A biologist’s work is never done
Sorry to leave you alone in the dark. The past three… well, almost four (whoops!) weeks have been occupied almost exclusively by rapid response team training. As a result, I’ve had very little free time, let alone time to post on my blog. Seeing that this is the primary way in which many of you find out what I’m up to, I hang my head in shame for showing such blatant neglect. Now I have a bit more time… that is, until the next training begins in mid-May. No rest for the wicked.
For those of you who may not know much about this whole “rapid response training” thing (which is likely most of you), allow me to offer a bit more detail. This training session is very much the same as the training in which I participated a few weeks back. It gives people the necessary skills to participate in a deployment of the rapid response team (the team sent out when there has been a snake sighting on an island where a snake should not be). These skills include things like finding snakes in the jungle at night, snake handling, how to interview individuals who have sighted a snake, how to set up an area around the sighting location (i.e., dividing the area into searchable segments), and all other aspects of a deployment. Basically they become lean, mean, snake-fighting machines.
Much of the training involves searching for snakes during the night. This is a skill that’s honed through lots of practice, so it’s important for the searchers to get as much time looking for snakes as possible. Since they’re only here for 3 weeks that means they’re searching almost every night. And so, by default, do we. Thus the reason I haven’t posted (or had much sleep) until this past weekend.
I think what needs to be said about the training overall is that the crew we had was awesome. We had two guys from Saipan (a small island north of here), four from Hawaii, and one from Guam. For the instructors, we had Haldre, Karen, and myself. The Saipan guys, Craig and Joe, are good friends who do a lot with trapping on Saipan. They’re hilarious, hard-working, and great sports for, back home, putting up with what must at times seem like pointless work. The trapping program on Saipan had been ongoing for the past decade. In all that time no snakes have been captured in traps. Not one. So these guys are out there all the time, setting and checking traps, and, so far, never catching a thing. In terms of the brown treesnake problem, that’s a good thing. For their sanity, not so much. However, despite the fact that they haven’t caught anything in the traps, it doesn’t mean they can put their guard down. Trapping is effective for certain size classes, such as mid-sized snakes, but traps rarely catch small snakes. These are the snakes most likely arriving in cargo from Guam (or to be found in other cargo heading God-knows-where).
For the Hawaii crew, we had Keevin, Kyle, Nathan, and Sam. All of these guys are long-time residents of Hawaii: Kyle and Sam from Maui; Nathan and Keevin from Oahu, I believe (sorry, guys, if I got that wrong). I swear, Keevin laughs more than almost any person I’ve met in my life. His laugh is ridiculous, in a good way, and it often borders on a cackle. He actually earned the nickname “Psycho” for his occasionally sinister laugh and morbid fascination with killing brown treesnakes. He very nearly bit the head off of one, but fortunately we stopped him in the nick of time. Kyle is a cool guy, often quiet, but a fast learner when it came to the training, especially with the compass work. He’s also a great fisherman, having caught an octopus barehanded during one weekend. It’s the first fresh octopus I’ve ever had. The only other I’ve tried was last year from a can at room temperature. Let’s just say it was less than appetizing, both in taste and texture. This stuff was kind of spongy, but it was pretty good. Nathan is a really nice guy and he’s got a great sense of humor. His attitude throughout the whole training was always positive and he showed a keen interest in all the activities. Nathan also did a fantastic job in posing for some classic less-than-candid shots of looking over data sheets during one of our mock sightings. Let’s just say people may not buy his overly surprised expression and my pose of raised-eyebrow-while-stroking-goatee-in-thought. Also, I think it should be noted that Nathan earned the Most-Snakes-Captured award for the training period. Sam, the man from Maui, is an awesome guy. He always spoke up with great ideas and his kind, mellow attitude was a welcome addition to the crew. Sam is a big fan of hunting and fishing. Given this, one of our hopes was that we could help him acquire a pig for our end-of-training barbeque. Pigs, yet another introduced species wreaking its own share of havoc across the island, are abundant here, so I have few qualms about snagging a couple for some good eatin.’ Even though, as Samuel L. Jackson has pointed out, the pig is a filthy animal, I have to agree with John Travolta in that “bacon tastes good… pork chops taste good.” True that, Vincent Vega. Unfortunately, there was little time for a pig, so we didn’t get one. Sam has four kids and numerous dogs he uses for hunting. I would love to see his house sometime and, if I get back to Maui someday, I think I will.
Oh, and on an unrelated note (I enjoy rapidly changing subject here since it has been a while since I’ve written and there’s much to tell), I should mention that I’ve been having a bit more success in finding snakes since helping with the rapid response training. On nearly every night search, I have found at least one snake, many of which were in trees. Some of you may remember my frustrations (vented in a previous entry), but, as my aunt predicted, things have improved. I’m still not at the level I’d like to be, but at least I’m finding things with greater consistency.
Now, while I still have barbeques in mind, I have to say that these guys, the whole crew, were insanely good at barbequing. When we had our dinner on Cocos Island, they showed us howlies how it was done. I can honestly say the food they prepared was the best I’ve ever had off a barbeque. They completely put our previous Cocos “barbeque” to shame. What we had attempted before was nothing more than a Smoke-Off with undercooked meat that took far too long to not get done. For those New Hampshire folk reading this, picture the Yankee Smokehouse without the food or house, just the smoke billowing forth in every direction. It was really pathetic (embarrassing, really), especially in comparison to their superior achievement. Their technique was also somewhat unorthodox and nothing I had seen before. They actually threw all the charcoal on top of the grill (“So, you put the meat underneath, hu?!”) and started a fire with paper and dried leaves below. This was a quick burning fire with high flames that heated the coals faster. Once the coals were hot, they dumped them in and began cooking. I’m not sure exactly what they put on the meat, I think it was basically salt, pepper, and some garlic salt… maybe there was some addictive compound mixed with MSG (no BBQ sauce involved), but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t wicked good, by Jesus.
Since I’m on the subject of people, I should definitely mention the two new folks who have joined the brown treesnake project. Well, one is a new employee, while the other is a seasoned grad student with Colorado State University (the primary affiliate with the project, which is appropriate given that CSU is about a mile from the USGS headquarters in Fort Collins). Ginger is the new employee, a fellow “Biologist II,” like most of us. Nebraska is Ginger’s home: land of lofty, snow-capped peaks, leaping mountain goats, and, unless I’m sorely mistaken (which I’m not) the land where yodeling began. Despite the complete lack of arable farming land in Nebraska (all of the Midwest, really), her Dad somehow scrapes by as a potato farmer. Appropriately enough, she’s a big fan of climbing, having worked at the climbing wall in college (and, of course, gone on many field trips to the mighty Nebraskan Alps). She also likes to mountain bike, so you know she can’t be all that bad. I think she, Haldre, and I should start a BTS Mountain Bike Team.
Valerie (“Val Halla” to her friends in the Scandinavia) is the audacious grad student. Her study will be going on throughout the summer, so we’ll get to enjoy her company for a good chunk of time. Val is working on a project involving skinks and how they interact with snakes or something. I guess there’s some sort of scientific purpose to it, but it’s way beyond me. There are a lot of these strange, cryptic calculations involved called “statistics” in which she has “sample sizes” and other odd things. Maybe skinks eat snakes, which would really help us out. All I know is that it’s my sworn duty to aid her in constructing a large temporary barrier in which she can keep these reptilian beasties. I’ll use my weak mind and strong back to get job done, however obliviously I may be to its purpose.
Andy has also been working hard on his own study, which, after much time in conceptual obscurity, is now on a roll. Well, it’s sort of on a roll. He has put a lot of work into things so far, but the mammals he’s targeting aren’t being too cooperative. A couple weeks ago, Andy spent a lot of time (both after normal work hours and during weekends) cutting transects through the jungle on which he has placed traps. Brent, using his manly biceps, aided in some of these efforts. Although Brent nearly passed out from heat exhaustion, Andy, being the intrepid mammalogist he is, kept right on hacking with no lack of energy. All this while wearing a shirt, long camo pants, and his snazzy field hat. I don’t know about you, but I, for one, am impressed.
Anyway, Andy has laid out seven transects through the heat of coconut-infested jungle: an area full of vicious swine, angry coconut crabs, stringing ants, and omnipresent spider webs. It’s the filthy jungle hogs that have presented Andy with the greatest number of perturbations. Each morning when Andy goes to inspect his traps, in which he is hoping to capture rats, he finds several of them smashed, flattened, or torn apart in some fashion. This is almost entirely the work of these cantankerous pigs. Why they would put so much effort into trying to get a tiny piece of coconut (a mere pinch between cheek and gum for these beasts) is beyond me. I wouldn’t even imagine pigs would find coconut all that appetizing. Of course, maybe they just don’t like foreign metal objects strewn across their turf. Whatever the case, they’re causing Andy a fair amount of frustration. To top things off, Andy has caught almost no rodents during his numerous trapping attempts. Even with the jungle-based array of almost 50 trapping points (each with three traps), the rodents are still evading him. The creatures he has been capturing, sometimes in great abundance, are coconut crabs. In fact, Wednesday night he had 4 in one trap! Andy is strongly considering a study involving these beefy crustations. They are around in high numbers and capturing them has proven to be easy. Of course, then the harsh reality of his mammalian obligations come back to him and he realizes that rats must remain the focus. Due to his current state of bad luck (albeit temporary), Andy decided yesterday to take down his current trapping array and move to greener pastures. I have faith he’ll find a good spot, it will just take some time. However, being the serene lad he is, Andy has remained patient and optimistic.
Two wheels are better than four
I have finally gotten off my lazy gluteus and started biking to work. In fact, I’ve been biking quite a lot for the past two weeks. I went out every day last weekend (Friday thru Sunday) and I biked to work Monday, Wednesday, and today. My goal is to ride to work three days a week, hitching a ride with Andy the rest of the time. It’s a good ride, about 28 miles round trip, the hardest part of which is the hill when heading home. The bastard is extremely steep and, although not agonizing, fairly long. I’m definitely panting heavily and sweating buckets whilst my heart rate climbs to approximately 300 bpm once reaching the top. It actually feels good once I have a minute or two of flat recovery road on which I can regain consciousness.
Haldre rode back with me on Wednesday and she’ll be riding with me tomorrow. Part of the reason she wants to ride is because she’s in training for a major adventure race, The Quoll, next weekend in the Cairn Highlands of Australia. This is an epic undertaking and it takes something like 2 or 3 days to complete. She participated in this event last year and her team, along with every other team save 2, didn’t even finish the race. Suffice to say, it’s really tough. So, that’s part of her motivation, the other part being exercise and a fun alternative to driving. Until I’m at the Lance Armstrong physique (the equivalent of Haldre in the male world), I think I’ll skip the major adventure races and keep riding to work. Maybe next year I’ll be ready to kick butt on a major undertaking such as Eco Challenge. Sure.
While discussing mountain biking with Michelle, she told me a hilarious story from her not-too-distant past. She used to mountain bike frequently with a group of friends back when she was in the Australian Army. One of the guys was in incredibly good shape and he always helped push her to improve in all of their physical activities. He sounds kind of like Sergeant Slaughter to me, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, she and this small crew of rabid adventure-seeking outdoor enthusiasts formed an informal group known as “The Gut-Busters.” This sounds like an extremely exclusive group (I think you’ll agree with me when you learn of the initiation requirement). To become an official “Gut-Buster,” you had to pedal your bike uphill without hands… don’t worry, it gets better…and fart without lifting your butt off the seat, all at the same time. Now, any one of these things I could potentially do with practice, but all simultaneously is another thing altogether. Given Michelle’s reputed clumsiness, I’m shocked that she succeeded in doing all this without killing herself. For my part, a lot of beans and cheese would be needed for my initiation to take place. I mean, we’re not talking just any fart, either. This would have to be a toot of sufficient magnitude so the other folks could hear it happen. No easy task.
Freeze Frame
With the added motivation of photo requests from Sheila, I have been using my camera much more in the past month. I’ve been interested in photography for quite a while, but my attempts to get out and shoot were often thwarted by mechanical failures. I first began photography with some seriousness the last couple years of high school, when I took a couple classes on the subject. I learned a decent amount about photographic composition, how to process black and white negatives, create prints, and other practical dark room techniques. Once I went to college, I was using my Dad’s Nikon N90s 35mm SLR. It was a fantastic camera, but, unfortunately, it started to have problems early on. It frequently had trouble reading lenses, which caused all necessary functions (such as focusing, computing aperture, determining shutter speed, and even opening the shutter) to fail. To make things more frustrating, it was completely inconsistent in its failures. Sometimes it would connect to lenses without problems and other times, often when I really needed it to work, it would freeze up. The problem just got worse as time went on. Much of this probably stemmed from the time the camera was stored in an overhead compartment on a family trip (first bad idea). A flight attendant, not paying close attention to what was inside, opened the bin and sent the camera crashing to the floor. After some time with Nikon, the camera seemed fine (although it forever bore a scar in the form of a hairline fracture on part of the body), but it’s likely this incident caused irreparable damage.
At some point, the camera became totally useless. Soon before heading out to Guam, I took the camera down to River’s Camera Shop in Dover, NH to see if it could be fixed. It ended up that repairs would cost around $300 or more. They would also likely involve sending the camera to Nikon, which can take months. Not wanting to be without a camera for so long (or paying so much for something that may break again), I decided another option was necessary. Coincidentally, they happened to have a used N90s on display in the store. It was in great shape and it even had a data back attached to it. The cost was just a little more than what it would cost to repair the damaged one. I bought the used one and, so far, it has been flawless. Someday I’m going to take the plunge and get a digital SLR, however, for now I’m going to experiment more with film.
One of my goals over the past few weeks has been to get some photos of the sunsets here on Guam. Being a tropical island, we have some very cool sunsets. Apparently they are especially spectacular during the wet season when there are more clouds, which adds to the structure and color of the sky (when it’s not entire overcast, that is). Despite it being the dry season, we’ve still had some really nice ones. I’ve managed to get some decent shots, but I’d like to experiment more with filters. I picked up the March edition of Outdoor Photographer recently and they had a helpful article on the use of filters in situations with extreme or highly contrasting light. That’s actually a major problem I’ve found in trying to get decent landscape shots. You can frequently get the ground and your subject (say, a waterfall) nicely exposed, but the sky gets washed out. Then, if you want the sky to look good, everything else is dark. What I’d like to get is what’s called a graduated neutral-density filter. It’s kind of the same concept as glasses with the lens partially shaded at the top (often found on good ol’ Transitions), in that it blocks light from one part of the image (say, the bright sky), while leaving the rest the same. This allows the both the sky and everything else to be exposed in a way that nothing gets washed out or underexposed. On the same concept, I’d like to get a polarization filter (highly recommended by my friends Chris and Lea, both photo buffs themselves) and play around with that. My hope is to get some awesome sunset shots to show all you folks.
I’ve also been taking other photos, some of snakes, some of birds on Cocos Island, plus other things. I’m basically trying to get out and just practice more. I really love taking photos and I think somehow incorporating photography into a job later on would be fantastic. Ideally, I think my dream job would be the traveling field biologist/wildlife photographer. In this job, I would travel to different locations with the goal of locating new herp species and expand the documented range information for others, all the while taking photos of the specimens I encounter. Herp finder/photographer extraordinaire they’d call me. But then I wake up. Blast!
Well, folks, I think the subject of pipedreams is a good note on which to end this entry. Happy Earth Day (it’s every day, you know) to all you folks on the opposite size of the International Dateline! I’ll be hanging out at a free concert with the Beach Boys this Sunday, biking, and maybe snapping some photos in the process. Well, not at the same time. That could be yet another bad idea for the structural integrity of my cameras. Until next time (a shorter interval than previous, I assure you), I bid you adieu.
My dearest bro just posted these photos for me (see comment below). I was thinking of adding some text first, but he had to go and jump the gun on me. No worries, though :) The sunset photos come primarily from the night of the rapid reponse team barbeque. It was held at a place called Jimmy's Beach Bar, located on Tumon Bay. The one with the close-up sun comes from Cocos Island, a small island off the southern coast of Guam where we practice a "mock sighting" (i.e., pretend a snake was seen there and go about the steps involved in a deployment). The crab beast is a coconut crab, a large species of crab that, as you can see, climbs very well (this one was about 8 feet up a tree). They're also insanely strong: they can bust open a coconut without too much trouble. Finally, the big snake with the cloudy eyes is a guy we like to call "The Honker" or "O.D.B." (which stands for "Ol' Dirty Bastard"). He's actually a pretty cool snake, although occasionally grumpy. I can't remember his exact length, but he's a little less than 2.5 meters long and nearly the thickness of a soda can at his widest. Although not terribly venomous, it's beneficial to not get bitten by that guy, seeing that it would hurt like hell. The reason his eyes are clouded over is because he's about to shed. Once he sheds, his eyes will return to their normal clairty, in which case he can easily see (and bite) you. Actually, snakes can be nastier when they're about to shed since they can't see. They therefore have more trouble determining the severity of threats they encounter, which I'd imagine is pretty scary (picture being surrounded elephants while wearing a blindfold).
Anyway, it's due to the rapid response training I mentioned above that it has been so long since I've posted here. However, I'm going to try and finish up a new entry tonight, which I'll post tomorrow. Lofty goals, I know, but with a little luck it should happen.
"As the guy with the fat broadband internet pipes, here are some new pictures the author just sent me. — Joe"
