Sunday, May 12, 2013

the day of rest

Sunday is known as the day of rest and today the gibbons took that to heart. We were looking for the N group, and of course they didn't sing. Amazingly barely any of the other groups sang either; lazy gibbons! We heard a few sporadic half-hearted duets during the morning, but not much. When we finally did find N they were lazily eating. After seeing the python and making some hoo hoos and trying to scare it, they moved off about 50 meters and proceeded to groom each other while the infant and juvenile played for the next 50 minutes. It got pretty boring after a while. After that though they returned to where the python had been and gave a few more little calls and scanned trying to figure out where it had gone. While we were recording this last bit two tourists and their guide came upon us. It was annoying because Julie pointed to her microphone and motioned for them to be quiet, and the tourists complied, but the guide crunched along in the leaves pointing (just trying to do his job, but very noisily).

We saw a jackfruit tree today, which was cool because the fruits are huge! I also found a peculiar fungi, which I initially thought might be some kind of carnivorous plant because of the poop smell and the hole in the middle. After some research it turns out to be Aseroe rubra or starfish fungi. It was interesting, but smelly.

I was starting to get a headache and get very sleepy by the end of the morning. I think it was because I didn't get hungry for dinner last night, and didn't really have lunch, so my body was probably pissed. I also went to bed sort of late. So tonight it will be an early night. At about 6:45 some rangers drove by and said there were some elephants up the road, so we got in the truck and drove up there to see, but sadly they had already disappeared, so I'll have to keep waiting for my first elephant sighting. Getting closer though! Lastly, I finally got a picture of my noisy gecko friend, he is in my room tonight! Hopefully that means he'll eat all the bugs. I think I should give him a name, but I'm not sure what...

huge jackfruit
 stinky (pretty) fungus!
 my gecko friend...what shall I name him?

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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 12, 2013 at 6:42 AM

    Nice shots! At the field station in French Guiana where I worked, we also had jackfruit trees, and often set up IR cameras at night to record all the mammals which would come to feed: http://ibycter.com/2013/04/04/further-rainforest-video-trapping/

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    1. UnknownMay 12, 2013 at 6:47 AM

      Awesome! I wish my internet here was better so it would load faster, but thanks for sharing.

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  2. WA_sideMay 12, 2013 at 9:27 PM

    What an awesome gecko to have sharing your room! How big is he/she?

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    1. UnknownMay 13, 2013 at 2:57 AM

      About a foot long nose to tip of the tail!

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    2. WA_sideMay 13, 2013 at 7:24 AM

      Woah! I'm assuming that, unlike me, you have some knowledge of what they eat & their likely agression levels, since you are curious rather than worried about the gecko. ALthough I'd like to think that were I in your position rather than suburban Australia, that I might be in awe rather than scared too.

      I'm enjoying reading your blog, and I think I came here from @fuzzyatelin (on Twitter).

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    3. UnknownMay 14, 2013 at 3:41 AM

      He/she eats bugs, which I am happy about. Its pretty shy, and runs away whenever I get close. I was lucky to finally get the picture, so I'm not too worried about aggression. Though I do think either it or one of the many smaller geckos likes to stalk around my desk at night making a lot of noise and freaking me out not being able to see what it is. The only problem with is sometimes I get woken up by its loud calls in the night. Glad you're enjoying it! :)

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