The Work
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2007
1
12
13
Trip End
Sep 01, 2007
Arurauna,
Brazil
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The work....
The work here is really quite straight forward. We are counting and cataloging species and numbers of individuals within each species. We are checking for richness, abundance, and evenness in the population. We are counting birds, snakes, lizards, and amphibians. We simply go into the field and identify and count these four types of critters. The definition of our work sounds simple and easy, but as you might guess...it's not. It is very complicated and precise.
The team is split into two groups, one Avian (bird), the other Herpetology (snakes, lizards, and amphibians. We just say "ave" (ah-vay) and "herp" for short. We spend the whole day in that group, but switch off frequently day by day. This way we all get a chance to work both projects equally, and the work never becomes tedious or boring. (Yes, researcher burnout is a BIG problem in the bush.)
Here is how we spend our days;
AVIAN PROJECT
The avian project begins at 5:30 am each day. The team is led by Principal Investigator Reginaldo Jose Donatelli, Ph.D, of Sao Paulo State University. We call him Dr. Donatelli in the field, but at dinner we call him Reggie. His grad student assistant is Flavio Kulaif Ubaid. Our boat captain is Gino, but likes to be called Gim. We are studying two different bird habitats, the rio (river), and the cerrado (savannah). The observation times are 2.5 hours at dawn, and 2.5 hours at dusk.
Dr. P on duty
On savannah-day, we walk out onto the Pantanal with our clipboards, binoculars, and cameras. We look for birds. When we see a bird, we identify it and place a tally-mark next to its name on our clipboard species lists. Yes...every single bird is counted. Naturally, we miss a few, but not many. We have field guide-books that list the birds of Brazil with beautiful color sketches. In truth, the birds are much more spectacular live in the field. We hardly ever have to look in the book. Dr. Donatelli and Flavio know all the birds by sight and song. We also take along a birdsong recorder, which we use when we hear a particularly interesting bird singing. There are five of us in the group, and we view and assist each other. Teamwork is paramount. On river-day, we load into a small rowboat and silently pole downriver. Our boat-captain, Gim, is a quiet pantaneiro who breaks into wonderful comedy when slightly provoked. We sight and count the birds in the same fashion that we do on the savannah-day. The camaraderie here is fabulous. We have already established a competition to see who sights the most species of birds, and the most numbers of birds.
Bird project subjects
Yesterdays morning survey logged 388 birds of 80 different species. Dr. Donatelli is a terrific guy and a wonderful professor. He is an expert avian biologist, knowing a bird's species from a glimpse on-wing, or even from hearing their song from afar.
Tiny little fellow
He is quick to smile and laugh at the smallest joke, and when he does, he reminds me of Tony Shaloub from TV and movies. He is a busy professional, but still loves to sit and view all of our photographs, telling us what wonderful scientists we are. He leads our late night card games. A Brazilian game called TRUCCO is an all time favorite. I'm honored to call him mentor and friend.HERPETOLOGY PROJECT (Snakes, Lizards, and Amphibians)
The herp project begins each day at 7:30 am. It is lead by Principal Investigator Ellen Wang of Sao Paulo State University and Mara Cintia Kiefer, Ph,D of the State University of Rio de Janeiro. In the morning, we pile into the back of the truck and venture out to the savannah. Our destination is to visit eight stations of pitfall traps that are in place already. Each station has four traps, one in the middle, and the other three five meters away, in star formation. Stretched and staked between each trap is dense green nylon netting. (See photos) The traps themselves would remind you of a 30 gallon plastic garbage can buried up to the lid in the ground. Here's how they work. The critters are roaming around on the ground. When they bump into the netting, they do not back away or turning around. They usually just follow along the line of the net. Eventually, they will fall into one of the pitfall traps. We collect them the next day. The traps have a little dish of water and a damp towel at the bottom to keep the herp hydrated. Each morning we check the traps. We collect the specimens and place them in specially numbered bags that match the number of the trap. We will take the specimen back to the lab for analysis, tagging (marking), and cataloging. This is done in the afternoon, after lunch and siesta each day. Each live specimen is returned back to the exact location and released the following day. Half of the traps are in low impact areas of the dry forest (cerradao), and the other half are in high impact areas. A high impact area is an area of the forest where the local cattle like to bed down for the night. This is called a cordilheira. The trap area is fenced off to keep the cattle out, but the immediate surrounding area is not. Ellen and Mara are very knowledgeable herpetologists. They are good friends and rattle away in Portuguese constantly. They are very polite, and always explain things to us slowly and concisely so we will understand. Ellen is a Brazilian of Chinese descent. Her grandparents came to Brazil when they were very young. They ventured into a new frontier where they had no family or friends. Mara makes her home in Rio de Janeiro. She insists that she is NOT a carioca because she was NOT born in Rio. (A carioca is a "Rio Girl") Both of these incredible women speak many languages. So far, I've heard Portuguese, English, French, and German, all spoken fluently and will little hesitation. The Herp project is a fascinating study. I leave each day intellectually fulfilled and physically exhausted.
New friends
