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Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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A Turtle Time Capsule: DNA Found in Ancient Shell

Paleontologists discover possible DNA remains in fossil turtle that lived 6 million years ago in Panama, where continents collide

boat in Panama's Montijo Bay

First global assessment of the sustainability of coral reef fisheries

An innovative mathematical analysis of global coral reef fisheries offers hope for sustainable management of multispecies and artisanal fishing, especially in the global South

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Gamboa Bat Nights: Bilingual Noches de Murciélagos along the Panama Canal

The first Sunday of every month, you can join researchers from the Smithsonian Bat Lab to get a close-up look at Panama’s bats

Tree Frog

Barro Colorado Island, One Hundred Years of Science and Discoveries

Five Panamanian scientists share a glance at the experience of working in the tropical biologist’s dream, Barro Colorado Island

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.

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

As part of her fieldwork, Fernandez habituated the bats to her presence near their day-roosts, obtaining observations of their natural behaviors and recording their vocalizations in a completely undisturbed environment during months. (Ana Endara)

Similar to Human Babies, This Bat Species Learns to Communicate Through Babbling and Vocal Imitation

Long-term monitoring of the bat species Saccopteryx bilineata in their natural setting revealed that pups display babbling behavior strikingly similar to that of human infants

Clavelina puertosecensis, a species of tunicate, taken by Shih Wei, a student of the Tunicates course at the Bocas del Toro Research Station, in Panama. Experts teach courses and create instructional videos on how to collect, preserve and observe marine invertebrate groups. (Credit: STRI)

Like A Cooking Show With Worms: Smithsonian Videos Teach Tropical Taxonomy of Diverse Marine Creatures

A program at the Smithsonian’s Bocas del Toro Research Station, in Panama, allows marine invertebrate experts to pass down their very specific knowledge to aspiring taxonomists.

The purple-flowered crown of Dipteryx oleifera, one of the biggest trees on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, towers above the forest. Big trees may be most exposed to the effects of climate change: more frequent and severe drought, and the high winds and lightning of monster storms. (Evan Gora)

How Will the Biggest Tropical Trees Respond to Climate Change?

The death of these giants would have a major impact on the forest, but because they are few and far between, almost nothing is known about what causes them to die

Fighting conch with lime as prepared in Bocas del Toro, Panama. (Felix Rodriguez, STRI)

The Genetics of Shrinking

To find out if hunting and harvesting act as evolutionary forces that "shrink" animals, researchers isolated DNA from tropical shells for the first time

When STRI staff scientist Annette Aiello first arrived in Panama to study butterflies in 1976, she lived and worked at the Smithsonian research station on Barro Colorado Island. Credit: STRI Archives.

Females in Flatland

STRI butterfly researcher, Annette Aiello’s remarkable calendar (1976-present) is an accurate catalog of natural history events in Panama.

Lucia Torrez and Grace Davis identify fruit that monkeys on Barro Colorado Island in Panama have been eating. Do primate leaders know where the best fruiting trees are to be found? Credit: Sean Mattson, STRI

Here's the Scoop on Monkey Leadership

What makes a great leader? Grace Davis and Lucia Torrez lead a team working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to understand leadership in capuchin and spider monkeys.

Because her research group knows a bird's age based on its song, a tropical soap opera unfolds as ornithology graduate student Laura Gómez records interactions between antshrikes in Panama.

How to Tell a Bird's Age By Its Song

On Pipeline Road in Panama’s Soberania National Park, birdwatchers on high-end tours rack up two hundred bird species in a day and move on. But Corey Tarwater and Patrick Kelley have made it their life’s work to understand the daily melodramas of black-crowned antshrikes, first as students and now as faculty at the University of Wyoming. Meanwhile, their own family has grown to include not only 2 children, but a whole tribe of intellectual offspring.

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Milton Garcia’s Bird’s-Eye-View

When he’s not racing his bike cross-country, Milton Garcia is in demand for his expertise driving drones. In the last month, he monitored mangrove deforestation on Panama’s Pacific coast, mapped a new research station in Coiba National Park and tracked blooming trees on Barro Colorado Island, the first plot in an international network of forest monitoring sites.

Katie Griswold

How I Landed My Dream Job in the Caribbean

Katie Griswold's STRI intern experience

Sanchocho

Chicken Soup with Yams: where Old and New Worlds Meet

Sanchocho recipe

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