5/24/17 DGFC Day 2

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.

5/23/17 Off to DGFC!

“I touched a pretty leaf and it stung me!...only in Borneo” - Kelsey

I slept so amazing last night! The room was pitch black, cool, big fluffy beds, and NO BUGS!!! Had a great breakfast at the hotel and did some journaling. We got back on the bus and headed off for a two hour drive. Then we had an awesome lunch and there was a super friendly kitten that crawled in my lap and was kneading me. It was so cute but she was using her claws a lot! At the restaurant on the river, we saw some monitor lizards and they are huge; at first glance they look like crocodiles!

I truly have never sweat so much in my life. I have been drinking so much water and yet I never have to pee. I am forcing myself to drink like 3 times as much water as I normally would.

Next, we unloaded our stuff off the bus and put it on the boat. I sat in the front seat on the boat and it was so fun and the breeze was amazing! I was really hoping we would see a crocodile but sadly we didn’t. We did see a huge seagull, which looked just like a turkey vulture, but white. Later found out he had said sea eagle not seagull which explains why it looked so huge. We had to stop the boats because the other groups boat had a snake in it - yikes! The boat driver lost sight of the snake but said he saw it last on the teal suitecase which of course happens to be mine. Once we arrived we unpacked the boat and walked a long concrete path to the field center and we had an orientation presentation given by Meg. She warned us about all of the terrors of the forest like crocodiles, and not to make eye contact with macaques. We headed to our hostel and Jack told us to shake out our beds in case there was a foot long centipede that would bite us in our sleep!!! The jungle sure is a crazy place. I have a new respect for Minnesota. Having a bug-free shower is something I will never take for granted again. I used to scream at little spiders, and now that I have showered with rhino beetles, I can keep my cool around little Minnesota bugs. After we got settled, Rich, a PhD student, did a demonstration on the data he takes on reticulated pythons. When both pythons were taken out they pooped/peed all over the floor and on whomever was holding the tail. With people helping Rich hold the python down, he put cream on their injuries, weighed them, measured them, took a blood sample, gendered them, and checked their GPS unit/microchip. Rich retrieved one of the pythons from a plantation, where the snake had been eating chickens. His research focused on seeing how the pythons that had been translocated from different habitats like plantations would do once released in the jungle, using the GPS unit to track where it would go. It’s crazy to see how strong the snakes are, since it takes 3 big guys using all of their strength to hold it down to the ground, I wonder how he catches them? They are just so big and fast that you must need whole team of people.

After Rich’s presentation, we played some Apples to Apples:). The cooks kids are always running around, and it is the cutest thing ever! Since I think all the staff live here, I wonder if the kids will go to school when thy older? It is great to see all the researchers interacting with the babies. The little kids are already so social and know a lot of English, which may be helpful as they grow up.

The other day, Amy gave a 10ringgit tip to a women at the restaurant near Sandakan and the woman started crying. Today we found out that she was going to use that money to buy her children 3 months of rice. 10rm is less that 3$ US. I can’t even begin to imagine the extreme suffering and poverty she must have been in for that to impact her that much. It takes 3$ just to take money out of an ATM in America and 3$ to a person here is 3 months of food. It really just puts everything into perspective. And the most amazing thing is that even though they have so little, they are so unbelievably kind.

5/22/17 Buses and Oil Palm

Travel day! I truly don’t think this bus could be any more bumpy. I have thought the bus was going to tip over like fifty times and it doesn’t help that most of the seat belts don't work. I told Kayla she has to hold onto me in a crash since she has a working seatbelt. The bumpiness can be fun, except when you have to go to the bathroom, then it is horrible. As we were driving, we passed hillside after hillside covered in oil palm. Mike explained how much profit can be made from oil palm, which is why oil palm monocultures cover Borneo. Once you cover the initial cost of planting the trees, you get a yearly harvest. The trees have their first harvest after 3-5 years and once trees are around 25, they are too tall to harvest the fruit from so they are cut down. Once the soil is replenished, new trees are planted. Oil palm is planted on terraces (a stair like steppe) for better drainage. I would be interested to know how much a single palm costs and how many acres the average oil palm plantation is. I also wonder what other countries grow oil palm? At home I have been trying not to eat foods with palm oil by checking the labels in my food, but man, it is hard! I’ve heard that half of all products in US grocery stores use palm oil. It is much easier now that I am eating healthier, as palm oil is normally found in highly processed foods.

Since palm oil fragments the habitat of many species,  animals like orangutans will come to forage in the oil palm. The farmers will either shoot them or, if there are babies, sell them into the exotic pet trade. Sometimes farmers won’t have a gun so will maim them with whatever tool they have, like a machete. Also, by the habitat being fragmented, populations are separated and genetic variability is reduced. It is devastating to see what were so recently lush rainforests but now are row after row of oil palm. It has always astonished me how many people have never even heard of palm oil even though it has such a huge impact on the environment and is used in most of the foods we eat. The US is buying tons of palm oil but we still pass judgement on Malaysia for cutting down their rainforest even though we are literally sending them money to do exactly that.
After a bus ride that seemed to last forever, we finally arrived at the Forest Edge in Sepilok. As our bus pulled in we saw a big signed saying longhouses and the bus erupted in groans. Turns out we get actually rooms for the night!!! This place is so nice, definitely a tourist destination. We got some ginger lemongrass welcome drinks as the staff put our bags in our room. Such a difference from our stay in the longhouses. As I was sipping my drink I looked up and saw a leaf bird perfectly camouflaged in a bright green tree. Everything was so beautiful but I couldn't focus because I had to pee so bad; story of my life. Me and Kelsey were roommates again (YAY) so we headed up to our room and THERE WAS AC!!! We cranked the AC as high as it could go and set our bags down on bed that had actual bedding and jumped for joy when we saw a bug-free bathroom with toilet paper supplied! At the longhouse we had done laundry in our sink but nothing dried so all of our clothes were just much grosser then they had started. So we attempted to do sink laundry again and since the room had AC things actually kind of dried! Turns out there was a pool so of course we threw our swimsuits on and headed down. We all lounged in the pool talking with people from all over the world. For dinner I had a yummy cashew tofu dish and a milk shake. The rest of the night consisted of mashed potatoes, wine, and attempting to journal though I always end up just talking to everyone. I really lucked out that everyone in our group is so awesome but it does make it really hard to get work done since I spend the entire time crying from laughter.

5/21/17 Tea and Agriculture fields

Wow there are a lot of bugs here! Every step I take I spot another bug and let me tell you they are huge! Got up dropped one of my malaria pills through a hole in the floor which was kinda funny but also not good because ya know… malaria. For breakfast we headed up to the restaurant and holy sh*t it was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. A mountain in the clouds surrounded by lush trees and plants. No camera could do it justice. We had a British breakfast and watched a video about how the tea was made then got a walk through tour of the factory. We learned about the process of tea making and saw the equipment they have to dry, roll, and test the tea leaves. Tea that comes out inferior is sent to other companies to sell. I had no idea that you can make every kind of tea from the same plant - it just depends on how it’s processed. Next we got to try the tea, which was awesome because I love tea! I think my favorite was their standard tea but it is fun to try all the others. We got to put on the hats and basket and tried to pick some tea. I have no idea how the tea pickers don’t roast in the sun.

A small group of us opted to go to see agricultural fields and I am so glad I did! We first got lunch at a restaurant in town and I had rice noodles with veggies and it was SO good! Also a side of french fries:) In Malaysia they bring out food as soon as it is ready instead of waiting so everyone can eat at once so most people were finished eating way before others got their food.  We went to a little house on a farm and got to look at all the things they were growing, like japanese cucumber and cabbage. The kids and cats at the house were so so so cute...even though I hate when the cats have the broken tail:( The little girl had dirt all over her face so when we arrived, her brother cleaned her face super quickly with a rag, which was very cute to watch but I hope they didn’t feel embarrassed or the need to look different in front of us. Though they were very shy when we were talking to them, as soon as we were headed off down the hill they were screaming “Bye, Bye!” at us, which was adorable. After that we headed to another market which had very nicely packaged and clean vegetables, probably because it was slightly more of a touristy area.

We then headed home. I took a quick shower and then got some dinner at the restaurant, which was an amazing cheese omelet and tea ice cream. Afterwards, we had a discussion about our timed swims and there was a huge range of numbers between groups. Kayla wasn’t sure what species of parrot fish we were supposed to be counting, Kelsey said she thought she was recounting the same fish, and I kept straying from the transect so I’m sure that is why our numbers were so different.

Before bed I gathered a group of people to go on a bug adventure with me, to find and take pictures and videos of bugs since I get too scared to do alone, and it was a fun way to end the night! I then crawled into my bed, full of bugs, and drifted off to sleep after popping a few Benadryl. Though I don’t love the bugs, I am very glad we stayed here to experience a traditional style of living and was pushed out of our comfort zones.

With all of the endemic species in Borneo, there is so much at risk. With tea, climate change is very damaging. With changes in weather, and different length dry or rainy seasons, tea is growing at different rates. Currently tea is growing really fast, which actually makes inferior tea since it changes the chemistry of the tea and alters the taste. Borneo is known for tea exports, so as temperatures rise, the economy will take a major hit. Going through the village I wondered how the people view us westerners? We are often coming into their country and telling them how things should be done. I think of Nick and wonder, in my future, if I end up going to different countries for conservation, will my voice have any power as a white woman? Is it my place to speak up even though I can’t truly understand their culture and lives? That’s the great thing about this line of work: you always are thinking and questioning whether your actions are welcomed or warranted.

5/20/17 Mount Kinabalu

“If I start running in the jungle don’t ask; just follow” -Mike

Today is the day we are climbing the mountain! The sunburn on my back from snorkeling really f**king hurts but wearing a lightweight camel-bak made it a lot better. We had another breakfast at the hotel (where I had about 10 hashbrowns) then headed out on the bus. On the way we were able to stop at this beautiful overlook and take some pictures as well as look at this cute market where I paid a ringgit to use a bathroom and get 2 squares of toilet paper. Like always there are stray dogs everywhere that sleep in the middle of the road which makes me very nervous since they just do not have a care in the world when a car is driving directly at them. At the market I got some fun pants and tried some of the fruits Dawn bought. Once at the mountain the first stop was to go to the bathroom and bug spray up. The weather, even before we started climbing, was much cooler than in KK, which was amazing because I could not have handled hiking if it was that hot - I would definitely have passed out.

Once on the trail it was so amazingly beautiful with more species of plants than I could imagine. There were rushing rivers, vines appearing to hang from the sky and the chatter of insects in a calming constant buzz. Soon after we started walking it starting raining hard which was great because it cooled us down but did make everything very slippery. Mike said whoever fell first had to buy everyone ice cream. Lets just say there were multiple times I was about to have to buy everyone ice cream but I somehow managed to catch myself. Mike also pointed out all these different plants and trees that can tell you how high above sea level we are since they only grow on certain regions of the mountain. Dawn also mentioned how incredibly fast vegetation is having to climb up the mountain with the higher rates of climate change deeming detrimental to the species.

LEECHES! They are everywhere! Luckily they are pretty small but ewww it is still very gross to have little blood sucking worm things in your shoes and they bite! Due to the leeches there was a lot of noise coming from our group which I think scared off any chance there was of seeing a lot of wildlife though we definitely got to see a plentiful supply of insects. The hike was just so beautiful and a good workout since at times it was very strenuous. After the hike we headed to the town for a HUGE meal which had this great naan like bread with a sweet chile sauce. Then we went on a flower hunt! 30 ringgits and a pick up truck ride later we saw the Rafflesia under an umbrella. It was really amazing to see the pride and profit people have from the Rafflesia. Like Nick said, people need to have an incentive to conserve. With the rafflesia being a huge flower with thick vines, it could be an annoyance to the people but by the local families being able to reap profit from it they will do everything it their power to protect it. It was so big and beautiful it looked fake. Then we headed to the Tea Garden to check out our home for the next few days. We are staying in a longhouse which is a traditional style house with an open roof between rooms, mosquito nets over the beds, and millions of rhino beetles that fly at your face. Oh the joys of the jungle!

5/19/17 Salug and Manukan Island

Today is one of the days I have been looking most forward to! SNORKELING DAY WAHOO!!! After a quick breakfast at the hotel we headed on the bus to the marina where we hopped on the boat. We dropped off our stuff on the lower deck and headed onto the second level where we had the wide open view of the water with all of the lush green islands poking out of the turquoise waters. Even after a few minutes I could feel the sun just baking my skin. We approached Manukan island and anchored the boat. Once we got our fins I immediately jumped in the water and started swimming around. The first thing I saw was a sea anemone and some feisty clown fish poked their heads out at me since they are very territorial. Though there were so many amazing fish you could very easily see the devastating damage that has been done by pollution and ocean acidification. In groups of 3 we did timed swims at both Salug and Manukan islands. My group decided to focus on terminal stage parrot fish since they are relatively easy to identify. We found a much larger population of parrot fish at Manukan island but it was most likely because at Salug we were near a drop off with a lot of Elkhorn coral and from my research project in Belize studying the preferred diet of parrot fish, we found they feed much more on convex shape coral like brain coral and very rarely ate off of elkhorn or fan coral.We then got to sit on the boat and get a lecture from Dr. Nick Pilcher a sea turtle conservationist.

Dr. Pilcher had a large part in getting Malaysia to require fishermen to use turtle excluder devices (TEDs), which is a flap in the fishing net to allow turtles to escape if they get caught as bycatch. He spoke about the difficulties to convince fisheries to use the TEDs since they thought everything would go through the flap. He got creative and used Gopros in the nets to show how it worked. He also explained that he was able to take the director of the wildlife department to the United States and show how we use TEDs and still make good catches/profit which is what caused the law requiring the use of TEDs in Malaysia to be passed. Dr. Pilcher had a point of view which I had rarely heard which was saying we should not care how the animals died but simply focus on the numbers of animals dying. Giving people a certain amount of turtle eggs they are allowed to harvest will make them more likely to care to conserve them. He explained how they allowed villages to harvest the first two waves of turtle eggs since after the first wave layed their eggs the second wave of turtles would unbury the original eggs to lay their own. So once they allowed the villages to harvest the first two waves of eggs the very people that took the eggs would watch the third waves of turtles all night with machine guns to ensure no one would harm the turtles or their eggs. Since they were given eggs they had incentive to protect the turtles and keep their populations high. It is difficult for me to not care about animals at an individual level but I understand you need to look at the bigger picture. Next, we went to an island for a fried noodle lunch and it was very interesting since most of the women in the water were swimming around in full burka dress. It was interesting to see women covered from head to toe then all of us in bikinis with so much skin showing. Next we went off to Salug to do a beach clean-up and oh my god, there was so much garbage covering the islands - mostly water bottles - so it was nice to be able to clean it up. There was also a sassy rooster roaming around whom I loved! Then we took turns jumping off the boat which was super fun though it really hurt my ears to hit the water that hard. It started storming so we went up to the upper deck of the boat and sang songs in the rain with Mike! When we got back to the hotel I look with horror at my horribly burnt back. Mike told me I looked like a lobster which he couldn’t stop laughing about.

5/18/17 And we are off!

And we are off! It is such an odd feeling heading off on this trip after thinking about it every day since Dawn told me she was in the process of developing the program. Ever since I was young watching nature programs or documentaries, Borneo would always have the craziest wildlife and even though it is obviously a real place I never felt like it actually existed since it was this far away dream-like place in my head. The fact that I am actually traveling there is mind boggling. Once I found out it had been approved and the application open I applied for it that very day. I have been trying to imagine what this trip will be like for so long but now that it is actually here it is a very odd feeling. I normally am a little anxious mess before going on trips but this morning I was strangely calm and telling myself that I have to take everyday with an open mind and try to push all my expectations out of my mind. I got dropped off at the airport by my roommate then of course got a little lost trying to meet at group check in. I had traveled to Belize with two of the people on the trip and knew others from my major. I didn’t expect to know so many people going on this trip but it was really comforting that I did. Don’t get me wrong I think it is so important to travel not really knowing anyone because it makes you really develop connections with people you otherwise wouldn’t and you grow in ways you couldn’t imagine but still it is awesome to have friendly faces.

Holy sh*t that flight is looong. We went from Minneapolis to Seattle, then Seattle to Hong Kong where we stayed overnight at hotel attached to the airport. In the morning i woke up with a pretty bad headache since the time change is like 12 hours ahead so my body was really confused but nothing a little ibuprofen couldn’t fix. At the Regal Hotel in Hong Kong we had a huge buffet breakfast and then headed on an AirAsia flight to Kota Kinabalu. As we were about to land in Kota Kinabalu I opened the window and saw the turquoise waters scattered with islands and surrounded in lush green mountains. Once we landed we all headed to the bathroom. A Malaysian women came out of the stall looked at me with a smirky-smile before walking away. I open the bathroom door and to my surprise saw just a hole in the ground, silly me expecting to see a toilet. I stared at it for like 30 seconds deciding how to best approach it and not pee all over myself as I have never been very good at squatting. I then opened the door and was like “hey guys what's the best way to go about this?”. Turns out all the other stalls were normal toilets so I opted for one of them. Little did I know most of the bathrooms we would go to would be squatters so I would later get very used to it. Was that TMI? Maybe. Anyway, we then went to exchange some money into Malaysian Ringgits. We then loaded all of our stuff onto this cute bus with frilly curtains and headed into downtown KK to our hotel. The hotel was really nice and it had AC!!!!! Halleluja! I haven’t mentioned this yet but it is so unbelievably hot. You walk outside and are just profusely sweating. And not just a little sweat you are dripping. It is so hot it took my breath away like nothing I have ever experienced before. I thought Florida was hot in the summer but it doesn’t even began to compare to this. We had a few hours before we had to meet again and we found out there was a pool so of course we dropped our things off in our rooms and headed straight there. The pool was on the roof with a view of the city and the ocean with islands peeking out in the background and was soo pretty. The water feel amazing in the heat and we swam around for about an hour before we had to head back. Of course I didn’t put sunscreen on and got burnt because I'm an idiot and forgot that how freaking hot the sun is, but whatcha gonna do; you live and you learn. After a quick shower we headed to the market. Again it is so crazy hot we all looked like zombies. It was so hard to focus because my body was overheating and I was trying not to pass out. I had no idea how much sweat my body could produce until arriving here. The market was definitely an experience. Row after row of people selling fruits and vegetables I have never seen before. We go taste some of the fruits like the snakeskin fruit, jack fruit, and mini bananas. Since a lot of the vendors are selling the same things they would scream their prices at us repeatedly to try and get us to come over. Also there are cats everywhere! I am probably one of the biggest cat people on the planet so I got super excited until most of them looked pretty dead which is obviously very sad but everyone here lives in such poverty they can’t afford to feed animals let alone their families. Also the US views cats and dogs very different then the rest of the world. Pets to us are family members where in many other places they are used for services like protection and are normally not allowed in the house. Another interesting thing is that they break all the cats tails for fashion so it looks like a little ball at the end. In my head I was immediately judgemental then had to stop myself because it is another culture and in the US we do things like crop dogs tails and declaw cats which I’m sure is equally as horrible and looked down on from other people.

After a nice stroll through the produce section we headed to the fish side which lets just say had a lot of smells. Again it is incredibly hot, there is no refrigeration, and mounds of freshly caught fish are laying out to be sold so there are such interesting smells going on. Its times like this where I am thankful for things like volunteering at The Raptor Center or zoology labs where I am gutting rats and cutting things open so I am not very grossed out by the sights or smells. It was interesting to see rows of reef fish like parrotfish and piles of huge tuna. As ocean acidification progresses and we continue to overfish there simply won’t be any of these fish left and fishing communities like the people of Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan are going to take an incredibly hard hit which will be detrimental to a community already in such poverty.

I was wondering how people don’t get sick as I saw raw chicken, covered in flies sitting out it the sun but I was reminded they cook their food very well to kill the bacteria though our guide Mike still said a lot of people suffer from digestive problems. For dinner we stopped at a place in the market that was a restaurant with a few plastic tables right on the water. With KK having an economy so dominated by the fishing industry most restaurants at the market being run by fishing families most of the food sold is seafood that they catch each day. As a vegetarian this made things a little tough. Since this was our first meal Mike ordered us some dishes to share. The only vegetarian things I could eat were white rice, boiled cabbage, and some seaweed but it was still really yummy, those not very filling. I also ordered mango juice that was really good. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a lecture on coral reef ecology and some fish that we should be able to identify then I went back to the room and immediately fell deep asleep.