GIBBON PROJECT IN MALIAU BASIN!!

7/12 – Rest Day at the Studies Center

 

Couldn’t sleep last night because I napped so well!  Got up, went to breakfast, went birdwatching with Sreekar and Le.  Came back, lunch, and loved internet access for a few hours.  Lecture from Rhett on figs, lecture from Charles on more paleontology.  Dinner.  Interesting discussion on evolution and religion and this course.  Nice talk with Molly.  Bed.

 

7/13 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Got up and went gibbon watching!  It was amazing because for once the gibbons were NOT singing.  You can ALWAYS hear them singing when you get up in the morning, but not today, because it was all foggy out.  But I went out with our guide Harbin anyway.  We were walking around for a half hour or so, and I was convinced we wouldn’t see any because there was no sound for us to follow.  But we did see some!  A huge male with a female!  I got some good observations and came up with a project idea.  Yay!

 

Breakfast, project proposals, then wasted time on the internet, half-researching and half-instant-messaging friends until lunch.  Lunch.  Wasted a whole lot of more time on the internet.  Hopefully \the rest of the day will be working out, dinner, project revision presentations, and bed.  More gibbon watching early early early tomorrow morning!

 

7/14 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Another morning of gibbon hunting with Harbin.  We were out in the jungle by 5:30.  We found a really interesting group and watched it for about half an hour!  It was awesome.  Came back, ate breakfast, during which I got some criticism of my hypothesis from my professor, so I spent the next few hours researching.  Then nap.  Then went out searching for gibbons some more.  We didn’t find any, but we did see a WHOLE bunch of long-tailed macaques!  And a giant squirrel!  Awesome.  A lecture from Gary on his phD about dipterocarpacae species distribution based on soil nutrients.  Dinner.  Work on proposals.  Bed.  J

 

7/15 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Today was the most amazing day of observations EVER!!!  Check this out: 

 

AMAZING THINGS SEEN ON THE MORNING OF 7/15

 

·      So many gibbons!  We were following one pair and ended up right in the middle of 4-5 different groups’ territorial songs and displays! Apes screaming and jumping and swinging all over the place!  They even came down pretty close to us and looked at us for a while!  It was unbelievable.

·      A flock of juvenile macaques!

·      A flock of Samba deer!

·      Giant mystery cucumber fruit! (bua akar) (bua = fruit, akar = liana)

·      Cool centipede!

·      Squirrels – regular, pygmy, and giant!

·      Cool bird!  Big grey with some yellow on throat, rounded beak, picking up twigs and moving them around.  Pooped.

 

What an awesome morning.

 

Followed by breakfast, some research, and a nap.  Then lunch, and learning about how to construct phylogenies for our focal taxa – yay, stick insects!  Then a lecture from Ross on cordyceps.

 

7/16 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

A nice day.  Unfortunately, no gibbons.  It rained last night, so they were not calling this morning.  But I still got some good information and nice experience from walking through the woods looking at them.  Saw a really adorable baby long-tailed macaque.  Also saw a frog and heard a flock of Samba deer.  When we went out in the afternoon, we saw a barking deer!  It was crazy!  Made a sound like the roar of a dinosaur!  Then Harbin picked up a leaf and blew and imitated the sound of its baby, so it came really close to us!  It was huge!  Very intimidating, it looked so powerful and muscular.

 

At 5 we had a lecture from Gary on the High Conservation Value approach to industry.  Very interesting stuff.  Dinner.  Then a FABULOUS discussion on “Why care about biodiversity?”  We talked about whether or not there is an intrinsic value to biodiversity, independent on whether or not it is beneficial to humans in the long term, and whether or not that matters.  We talked about how religion motivates people to want to save biodiversity and if that’s a valid argument.  We talked about whether or not it’s hypocritical to want to save the environment and also want to have kids, because the best thing we can do for biodiversity now is control population growth.  Even if we want to save biodiversity simply because we get a feeling when we see how beautiful it is, that may be a selfish impulse to satisfy the human desire for beauty, but it doesn’t really matter, because that feeling is what we act on.  I think I decided that, whether or not saving biodiversity will be practically beneficial to humans (evidence suggests not), it helps me learn compassion.  If I can learn to have compassion for a fungus, or for a family of trees, and be willing to make sacrifices to save these things, and admit that my wants are not necessarily more important than their existence, I will for sure have no trouble admitting that my wants are no more important than other people’s needs.  I think learning to appreciate and be willing to sacrifice for biodiversity is a lesson in compassion, toward nature and even toward other people.  But anyway.  That was a really great discussion, because this whole time we’ve been learning about biodiversity and conservation and just assuming that it’s a good thing; now we really pushed ourselves to figure out why it’s a good thing.  It was great.

 

Bed! J

 

7/17 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Our last full day in the Bornean rainforest! L L L

 

Started out pretty awesome – a successful gibbon morning! J

 

Ended with a last nature walk, swim in the river, watching some sports (badminton and volleyball), dinner, a night-walk, and bed.

 

7/18 – Drive Back to KK

Last gibbon morning.  AMAZING.  First found a pair.  Then found an adult with a juvenile, which was a miracle, because they weren’t calling.  Then an even BIGGER miracle – we thought we were done and we were walking back not even paying attention, and a HUGE lone male swung RIGHT by us near the river’s edge!  CRAZY!!! Ah.  So lucky.  So sad to leave the forest.  L

 

Drove back.  Settled into the room with Molly.  Slept all afternoon and night.  Niiiiiice.