Kate's Updates. At Anytime. On Anything. From Any Continent.

09 March 2008

[Barking Deer are Yummy!]

Moving right along, I set myself up to work in Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary. We completed 100 interview surveys of villagers that live adjacent to the sanctuary. Interview surveys provide a forum for information exchange to help learn about local attitudes towards dholes and to provide insight on how to best proceed with a project that juxtaposes the native indifference for dholes with a conservation effort to protect them.

The interviews went something like this:
Interviewer: How do you feel about conservation?

Villager: I think all wildlife species should be saved for the next generation.

Interviewer: In the last year have you made any trips into the forest to collect things like mushrooms or to harvest animals?

Villager: Of course! Barking deer are yummy!

A large percentage of respondents (69%) agreed with that statement that “sometimes wildlife cause problems for me and my family.” Elephants, wild pigs, and macaques were listed as the most problematic species. There was no shortage of elephant stories.

We picked up 5 cameras and setup 5 new cameras in the forest:
Camera 1: stomped by angry elephants (the housing is cracked but the film might be salvageable).
Camera 2: Swarmed by a huge nest of red biting ants. My field assistant, LungDaeng, was brave enough to hack it down.
Camera 3: Ripped from the tree, bungee cord hooks unraveled. The camera was found 20m away with the cable lock still attached (and get this)—LOCKED! Um. We setup the cameras with the cables wrapped around the tree, then locked back to the camera in a loop (similar to a bicycle lock). How did the camera get off the tree with the cable still locked?! We think it was magic :)

The other two cameras were untouched, but the batteries were dead. I will develop the film this week. So stay tuned…