Baan Ling Update: December and January

Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve written . . . things have gotten busy and keeping the blog current was adding to my feelings of being overwhelmed so I let it slide a little. Here’s some of what I’ve been up to in the past 2 months and what I’m looking forward to in February (read to the end!):

December

A big part of our job and some of the most important data we collect is gathered during “focal” sampling. Basically, we follow one individual langur (usually a male) for 20 minutes and record everything he does in that time period both continuously and instantaneously (once every minute). There’s a lot of crazy syntax and it was kind of intimidating to learn, but it is rather entertaining and a great way to see a whole lot more of what our monkeys do.
December was a big month for poop. Yep, I started standing UNDER my monkeys and really hoping they would poop . . . but not on me because then the sample would be contaminated with my DNA (there aren’t langur-specific primers so we have to use human ones . . . and let’s just say with what it costs to analyze samples Carola doesn’t want to know MY genotype). We collect poop to determine paternity of infants which can help answer a lot of our research questions, e.g. does relatedness change or predict behavior? Some of this info is top secret and not for blog publication, but if you’re interested in hearing more just get in contact with me : ) We also had one day where we collected male poop for hormone analysis and a storage experiment. We keep our langur poop in alcohol and then dry it on silica gel; the Macaque Team keeps their poop frozen and there are trade-offs with each of these methods. At some point, alcohol destroys hormones, but it is really hard to keep a freezer if you’re off the grid (as we are here). Collecting poop for hormone analysis is a little different than for DNA analysis, but I did enjoy “homogenizing” the samples (a fancy way of describing how you would put as much poop from one individual as you could find in a paper cup and stirring it with a tongue depressor).
I also ran the King’s race on the 21st- in 60 minutes and 23 seconds! Pictures forthcoming. Zach ran, too, and came 7th overall, and 1st in our age class. The 21st was super crazy because that’s the day I met my family in Bangkok. We spent the next 10 days on a whistle-stop tour of Thailand: beaches, Bangkok, Chiang Mai . . . My parents and Gram even spent New Year’s at Phu Khieo with me! Luckily it wasn’t too cold . . .

January

After ringing in the new year with the fam it was time to go back to work. My focal group, PS, is followed at the end of the month so I had plenty of plans to practice before I would be called on to focal for meaningful data (in those first practice focals you lose your langur a lot, or can’t ID what is going on, or don’t know how to write it in code, or it happens too fast . . .). Rich and I were both refreshed from spending time with our families and Zach had gotten some R & R in Thailand while Rich and I were away too.
Unfortunately, when we all were back together we found out that our big grant application had been rejected : ( That left us with one other (smaller) application in process and there was 2 weeks of nervous waiting before we found out . . . that that one was rejected, too. It’s come as quite the blow to the team and the future of following our langurs is a bit uncertain. We have our last day with them January 30, but are trying to do the best we can between now and then.
I won’t quite be turned out on the street, but my work is Phu Khieo is over at the end of January. I’m planning on traveling for a big chunk of February but will be Stateside again in March. Grant funding (or the lack thereof) is one of the less fun aspects of my present line of work, but these things seem to happen to everyone at some point and it can’t deter me from more fieldwork (at least not yet!). I’m already looking into field positions in the States and abroad for the rest of 2009 . . . this blog is called “Jenn’s Adventures” not “Jenn in Thailand” so I’ll keep letting you know what I’m up to.

I don’t know how much internetting I will do as I travel, but I will catch you up with stories and pictures at some point, even if I post from Chicago!

PS- More great animal sightings: dhole and gaur! I know these aren’t household names so search for images on the web : )