Gradually the Choc6 retreat to the headwaters of the last uninhabited drainage systems, or remain to lose their racial identity in the heterogeneous gene pool called PanamL In several respects, Choco seem to be more in tune with the forest environment than other ethnic groups in the area: (1) they do not tend to build villages, nor wide trails, such as those characteristic of Cuna, (2) they do not fear the forest, nor make extensive clearings around the houses, nor wall the houses, (3) they do not make extensive graveyards, (4) they wear less clothing than other ethnic groups, (5) they eat a wider variety of plants and animals (having fewer taboos than the Cuna), and (6) they practice slash-mulch agriculture in the Rain Forest instead of the slash-burn farming characteristic of other ethnic groups and often adopted by Choc6 in the Tropical Moist Forest. For four years, Battelle Memorial Institute has been investigating the biological feasibility of a potential sea-level canal on Route 17, roughly between Sasardi and Sante F6, PanamA, and Route 25, between Turbo and Curiche, Colombia. As field biologist, the author studied the relationships between the ethnic groups along the route and their environment, and collected numerous botanical and bromatological specimens.