So a month has passed and I have been
living the jungle life. A month in the jungle seems a lot longer than it really
is but it’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world. This month has been
hard work but we have made lots of progress with our research.
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| Going into the field Top Left: our 8 month supply of stuff. Bottom Left: My custom-fitted mosquito net! Right: Opening my backpack that has been packed from Canada for 6 months already! It has been on 4 planes in this condition! |
For a quick recap, my research is
interested in determining the densities of gibbon and siamang groups across 3
sections of different forest types. Once we determine primate densities in each
forest type, our data will help elucidate if they prefer one forest type to
another and higher densities in said forest would demonstrate this. We are also
collecting vegetation data within each forest type so that we will be able to
characterize the types of trees found in each forest and what tree
characteristics the primate may be actively selecting.
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| Spatial organization of our 30 vegetation transects in three different forest types |
That is the premise of my research and so
what have we done during this month? Well, so far we have completed collecting
the vegetation data. We spatially organized and laid out 30-vegetation
line-transects (10 in each forest type). For those who don’t understand what I
mean by a transect: a transect is essentially a straight line that is cut
through the forest. However, the cutting of transects is very minimal and it is
just enough to be able to walk. Each transect is 500m long and on each transect
we collect vegetation data for 40 trees. Examples of the type of data I
collected include: tree height (some reach heights over 50 m!), canopy width, %
canopy connectivity, branch sizes etc…. This means we have collected data for a
total of 1200 trees! The work itself is not laborious but it is time consuming
as it takes us about 6-8 hours per transect. Also, getting to and from each
transect can be a nightmare as we are going off-trail the majority of the time
and have to work our way through fallen over trees, massive spines, tangled
vines and much much more! On average, we walked approximately 6-8 km a day,
however it was not a straightforward path like one would walk on the road. Our
6-8 km hike entailed climbing and descending steep-vertical slopes, walking
across landslides with fallen debris, walking through knee-deep mud, hopping
over or crouching under fallen over trees (some trees can have diameters over 3
meters!), and fighting your way through walls of entangled vines. To top this
off, we hiked in 40°C heat with high humidity and a limited water supply. However, a
valuable field lesson one learns while in the field is that half the battle of
the getting through difficult field days is remaining mentally strong. As one
can imagine, these hikes change you as a person and they help build your mental
strength in times of giving up.
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| A typical field day. Bottom right photo: I am looking worried because I had to collect data amongst thorns and spines that were at least 2-3 inches long |
Many people ask me what a day in the forest
for me is like? Well, a day in the forest for me is not complete without ants
in my pants (literally, and ant bites are VERY painful, more so than wasp
stings, but I have also experienced those in the forest), losing one or both
rain-boots (wellies for those English folks) in the mud, getting entangled in
vines, and subsequently landing face first on the ground. As those of you who
play soccer (football) with me or have watched me play, I spend a good majority
of my time rolling on the ground and bouncing back up. Well, not to worry, this
has also been happening in the forest. The field assistants simply laugh at me
and don’t even bother to ask if I am ok as it happens so frequently.
After a long day of work we finally return
back to our camp. Our camp is simple, yet so wonderful. Our camp is a wooden
cabin alongside a beautiful river. The first thing we do when we return to camp
is take off our sweat-drenched clothes and jump into the river for our daily
bath. We relax and decompress in our natural bathtub! After that, we go back up
to camp and we usually enjoy a nice bowl of mie (noodles, even though I am
gluten intolerant! Hahaha) and we spend the rest of our evenings listening to
the field assistants playing guitar, reading a book, playing with the field
station’s cats, Raquel and Lucy, or watch a movie on our laptops. Lastly, my
time spent in the field has allowed me to form special bonds with the field
assistants. They are able to relate to my field experiences and the daily
struggles I encounter more deeply than the average day person would and so
these bonds between us eliminate the need for vocal communication. Instead, a
simple gesture like a grunt, or a smile, or a tired nod of the head will
deliver and express a message and we are all comfortable sitting in each
other’s presence without speaking and just enjoying the sounds of the jungle
and the peacefulness of it.
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| Top Row: Helen relaxing after a long hard day, Lucy in a rainboot, Logga playing guitar Bottom Row: Ricky by the fire cooking our dinner, and Irfan and I getting ready to go out far into the jungle. |
As I have described above, life in the
jungle is simple and basic, but so relaxing as it is free from drama and the
everyday commodities that tend to make our lives more complicated like the Internet.
It is rare that we have any truly exciting events such as special animal sightings,
however, one did occur while we were sleeping. To make a long story short, a
wild elephant tried to break into our camp during the night!! As we were
sleeping we heard crashing sounds and at first I thought it was thieves trying
to break into our camp as our wood wall was smashed in and our clothing lines
outside (with all our clothes) was destroyed. Only later did I understand that
it was a wild elephant that did the damage. This sneaky elephant also happened
to bugger off with our papaya plant! This is both exciting and scary news
because wild elephants are very dangerous and encountering one in the wild
alone is different than the elephants we see in the zoo. However, I find this
event to be more exciting than scary as it reminds me that we are living a
jungle with wild animals even though we don’t get to see them very often.
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| A wild elephant's footprints in the mud |
Please watch and enjoy! :)
http://video.pbs.org/video/2365432375/
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