Yeah for bamboo! Also, note leech socks- they are my new favorite thing. No foot leeches = happy Jenn.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Me in the forest
Yeah for bamboo! Also, note leech socks- they are my new favorite thing. No foot leeches = happy Jenn.
Ling yuu ti nai? (Where are the monkeys?)
The first step to following Phayre’s langurs is finding them. This can be relatively easy or relatively difficult based on a variety of factors. For example, we know the “home range” of our groups of langurs, but that area can be rather large. We start by walking trails in that group’s “home range,” and most of our attention is in the canopy. Most likely, we hear the monkeys before we see them. These monkeys travel through the canopy and rarely come to ground level, so we hear crashes in branches as the monkeys move from tree to tree. When we can match this sound with movement in the canopy, we head in that direction and try to positively identify our langurs. There are other species of primates in the forest, including Assamese macaques (the study species of Team Macaque) and white-handed gibbons (which “sing” in the early morning) so we are not guaranteed to find “our” monkeys. There are also “Giant Squirrels”- which is the common name, not just a classifier for their size (though they are huge), but they tend to make less noise as they move from tree to tree.
Besides other mammals, there are other confounding factors to following these monkeys. Some groups are better habituated than others, i.e. they are more used to people. These groups don’t care too much when we are around and will even come to the ground to eat bamboo/drink water/eat soil when we are in the area. This is really exciting for us new field assistants, who have scores of monkeys to learn by sight based on some distinguishing characteristics that are easier to see when the monkeys are closer and less skittish. For the shier groups though, the monkeys are more liable to lose us in the forest by moving more quietly, higher in the canopy, or not moving at all for some time (though all the monkeys nap at certain times of the day). It is especially difficult if not impossible to follow a single monkey, as we have learned in the last week. They move into the canopy to eat or sunbathe and then they are just gone . . .
Rain is another big issue. We were pretty lucky the first week we were in the forest and it only rained lightly for a few minutes, but August/September is the second peak of the monsoon season and we have been reminded of that in the past few days. In the rain, everything turns the same gray as the monkey’s fur, and you have to search for them based on shape- hoping that what you are seeing is a tail not a hanging vine, or a body not a termite mound (which apparently grow on trees in Thailand). Sometimes the monkeys still move in the rain, and sometimes they sit still.
But when we do find them, and follow them, it really can be great. One day last week the group came down from the canopy and was on all sides of me- infants, juveniles, adults- all munching down on bamboo like ice cream cones. The young ones play in the afternoon while the adults sleep- infants pulling each other’s tails and generally rough housing, hopping from branch to branch.
The morning commute
If you think you have a nice drive to work, you’ve got nothing on mine. Instead of road rage from other drivers, I have to worry about a host of non-human hazards- sunning monitor lizards, herds of wild pigs, elephants, guars (rhymes with “shower;” a type of hoofed animal the size of a bison), porcupines . . . So far I have encountered pigs and porcupine, though neither time was I driving. There are also smaller objects to avoid whilst driving. When ele are in the area, they drag bamboo across the road and their poop is so large it is quite a speed bump for the motorbikes! (To combat this, whenever we are out with the truck we make a point of flattening the ele poop. This also allows us to keep track of new poop and therefore more ele in the area.)
One of the biggest challenges of driving for me is not driving stick shift, driving a bike in general, the hills, the curves, the bumpy bridges . . . nope. It’s the butterflies. But they’re so pretty, you say. I would not disagree- I see more amazing butterflies on a daily basis than any other insect/animal (though the stick insects around Baan Ling are pretty sweet). They come in all sizes and colors- from fingernail-sized brown ones to larger iridescent ones that catch the sunlight quite nicely. There are flocks of medium-sized white ones that fly down the roads. The issue is this: a bike moves a whole lot faster than the PKWS butterflies. They also congregate around the ele poop on the road. Which means you drive right into them. And as soft and cuddly as they look in pictures and real life, a butterfly to the eye at 50 km/hr is not a happy situation. After learning this first-hand while riding passenger, I decided I would always drive with my helmet visor down . . . but then I got a big one between my visor and my face that needed to flop for several seconds before finding its way out.
On a working day a shift is either 5am-12pm or 12pm-7pm, so at some point you bike in the dark. This introduces bats as a non-human hazard. While bats hunt with echolocation and therefore don’t need our headlights to “see” their prey, moths are attracted to headlights, so bats often fly directly ahead of us. Which means you can get a bat to the face (or the handlebars, as was the case with Omnoi and me last week). Another good reason to keep your visor down.
One of the biggest challenges of driving for me is not driving stick shift, driving a bike in general, the hills, the curves, the bumpy bridges . . . nope. It’s the butterflies. But they’re so pretty, you say. I would not disagree- I see more amazing butterflies on a daily basis than any other insect/animal (though the stick insects around Baan Ling are pretty sweet). They come in all sizes and colors- from fingernail-sized brown ones to larger iridescent ones that catch the sunlight quite nicely. There are flocks of medium-sized white ones that fly down the roads. The issue is this: a bike moves a whole lot faster than the PKWS butterflies. They also congregate around the ele poop on the road. Which means you drive right into them. And as soft and cuddly as they look in pictures and real life, a butterfly to the eye at 50 km/hr is not a happy situation. After learning this first-hand while riding passenger, I decided I would always drive with my helmet visor down . . . but then I got a big one between my visor and my face that needed to flop for several seconds before finding its way out.
On a working day a shift is either 5am-12pm or 12pm-7pm, so at some point you bike in the dark. This introduces bats as a non-human hazard. While bats hunt with echolocation and therefore don’t need our headlights to “see” their prey, moths are attracted to headlights, so bats often fly directly ahead of us. Which means you can get a bat to the face (or the handlebars, as was the case with Omnoi and me last week). Another good reason to keep your visor down.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Initial Impressions: Fieldwork
Yep, I live and work in the jungle. The insects are huge, there’s bamboo and creeping vines all over, and I spend my time in the forest listening for monkeys. Not their calls but rather the sound they make when they jump from tree to tree high up in the canopy. It is this sound that we follow when we are searching for the monkeys, or when we can no longer see them.
The first few trips to the field were mostly for orientation purposes in the forest. There is a network of flagged and mapped animal trails in the home ranges of our four groups of monkeys. These trails help provide a guide of where to walk when we are searching, but most of the following is done off-trail (unless we are really lucky and the monkeys are right on top of the trail).
Being in the forest is serene at times but stressful at others. Our study site is lower in elevation than the station, so it tends to be hotter. Also, the weather at Ban Ling may not be the weather in the forest- we have walked in to find evidence of heavy, recent rain when there was none up the hill where we live. Walking through bamboo is surreal and reminds me that I am in Asia, but then there are the bugs . . . At times the cicadas are so noisy that we cannot follow the monkeys by sound alone. There are leeches. They are small but plentiful and will attempt to scale your body and foil your leech socks. If they do latch on and you don’t notice, when they drop off you bleed for ages. But most of the time you can get them before they get you. My favorite tactic is to flick them off of my body and send them flying though the air, but you can also roll them up and flick them, cut them in half with a knife, or snap them in half with your fingers. We kill any we have left on us once we are at Baan Ling, otherwise they would breed there and become even more of an issue.
Getting to work is awesome. We motorbike. As of yet I can’t drive myself (standard transmission and kickstart are the obstacles, but I have a good handle on the kickstart and up to second gear so far), but it is great to ride up and down the hills before the forest work starts and to cool down after it ends. Over the next few weeks my motorbike skills will increase to include hills, riding with a full pack, and driving a passenger with and without a pack. One word: weeeeeeeeee!
Everyone wants to know if the monkeys are cute and the answer is yes, especially the young ones. The other day we were watching two juveniles with an older male and they really are a pleasure to watch. You get a big crick in your neck if you sit too close to the tree they are in, but we are already improving our skills at choosing a location from which to watch. This becomes trickier with the bamboo and one must take into consideration how much the monkeys want to hide. These monkeys have been habituated to people over the past several years, so in general they don’t run from us when we approach. However, the history of poaching in the area has necessitated that the langurs know how to sneak away/hide from people, so they can move very quietly through the trees when they want to. They also nap a bunch during the day, so it is hard to find them when they are resting.
The first few trips to the field were mostly for orientation purposes in the forest. There is a network of flagged and mapped animal trails in the home ranges of our four groups of monkeys. These trails help provide a guide of where to walk when we are searching, but most of the following is done off-trail (unless we are really lucky and the monkeys are right on top of the trail).
Being in the forest is serene at times but stressful at others. Our study site is lower in elevation than the station, so it tends to be hotter. Also, the weather at Ban Ling may not be the weather in the forest- we have walked in to find evidence of heavy, recent rain when there was none up the hill where we live. Walking through bamboo is surreal and reminds me that I am in Asia, but then there are the bugs . . . At times the cicadas are so noisy that we cannot follow the monkeys by sound alone. There are leeches. They are small but plentiful and will attempt to scale your body and foil your leech socks. If they do latch on and you don’t notice, when they drop off you bleed for ages. But most of the time you can get them before they get you. My favorite tactic is to flick them off of my body and send them flying though the air, but you can also roll them up and flick them, cut them in half with a knife, or snap them in half with your fingers. We kill any we have left on us once we are at Baan Ling, otherwise they would breed there and become even more of an issue.
Getting to work is awesome. We motorbike. As of yet I can’t drive myself (standard transmission and kickstart are the obstacles, but I have a good handle on the kickstart and up to second gear so far), but it is great to ride up and down the hills before the forest work starts and to cool down after it ends. Over the next few weeks my motorbike skills will increase to include hills, riding with a full pack, and driving a passenger with and without a pack. One word: weeeeeeeeee!
Everyone wants to know if the monkeys are cute and the answer is yes, especially the young ones. The other day we were watching two juveniles with an older male and they really are a pleasure to watch. You get a big crick in your neck if you sit too close to the tree they are in, but we are already improving our skills at choosing a location from which to watch. This becomes trickier with the bamboo and one must take into consideration how much the monkeys want to hide. These monkeys have been habituated to people over the past several years, so in general they don’t run from us when we approach. However, the history of poaching in the area has necessitated that the langurs know how to sneak away/hide from people, so they can move very quietly through the trees when they want to. They also nap a bunch during the day, so it is hard to find them when they are resting.
Baan Ling
There are too many elephants living near our study site, so we live in TKM in a station called Baan Ling, the “monkey house” (no jokes, please). My living conditions are very comfortable considering I am living in rural Thailand. I have a spacious room with my own bathroom and shower, including a (manual) flush toilet in the Western style and cold running (filtered rain)water. I’ve got a nice corner room with a lot of light which is great because we only run the generator for electricity for a few hours at night. Plus, there’s a great hammock!
Others who live at Baan Ling include the rest of Team Langur (Carola, Zach, Richard) and some of the Thai rangers from Team Macaque (Piya, Aim and Tam). We all share a small lab, kitchen, and office. There’s an extensive collection of DVDs and a decent library here from former research assistants which I know will come in handy in the next few months. We also share some basic supplies like bread and ice, but there is plenty of room for individual experimentation with local foods! On the way here we stopped at a fruit market where no one spoke English and had the opportunity to choose fruits we had never seen before (nor knew how to tell if they were ripe). There is also a lot of unusual packaged food like seaweed flavored chips and dried fish strips that seem to resemble jerky. For the most part, trying new foods has been a rewarding experience, though Zach was not the biggest fan of the orange-flavored fermented milk. On the note of milk, many Thais are lactose intolerant so there are tons of soy products over here.
Others who live at Baan Ling include the rest of Team Langur (Carola, Zach, Richard) and some of the Thai rangers from Team Macaque (Piya, Aim and Tam). We all share a small lab, kitchen, and office. There’s an extensive collection of DVDs and a decent library here from former research assistants which I know will come in handy in the next few months. We also share some basic supplies like bread and ice, but there is plenty of room for individual experimentation with local foods! On the way here we stopped at a fruit market where no one spoke English and had the opportunity to choose fruits we had never seen before (nor knew how to tell if they were ripe). There is also a lot of unusual packaged food like seaweed flavored chips and dried fish strips that seem to resemble jerky. For the most part, trying new foods has been a rewarding experience, though Zach was not the biggest fan of the orange-flavored fermented milk. On the note of milk, many Thais are lactose intolerant so there are tons of soy products over here.
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