food from the sea from Panama to Australia to the Pacific Northwest.

Pearl Islands

Unique Agates on a Panamanian Island Reveal Submarine Volcanic Activity

Giant agates found in an island on Panama's Pacific coast prompted a study on how the Isthmus evolved and became a bridge between two continents

Escudo de Veraguas Island

An Indigenous Language Book Presents the Unique Biodiversity of a Panamanian Island

Botanist Alicia Ibañez hopes the book, which presents new data on the tiny island’s endemic flora and fauna in both Spanish and Ngäbere, will increase awareness of the importance of preserving its biodiversity

Acanthoctenus manauara female.

A Young Biologist Shares Her Love for Eight-Legged Creatures

Self-professed spider-fan and arachnid systematist Stephany Arizala would like more people to study this megadiverse group, so that we can do a better job of protecting them

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