Woke up this morning with a really bad headache, but after chugging some water and taking a sudafed, I feel much better. Had some oatmeal for breakfast and put on my field clothes. Dawn taught us how to use GPS to capture points that we can convert into a map later. I decided to take GPS points of any cool animal I saw. I started sweating my butt off, but once we started our hike, I felt more adjusted to the heat. It does make it way easier to adjust since there is no AC because if there is, every time you go outside your body has to acclimate all over again. The trail is marked by painted colors on the trees, which is good since it can be hard to follow the trail as it gets overgrown. On the trail we saw the poop of elephants that came through a few weeks ago. We also saw uprooted holes created by bearded pigs. I saw a bunch of beautiful butterflies and rolly pollys which I love to poke and watch curl up into little balls. The forest nymph butterflies are so pretty: they are black with white spots, and are so thin and delicate that they look like they’re made of tissue paper. What I don’t like are the thin green vines with the thorns that attach to my hair and pants. After the hike, I changed out of my disgusting clothes and laid under the fan: it was the best feeling in the world! Nothing is more exhausting that hiking in the jungle in extreme heat. For lunch we had tempe, which was some hard ground soybean thing and it was so yummy! With it I had some rice, spinach, and pineapple. After lunch, Alyssa, one of the PhD students, gave us a presentation. Her research focuses on pangolins - which are just the cutest things ever! - but are highly poached and sold for their meat or skin due to their unique scale texture. It is so disgusting how many critically endangered animals are eaten, and it almost always has something to do with men's arousal.
After a lesson on how to use the remote cameras, my group set out with only 2 cameras:
Camera 1
Gps: 50 N 0614826
UTM 0598991
elevation :16m
time/date: 5/24/17
Location: We chose an open area with signs of wildlife, such as tracks and poop. The location was also in proximity to a little lake/river where animals tend to congregate.
Camera 2
Gps: 50 N 0614693
UTM 0598454
elevation :21m
time/date: 5/24/17
Location: The second location had the same criteria as above: tracks, poor, near river. Additionally, we heard a lot of wildlife calls in the trees above.
After showering and having a yummy tofu dinner, we got back into our filed clothes for a night hike. I HATE having to put my field clothes back on since they are always wet and covered in mud. My headlamp wasn’t that bright so I couldn’t see anything unless someone else was shining their light on it, but that’s fine. We saw a few white tree frogs, a striped gecko, and a big snail on a tree. We went to the tarantula tree but she was in her hole so we just saw a few of her furry legs. I really wish we would have seen a mammal like a civet, but maybe I will see one another night. You really can see a lot while still being along the trail, so tomorrow night I want to walk along it and see if I can spot anything cool!
I think my body is finally adjusting to the heat, which I am very surprised by! I used to always get overheated: when I was little, if the car was getting hot my parents would look back at me and I would have taken off all of my clothes. It does help that I have been forcing myself to drink so much water. Now for another shower and off to bed! The bed is covered in mold and the sheet doesn’t quite fit the mattress so every time I wake up I am on the bare moldy mattress which grosses me out a bit. Also at the longhouse I didn’t have my backpack zippered one night and ants took over so whenever I try to use my computer to write my paper 50 tiny ants crawl out of the keys which is super annoying and while that is going on the light of my laptop attracts all the other bugs in the room (and there are a lot) and they fly at my computer and run into my head.
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