"vacation"

April 25-April 30

I've spent the last two weeks on "vacation." It is sad to me that I've been in Thailand 4 weeks today, and only about a week of it in the forest. I am very ready to get back there and really get rolling on our fieldwork. I am also a bit nervous because going back means that I will be collecting data myself and will really have to be on my A game. As for the last two weeks, I've had ample ways to waste time other than blogging, so I have been a slacker. So, I intend to give an abridged version of my two week vacation from Khao Yai.

I spent my first day back at Chollada's house doing nothing but sitting around watching TV and eating good food (and had absolutely no problem with this). The next day, Saturday, Chollada and her mom took me to the IT mall: basically a place with hundreds of the exact same stores, that somehow stay in business even though they are all selling the same laptops, TVs, tablets, etc. We found what I was looking for, a new laptop adapter cord, and a real HP one (for much cheaper than HP sells it for, so who knows about the integrity of the store selling it) it seems like it will last a decent while. This was the day I discovered deep fried bananas-my life will never be the same, and I don't even like bananas! We went to bed fairly early because we were getting up early on Sunday to head to Ayutthaya. We left the house very early and met all of Chollada's friends at a temple downtown. In Atutthaya of course we visited a temple, then we went a saved a buffalo. To me, it was a stupid concept. The group shelled out 25,000 baht (about $1000) to "save a buffalo." This means they get to pick out a buffalo (or a cow for 23,000), and it gets sent to some farmer who promises not to kill it but to use it for other purposes (I'm assuming milking it or using it to pull a plow or something?). The buffalo's savior gets to track it and make sure its still alive. Its a campaign organized by the king and it seems to me like its just something to make him look like a good guy to the public (who already worships the ground he walks on-literally). Not to say the kind isn't a good guy, I don't know much about him. I would just rather people donate to have the cows/buffaloes living on the farm in better conditions. I think being butchered for meat after only a year of a good life; being fed properly and not walking around knee deep in your own shit, is better than perhaps being the one chosen by some nice people to be saved, but in the meantime living in atrocious conditions. And who knows how the farmer who gets the saved individual will treat it? Sorry for the rant, but I saw this whole thing as a scam and a huge waste of money. After rescuing our poor buffalo, we headed to lunch at a floating seafood restaurant. It was pretty good, although some seafood dishes here are a bit too fishy for me. After lunch we saw the main draw of Ayutthaya; the ruins of the old capital city. We went to a very old temple and looked around a bit. Our last stop before heading back to Bangkok was to get some of what I call "sugar burritos" (I should probably learn the real name). Its stringy sugar wrapped in a sweet tortilla like thing: yummy.

 pouring flower water on our "saved" buffalo

 giant freshwater shrimp

 old temple in Ayutthaya

I guess its called "roti sai mai"

Monday I had another lazy day while Chollada was at work. When she got home we planned some things for me to do in the city Tuesday. So, Tuesday I woke up early and went into the city with Chollada on her way to work. First I headed to the Jim Thompson house-an American man who apparently revived the Thai silk industry and collected a lot of Asian art. His house is like a little retreat within the city, a big garden with lots of trees so you can't even see or hear the business of Bangkok. Inside his collection of teak houses was tons or art (paintings, sculptures, ceramic pieces). After a tour in English(?) I headed off to my next destination. I mastered public transit, including both the skytrain and the ferry boat, I walked through the delightful smelling flower market, and finally made it to Museum Siam-a new museum about the history of Thailand. It was a nice museum, geared more towards kids; you can touch everything in the museum. It sort of reminded me of a small version of the Henry Ford. Afterward I had some delicious Pad Thai for lunch. Then I headed back to the main shopping area of town. I checked out the MBK center-a bargain shopping place, and bought some harem pants. Then I went to Siam Square and bought a tank top (probably paid too much). Chollada and I met for dinner at Coffee Beans by Dao-a tummy restaurant with delicious cheesecake! 

 Jim Thompson house

Just when I was beginning to get sick of the city, I left for Hua Hin, a beach town about three hours from Bangkok...

Central World!

April 25

After breakfast at the hotel I stashed my bags there for a few hours and walked around exploring the Sukhumvit neighborhood. To be honest there wasn't much to see during the day. The night market was probably the highlight and it was closed. Around 3:00 I got my stuff from the hotel and took the BTS sky train to Central World- the biggest mall Thailand, the 6th biggest mall in the world. It was a little to huge and extravagant for me. I can't even function properly at Fairlane mall with its 2.5 floors and confusing layout. Anyway this mall has to have every store known to man. I just went up to the 6th floor in section C where I already knew the bookstore is found online was. I bought 4 books, spent way too much money, but I'm going to need them over the next four months to maintain my sanity. At the rate I'm reading I'll finish the ones I brought from the US in about 2 months. I went upstairs to the food area, bought a water and spent some time reading. Around 6:30 I went outside with all my stuff to find some dinner (I was hauling two backpacks and a purse, another reason I didn't feel like browsing in the giant mall). I got some grilled pork skewers, watermelon and a water for about $2, which made me feel better about the expensive books. After I ate (and fed a dog the fat from my pork) I headed back into the mall for the air conditioning and spent an atrocious amount on cold stone ice cream-because I wanted ice cream, but also because I needed a place to sit and read to kill time. At about 8:30 Chollada called me and was ready to meet me to take me I her house. She and her family are very generously hosting me again! I feel bad because I stole her little brothers room :(

Anyway I was tired and glad to be somewhere familiar after a day of hauling my stuff around like a nomad who really likes reading.

awful Bangkok traffic

 6th largest mall in the world!

sunrise in the forest, sunset in the city

Today (Wednesday the 24th, I posted this the next day) was my last day in the forest for two weeks because Julie's parents are coming to visit her. So I am going to be staying with Chollada in Bangkok during this time (thank goodness for Thai sisters).

Khao Yai said goodbye to me with a beautiful sunrise this morning

This morning we went to try to get a recording of the leopard alarm call for the W group, because Julie does not have the recording of this group yet and we need it for our playback experiments. The W group is very habituated because their territory lies in the middle of the tourist trail. This made for a fun day in the field. Plus the W territory is in the same area as the S territory, so the forest is similar. It has a very wild jungle-y feeling to it that I like very much. It rained a lot the night before so it was wet and the leeches and mosquitoes were out in full force. The W group also had an interesting story. There are 5 in the group, an adult male and female, and infant, a juvenile and an 8 year old subadult who has not yet dispersed. The two older offspring do not belong to Sari the female, but instead to Wotan's previous mate who died. So Sari is like their "stepmother", Julie thinks this is why the 8 year old male has not yet dispersed. He doesn't need to take the risk and can just stay and be the secondary male in his father's group.

There were a ton of spiky palm plants in this territory, so Julie made good use of her machete. There is also a pond/swamp area, so the ground was a bit muddy in some places and it made me wish I'd worn my rubber boots instead of my hiking boots.

Evil palm plants that stab you.

There were some rapids in the river near the overlap of the W and S territories, which made me sad I am missing Raftoid again this year.

W let us know where they were by singing, and we followed them hoping they'd go somewhere convenient for us to place the leopard. Of course they didn't, but they entertained us with their branch swinging and running on two legs across a large branch. this hilarious because they normally brachiate so on two feet they are totally out of their element and just swing their arms wildly for balance. They aren't afraid of getting close so I got some good pictures (it is still hard because they move so fast!). We also saw an big eagle in their territory. It swooped over them a few times, perhaps thinking about hunting them. Once when this happened they all dropped down much lower into the canopy, indicating they might have seen it as a threat. I also saw my first hornbill after hearing their loud squawks for a week!

 hornbill!

 Sari and infant

 infant!!

 Wirawan (juvenile)

 action shots!

 zoomed way in on the eagle

the river

We were unable to do the leopard recording because they gibbons were close to a house and the road which meant too much noise for a good recording. We left at about 11am and returned to the rescuse center to pack up for Bangkok. We made a little lunch, the drove to the entrance of the park, then took the shuttle bus to the bus station in Pak Chong where we waited for the bus to Bangkok, which took about 2.5 hours. Once in Bangkok Julie and I took a taxi to our hotel in Sukhumvit. It is a beautiful hotel! I have pictures on my phone, but not on the computer. It also only about $26 for the night for a room with AC and free wifi! there is also a pool but I decided to skip it. Julie and I went to the big market kitty-corner to the hotel where you could buy just about anything from clothes, to DVDs, to food and alcohol. We walked by all the food stands once and then separated and picked out what we wanted. I got some rice, some sweet sausage and something I wasn't sure about but looked good; I think it was minced pork in yellow curry with lemongrass, it was very good but VERY spicy. Julie bought me an excellent orange juice that comes from tiny citrus fruits that are green on the outside and orange on the inside and tastes like tangerines or clementines. We ate and then Julie ordered us some beers from the bar. There was a live band that started playing while we were eating, we were right next to the speakers, so it was loud, but a very cool atmosphere! Then we went back to the hotel and chatted for a while before bed, Julie told me all about what she has studied the past several years; everything from pythons to horses to birds to gibbons! 

thunderstorms

I haven't posted in a few days and there are a few reasons. One, Sunday was really boring. We woke up VERY early to go record dawn calls (which is a male solo) but there was too much background noise (thanks to insects, macaques, birds, etc.) and we weren't close enough to the group we wanted, and we missed the beginning. so we will have to try that again another time. so we got back at about 6:30am and had nothing to do for the rest of the day. So I napped, read a lot, learned to French braid my hair, did some laundry...and then the best part of the day: Julie and I went to the restaurant for dinner! YUM! Meat and vegetables! I had big noodles with chicken, greens of some sort and egg in a brown sauce. SO YUMMY for a tummy surviving on mostly peanut butter, bread and eggs for the past few days.

Then, Monday (HAPPY EARTH DAY!). We went into the field early, found the N group very early and thought we would be lucky enough to do another python trial...but no. At about 7:30 the gibbons saw something, we can;t be sure what, but it upset them. They made disturbed/alarm calls for the next hour. the female was so upset she came over and peed and almost pooped on us. GREAT. We couldn't move because we were recording and the noise would ruin it. Although I have to say being peed on by a primate for the first time did feel like some sort of rite of passage. Anyway, because the gibbons had already been upset by something natural, it wouldn't be right to scare them again with the fake python. So, with nothing else to do in the forest that day, we left by 8:30. We were met by some Thai tourists on our way out who seemed surprised to see two white women walking out alone all dressed up in field clothes and equipment. So they took pictures of us. The Thai tourists are generally scared of the forest and just stand on the outskirts hoping to see something from there rather than venturing on any of the tourist trails, so we were probably the first animals they'd seen. I came home, showered, ate a PB&J and then decided to take a nap. When I woke up the power was out from thunderstorms, which also means no water. So we were pretty much left doing nothing for the entire day. It was actually a nice day because the storms weren't over us, so Julie and I sat outside on the porch and chatted for a few hours before retreating to our rooms with candles. There was something peaceful about sitting and reading by candle light, but I was certainly happy when I woke up the next morning to the power restored.

Today was a good day. Julie and I went to try to do the python with the S group. Of course they didn't sing for us even though we got there very early, so we walked all around looking. Finally at 8:00 who spotted the gibbons? Yours truly. Yep, it was a proud moment, and Julie congratulated me on my first time finding them before her. They were on the other side of the river, so we found a good place to cross and had to backtrack to find them again. After following them and doing the scan for an hour they were in a perfect position for us to set up the python. Unfortunately they barely reacted. The female gave a few "hoo"s and stared at it for a good ten minutes, the male kept eating and the juvenile kept playing. Then the female moved off, and although they did scan the ground quite a bit, their behavior wasn't very affected. Julie says that this group gets a lot of tourist traffic, so they might be generally less cautious because of that. We had about 15 minutes left in the scan when they crossed back to the other side of the river in a spot where we definitely couldn't follow, so we had to end the scan early. When we returned to where we had crossed in the first place, the river had risen and inch or two and it was quite a bit more difficult to cross. We ended up putting a log down and using a big bamboo stalk as a walking stick to stabilize us as we crossed. Although the river made things difficult, I really liked this part of the forest. The canopy was pretty easy to see in most places, but it had a very jungle-y feel to it with lots of palm plants, and the river crossing made me feel adventurous.

Anyway, this is a pretty boring post. The gibbons were perfectly photogenic today and very low in the canopy, but of course I didn't bring my camera because the forecast didn't look good. So, no pictures from the last few days. But here, by Nancy's request, is me all dressed up for the field:

Its hard to see but things are labeled going clockwise:

1) backpack (from Nathan!) 2) thin loose long sleeve shirt to keep bugs off 3) awesome Nikon binoculars 4) watch! 5) comfiest field pants 6) leech socks doused in 100% deet 7) awesome waterproof hiking boots 8) GPS 9) hydration system for backpack 10) makeshift curtain/wall for my "room" haha.

Tomorrow morning will be our last time in the field for two weeks, so hopefully the sky dumped all its tain on us this afternoon and won't have any left tomorrow morning. I am headed back to Bangkok for the next two weeks while Julie's family visits her, so I will be hanging out with Chollada's family some more (hopefully they don't get sick of me) and perhaps visiting a beach too! Then we will really get into starting our playback experiments and I will hopefully by then have learned how to collect good data and contribute to the project a bit more!

how to ruin a gibbon's day

If you're ever looking for a way to make a whole family of gibbons really upset, just put a fake predator underneath them. It will lead to at least an hour of nervous, frightened, frustrated behavior.

This is how I feel when we do the python experiments, sort of like a big bully. This is why we never do these experiments with neighboring groups within several days, sometimes it upsets the entire "neighborhood". So we strategically carry out our python experiments with groups on opposite sides of our research area so that no one gets upset multiple days in a row.

So, since we failed with the H group yesterday, we set out to find them again today. We were lucky and found them within an hour! We had to wait a while to start the scan because they weren't very visible. Finally, after the hour-long scan was complete we were ready to place the python. Once we found a spot that was suitable for the python, on a log that had some sun shining on it, we had to be very careful to place it there without being seen while also being sure the gibbons would eventually see it. Well we set the python down at 10:35am and it took them until 10:56 to notice it! It was a long wait, so I flopped down on a clear patch of ground on the hill and waited. When they did see it they were clearly unhappy, but instead of breaking into a loud chorus after a few minutes of murmuring at it like the other groups had done, they just let out soft cries and threatened it for about a half an hour. They shook branches and even sent a few crashing to the ground nearby, maybe to scare the python away. This obviously wasn't working though (since the python is fake...). Eventually, still uneasy they started to move off, but then, not satisfied that the python was still there they returned and continued their soft cries and threats. finally they moved off a second time and Julie removed the python. After she removed it, they returned again to check out the area, and left, and returned once again. Even after their soft cries slowly faded away, they were clearly still bothered by the idea that the snake might still be around. the entire group nervously scanned the ground as they finally moved on to their favorite feeding tree.

Anyway, like I said, this makes me feel a bit like a bully...but hey, its cool that we are getting a reaction, because the last person to use (a really unrealistic) python model, only got reactions from a few groups, while we've had reactions in all the groups we've tested so far!

So, that was our day in the field. Success! Here are some pictures of the H group:

 dad Felix grooming one of the juveniles

 one of the juveniles...happy and curious (pre-python)

 Felix, trying to figure out where the python went...

 Where is it?!

 And here is a picture of two leeches having some fun on my boot.

In other news, today my hunger is finally starting to get to me. I haven't been eating enough, and today it was consuming my thoughts. The past few days I've had oatmeal for breakfast, filling enough. I cave and eat an apple in the field around 10am. Then we get back between 12 and 2pm and I am usually to exhausted to think about making something (even a PB&J, so I sit around a bit and then shower. Then by the time I muster up the energy to eat, it just isn't enough. I didn't buy enough food at the store because I didn't know what to get and what would fit in the fridge. I also thought "Oh I can always go eat at the "restaurants" in the park. But wait, I feel awkward asking Julie for a ride down there, plus I don't know the hours. Julie doesn't seem to eat very much and its killing me! She stays in her room doing work after we get back from the field until evening time when she comes out to do more work, but I don't feel comfortable interrupting her to take me down to get some food! Its a struggle. So, I live on PB&J and scrambled egg sandwiches. I make the eggs in a rice cooker (yeah, I'm that good/desperate). And I demolish them and am left still hungry. So, I need to work on fixing this issue ASAP...

Well, that's it for today, getting up extra early 4:15am to be out in the field by 5:15. So here's a picture of the sunset and the resevoir, goodnight.

snakes on snakes on snakes

The bad news: today it took us forever to find the H group because they were silent all morning, and when we found them they were so high in a tree that there wasn't enough visibility to do any scans or the python experiment.

The good news: I sort of learned how to collect some data. I learned how to use my GPS a little better. We did at least see some gibbons, the R group, and I got some decent photos.

 Henry scratching his leg

 The whole family. Juvenile Rarin grooming mom Brit, dad Henry on left.

Henry putting on a show.

After the R group crossed the river we went back to search for the H group. We FINALLY found them lazily feeding way up in a tree. As we were watching Julie looked down and noticed about 5 meters from us was a snake...wait, no...two snakes; one eating the other! We stepped a little closer and saw it was a cobra feasting on something that looked WAY too big for it, but in doing so we scared it off. It coughed up its meal and slithered away quickly in the opposite direction. We stood still watching, knowing the other snake might not be dead, and might be dangerous. Indeed, it wasn't dead and soon started slowly moving. It swayed drunkenly from the neurotoxin of the cobra and attempted to slither away. This gave us plenty of opportunities to take pictures! I felt bad for the little guy, I'm assuming he died eventually, but her put up quite a fight. He hissed at us when we got too close by accident, thinking he's already gone, and he moved feebly away while flies circled him, he must have already smelled like death.

 Mr. cobra's lunch is as big as he is!

 Victim in a daze.

 waking up a but, but still struggling

Then, as we were leaving, we saw this guy! Some sort of wild rooster looking thing. He was making a lot of noise at us.

And finally, here is a picture of the river. It was narrow here so we could cross to get back to the truck.

So, even though we didn't get much done in terms of the project, it was an interesting day in the forest for me. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for finding gibbons though!

First day in the field!

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, got all my stuff ready, had some instant oatmeal and headed out to the forest with Julie at about 6:30. We stumbled upon the E group of gibbons first-my first time seeing gibbons in the wild! We didn't stay with them long because we were looking for the B group. Next we crossed the T groups territory and saw them briefly. We finally got to the B group at around 8:30am. We heard a great call and got to see the baby and the adult male playing with a giant squirrel (mostly just chasing it). These squirrels are honestly huge, like the size of Tori. After a while we noticed another adult male was with the group, which is weird because the B group should only have one. Apparently sometimes there is an extra adult male, but he never participates in duets. Julie took some photos to try to figure out who he was, and to make sure the singing (main) male hadn't been replaced by the new male. The singing male had not changed, which is good because this would affect the experiments.

The juvenile of B

After a while we were ready to try the python experiment. We use a fake python as a stimulus to see if the gibbons will vocalize. Finally after two failed attempts to place the python in a place where it could be seen by the group, we were successful. The poor things called for over an hour. We had to be very quiet and still during this whole time so as not to affect the recording of the vocalizations. The alarm call sounds sort of like a whining, howling dog. I have a video, but I don't think the internet is good enough to upload it. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I wanted to make sure I was paying attention on my first day. I am worried now though, that taking pictures will only be harder as I start to collect more data, and when the rainy season begins.

After the python experiment we headed back to "camp". We got back around 2, showered, had lunch, and did laundry (there's a machine, WHAT?!). Then I was pretty bored and lonely...I hope once Julie and I get to know each other better it will get better. But until then I have plenty of books to read and movies to watch (thanks to Julie).

Another thing I should mention is that the mosquitoes actually weren't bad at all today. The only bites I've gotten have been here in the building around dusk. I was surprised because it rained the last few days. What was bad were the leeches. Yeah, here leeches don't just live in the water. They crawl around on the ground looking for someone to feed on, and apparently sometimes they fall out of trees onto your neck and chest, which sounds just fabulous. Apparently I'm going to need a scarf. When you are standing still watching the gibbons they take the opportunity to climb up your boots, onto your legs and up as high as they can before you notice, hopefully finding some bare skin. Fortunately for me today none were so lucky, but I'm sure that will change soon, especially during the rainy season or when we follow groups closer to the river. Lovely. My nastiest encounter today was one somehow got into the eyecup of my binoculars and I didn't notice and put them up to my eyes and felt it wriggle and touch my eyeball. Thank goodness I have quick reflexes and it didn't have a chance to take hold on my eye.