little monster
They're getting smaller. This is Trapelus pallidus, a hatchling we caught while looking for Uromastyx in the Arava valley. The adults are only about twice this size.
Lizard Man's Travels
This site is a journal of my travels and other adventures while I shift from doing postdoctoral research on tree frog ecology in Darwin, Australia, to research on digestive physiology of lizards and bats in Sede Boqer, Israel. Enough friends have been asking me for regular updates on this journey, that I thought this would be the best forum to keeep everyone up to date (including me).
- Return to Darwin
- Litoria bicolor in pandanus
- Cyclorana australis funny
- Magnetic termites
- Story of a puppy
- more good news
- More good news
- Busy week
- Kimberley art 1
- kimberley art 2
- August 2004
- September 2004
- October 2004
- November 2004
- December 2004
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- September 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- January 2008
- Current Posts
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Ein Avdat overlook
Me pondering, monklike, at the entrance to one of the Byzantine caves. Mostly I'm pondering the fact that the path is one-way (up) and the return to Sede Boqer (which you can see in the distance out the mouth of the canyon) will involve a 10km walk through the desert.
Ein Avdat
Farther up the canyon. The path gets narrower and steeper the farther you go. If you look closely, you can see the caves high on the cliff where the monks pondered.
Ein Avdat Algae
I just thought the patterns of the algae here were interesting. Don't really see this much green often here.
Ein Avedat
Ein Avedat is a spring (mostly permanent) about 5km from Sede Boqer, just past the bottom of the wadi. It is a national park also. The canyon here is incredible, and a haven for Egyptian vultures. Bysantine monks used this canyon as a place for contemplation and other monk business.
Michal with Monster
Our first Uromastyx! This little female led us on a merry chase. We caught her using the Thai technique - a simple string snare. It actually took two tries to catch her - the first time she pulled the string, but didn't get caught. Unfortunately, we left a bit too much slack in the line and she ended up about a meter into the burrow. That took a lot of digging, but we eventually got her out. The next couple were a bit easier, though it did take a lot of walking around in the middle of the day in 36C+ heat.
Friday, October 29, 2004
field work
Okay, so I'm sorry about not posting much lately - it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I'll see if I can give the rundown.
The big news is that I finally got things worked out to collect lizards at a site that is relatively nearby, and has lizards. I worked out a meeting at the site with the ranger, Avikhai. Next I had to figure out how to get there. I was going to use the departmental vehicles, but did some math on the costs. Turns out that they charge $0.50 per km to use the departmental vehicles here. My site is about 80km away, so that means about $80 per day for the vehicle! I called Budget, and got a tiny little car for $30 per day (plus gas - about $15 per day), so managed to save a bit. So, for the next 7 days, I commuted to the Arava valley, though the scorpion pass that I talked about a few weeks ago. It's as impressive when you are the driver, as when you are a passenger. I'm glad the car had a short wheel base and good brakes. Those turns are pretty sharp, and steep.
So, I met the ranger at 8am on Wednesday, which meant leaving here at about 6:30am. After doing bat research at night, this was not a pleasant experience. And the scorpion pass is even scarrier first thing in the morning. So, the ranger and I met at a gas station - rather THE gas station in the area - and got in his 4WD ranger vehicle and headed out into the desert. He assured me that my little compact car, with the tiny tires, would go on the roads we traveled. Through wadis, over large rocks, and deep sand. I didn't believe him, but didn't say anything. We went to a place near a group of agriculture fields, near Moshav Iddan, which is right on the Jordan border in the Arava valley, about 30km south of the Dead Sea. We saw a few active burrows, and a lot of empty ones. Apparently the Thai workers in the fields like to eat, well, everything, and have been hunting the lizards pretty efficiently. So, the biologists and ranger decided that it was better for me to collect them and study them, than for the Thai workers to make stew. We wandered around all morning, and found about 25 burrows that were active, all more than 5 km away from the fields. We then set up some of the nets and I headed home.
The next 6 days were about the same. Each morning, sometime between 6am and 7am, I took a volunteer to the site and tried to find lizards. The first day, we sat next to the nets, and waited for the lizards to come out. They didn't. We sat, huddling under the acacias to avoid the sun, in the 36C (97F) heat. All day. Around 3pm, we decided to go look for more burrows for the next day. Day 2 was about the same - no lizards. But we decided to take a page from the Thai cookbook, and use the kind of traps the Thai use - a simple snare. They take a string, tie a slip lasso into it, and stake it to the ground. The ranger and I had found one of these on the first day out. The worry was that it would kill them - either by strangulating them, by causing them to be stuck in the sun and cook (good for Thai food), or being spotted by birds of prey. We decided that was bunk, especially if we checked the traps often enough. So we set about 7 of them.
The next day, we checked the snares and sat at the nets. No lizards. At least until after lunch. Then, on our last round of checking, we found one of the snares tripped, with a lizard in it. Unfortunately, we had left a bit too much slack in the line, and the lizard was about 1.5 meters down the burrow. So we started digging. By hand. Through the rocks. Not a pleasant experience. At one point we realized that we had a sledge hammer, so started 'digging' with that, which mostly involved collapsing a few cm of burrow with the hammer, and then digging the dirt and rocks out by hand. The burrow was about 30cm in diameter and a good half meter or more underground, which means a lot of rocks and dirt to move by hand. After about a half hour, we were far enough down to grab the tail. Uromastyx have large spines on their tail. It is not pleasant to grab one. And they are large and strong, so once you have the tail, you have to pull, hard, to get them out. So we kept digging. after about another hour, we finally had some movement, and the lizard popped out. A middle-sized adult female. With large grins, we headed home, after shortening the strings on the remainind snares.
The next 4 days were much of the same - setting more snares, walking the 3-4km loop several times a day to check them. Sweating in the 35-37 degree heat, and full sun. Days began at 6am and ended between 6 and 7pm. After that time, I had 3 lizards, and had to return the car - a story I'll get back to in a minute. One of them was a monster, coming in at just over 2 kg!
So, after spending 6-8 hours walking around in the sun and 3 hours driving, I returned to Sede Boqer, where there were lots of evening events going on. Most of them were farewell parties, so I wanted to go. We had 3 of those this week, and a couple of other farewell events (seeing someone off from the bus stop, etc.). So the nights were all full also. I think I averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night over the last week. Oh, and there was a wicked volleyball game this week. It went for over 2 hours, and had some new, good, legs going, so it was a good workout. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep, water, and salts. Anyway, the folks who left were some of the more social people here. One student's mother was here for a month, and we had a farewell dinner for her. They're from Colombia, so dinner didn't even start until 9pm. The next night, Felix, a student from Peru who just finished had a farewell party. Lots of dancing, good fun, though a bit sad also because he was leaving. Then Nata, a student from Armenia had her farewell party a couple of nights later. Same idea. By then, there were a lot of glazed looks on people's faces. Just too much.
Okay, so you sort of get the picture of what my week was like. Now back to the story of the car. I had rented it for a week, and had to return it to BeerSheva by 5pm on Tuesday. I went with Michal to the field Tuesday morning (at 6, of course) and got in a full day of field work, before picking up the traps, and coming back to Sede Boqer. We were here just long enough to drop off the stuff, and head for Beer Sheva. When I got to the rental place, which was in a gas station, I drove up to the pump, to re-fill the gas, and realized I had no wallet. It was safely in the pile of field gear in Sede Boqer. So I returned the car, and begged them to charge me a little extra on my car, and give me enough cash to get a bus ride home. Unofortunately, they don't have cash at the rental agency - who uses that for renting a car? They gave me what they had, 2.8 shekels. I had 19.5 shekels, and the bus was somewhere between 21 and 23 shekels - i wasn't sure exactly. So, I headed to the bus station, thinking to myself that I had no ID and maybe not enough money to get a bus ticket, no way to get more, etc. I went to the information booth to find out, and the guy says, "I don't speak english." Ugh. Then something strange happened. He asked me if I spoke spanish, of all things. Well, I've been hanging out with a bunch of S. Americans the last few weeks, including going to several dinners where most of the conversation was in spanish because Lina's mother (see above) and brother were visiting and don't speak english much. So my spanish has improved greatly in the last 3 weeks. In fact, two nights ago, I was invited to play cards, which ended up not being cards, but a Colombian version of Trivial Pursuit. So, Trivial Pursuit is not always easy, and speaking Spanish isn't really my strong suit. Together it was a challenge. I have no idea who Colombian football (soccer, for the gringos) stars are, and my S. American geography and history are pretty weak. Even the easy science questions (what organ produces female hormones) were a challenge because I couldn't understand the question (they don't really teach you how to say 'ovaries' in high school spanish). Fortunately, I got some easy ones, guessed well on some others and even had a bit of luck with the dice. I won, though probably with a bit more help than the others.
Anyway, my spanish has improved at least enough to talk to the information guy about bus schedules. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell me how much a ticket cost. So, there I was, in the bus station, with maybe enough money for a ticket, but at least I knew when the bus was going. I went to the stop, and found Gaston - one of the S. Americans I've been hanging out with, and who had been in the field with me the day before. Saved. I made it back with his help, and even got some sleep that night. Definitely a long week.
Now, I'm working on getting the lizards to eat, and be happy in their cage. Not really an easy thing right now. The weather here is changing - it's getting cooler and threatening to rain. Uromastyx like to be 40C (104F). It's only been about 28C here during the day, and drops to 15 at night. Too bloody cold for them, so i rigged up a set of heat lamps. Then there was a series of mystery electrical problems, so the lamps didn't work. I don't know what they all were, but there were shorts involved, as well as a tricky circuit breaker that looks like it hasn't been tripped, but really has. Anyway, I'm hoping tonight that there will be heat for the monsters, especially since there is definitely rain in the area. We had lightening earlier today (more electrical problems?) and a few drops here and there. It is supposed to rain tonight and in the morning. As long as it doesn't keep me from getting some sleep this week, I don't care how wet it gets.
The big news is that I finally got things worked out to collect lizards at a site that is relatively nearby, and has lizards. I worked out a meeting at the site with the ranger, Avikhai. Next I had to figure out how to get there. I was going to use the departmental vehicles, but did some math on the costs. Turns out that they charge $0.50 per km to use the departmental vehicles here. My site is about 80km away, so that means about $80 per day for the vehicle! I called Budget, and got a tiny little car for $30 per day (plus gas - about $15 per day), so managed to save a bit. So, for the next 7 days, I commuted to the Arava valley, though the scorpion pass that I talked about a few weeks ago. It's as impressive when you are the driver, as when you are a passenger. I'm glad the car had a short wheel base and good brakes. Those turns are pretty sharp, and steep.
So, I met the ranger at 8am on Wednesday, which meant leaving here at about 6:30am. After doing bat research at night, this was not a pleasant experience. And the scorpion pass is even scarrier first thing in the morning. So, the ranger and I met at a gas station - rather THE gas station in the area - and got in his 4WD ranger vehicle and headed out into the desert. He assured me that my little compact car, with the tiny tires, would go on the roads we traveled. Through wadis, over large rocks, and deep sand. I didn't believe him, but didn't say anything. We went to a place near a group of agriculture fields, near Moshav Iddan, which is right on the Jordan border in the Arava valley, about 30km south of the Dead Sea. We saw a few active burrows, and a lot of empty ones. Apparently the Thai workers in the fields like to eat, well, everything, and have been hunting the lizards pretty efficiently. So, the biologists and ranger decided that it was better for me to collect them and study them, than for the Thai workers to make stew. We wandered around all morning, and found about 25 burrows that were active, all more than 5 km away from the fields. We then set up some of the nets and I headed home.
The next 6 days were about the same. Each morning, sometime between 6am and 7am, I took a volunteer to the site and tried to find lizards. The first day, we sat next to the nets, and waited for the lizards to come out. They didn't. We sat, huddling under the acacias to avoid the sun, in the 36C (97F) heat. All day. Around 3pm, we decided to go look for more burrows for the next day. Day 2 was about the same - no lizards. But we decided to take a page from the Thai cookbook, and use the kind of traps the Thai use - a simple snare. They take a string, tie a slip lasso into it, and stake it to the ground. The ranger and I had found one of these on the first day out. The worry was that it would kill them - either by strangulating them, by causing them to be stuck in the sun and cook (good for Thai food), or being spotted by birds of prey. We decided that was bunk, especially if we checked the traps often enough. So we set about 7 of them.
The next day, we checked the snares and sat at the nets. No lizards. At least until after lunch. Then, on our last round of checking, we found one of the snares tripped, with a lizard in it. Unfortunately, we had left a bit too much slack in the line, and the lizard was about 1.5 meters down the burrow. So we started digging. By hand. Through the rocks. Not a pleasant experience. At one point we realized that we had a sledge hammer, so started 'digging' with that, which mostly involved collapsing a few cm of burrow with the hammer, and then digging the dirt and rocks out by hand. The burrow was about 30cm in diameter and a good half meter or more underground, which means a lot of rocks and dirt to move by hand. After about a half hour, we were far enough down to grab the tail. Uromastyx have large spines on their tail. It is not pleasant to grab one. And they are large and strong, so once you have the tail, you have to pull, hard, to get them out. So we kept digging. after about another hour, we finally had some movement, and the lizard popped out. A middle-sized adult female. With large grins, we headed home, after shortening the strings on the remainind snares.
The next 4 days were much of the same - setting more snares, walking the 3-4km loop several times a day to check them. Sweating in the 35-37 degree heat, and full sun. Days began at 6am and ended between 6 and 7pm. After that time, I had 3 lizards, and had to return the car - a story I'll get back to in a minute. One of them was a monster, coming in at just over 2 kg!
So, after spending 6-8 hours walking around in the sun and 3 hours driving, I returned to Sede Boqer, where there were lots of evening events going on. Most of them were farewell parties, so I wanted to go. We had 3 of those this week, and a couple of other farewell events (seeing someone off from the bus stop, etc.). So the nights were all full also. I think I averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night over the last week. Oh, and there was a wicked volleyball game this week. It went for over 2 hours, and had some new, good, legs going, so it was a good workout. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep, water, and salts. Anyway, the folks who left were some of the more social people here. One student's mother was here for a month, and we had a farewell dinner for her. They're from Colombia, so dinner didn't even start until 9pm. The next night, Felix, a student from Peru who just finished had a farewell party. Lots of dancing, good fun, though a bit sad also because he was leaving. Then Nata, a student from Armenia had her farewell party a couple of nights later. Same idea. By then, there were a lot of glazed looks on people's faces. Just too much.
Okay, so you sort of get the picture of what my week was like. Now back to the story of the car. I had rented it for a week, and had to return it to BeerSheva by 5pm on Tuesday. I went with Michal to the field Tuesday morning (at 6, of course) and got in a full day of field work, before picking up the traps, and coming back to Sede Boqer. We were here just long enough to drop off the stuff, and head for Beer Sheva. When I got to the rental place, which was in a gas station, I drove up to the pump, to re-fill the gas, and realized I had no wallet. It was safely in the pile of field gear in Sede Boqer. So I returned the car, and begged them to charge me a little extra on my car, and give me enough cash to get a bus ride home. Unofortunately, they don't have cash at the rental agency - who uses that for renting a car? They gave me what they had, 2.8 shekels. I had 19.5 shekels, and the bus was somewhere between 21 and 23 shekels - i wasn't sure exactly. So, I headed to the bus station, thinking to myself that I had no ID and maybe not enough money to get a bus ticket, no way to get more, etc. I went to the information booth to find out, and the guy says, "I don't speak english." Ugh. Then something strange happened. He asked me if I spoke spanish, of all things. Well, I've been hanging out with a bunch of S. Americans the last few weeks, including going to several dinners where most of the conversation was in spanish because Lina's mother (see above) and brother were visiting and don't speak english much. So my spanish has improved greatly in the last 3 weeks. In fact, two nights ago, I was invited to play cards, which ended up not being cards, but a Colombian version of Trivial Pursuit. So, Trivial Pursuit is not always easy, and speaking Spanish isn't really my strong suit. Together it was a challenge. I have no idea who Colombian football (soccer, for the gringos) stars are, and my S. American geography and history are pretty weak. Even the easy science questions (what organ produces female hormones) were a challenge because I couldn't understand the question (they don't really teach you how to say 'ovaries' in high school spanish). Fortunately, I got some easy ones, guessed well on some others and even had a bit of luck with the dice. I won, though probably with a bit more help than the others.
Anyway, my spanish has improved at least enough to talk to the information guy about bus schedules. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell me how much a ticket cost. So, there I was, in the bus station, with maybe enough money for a ticket, but at least I knew when the bus was going. I went to the stop, and found Gaston - one of the S. Americans I've been hanging out with, and who had been in the field with me the day before. Saved. I made it back with his help, and even got some sleep that night. Definitely a long week.
Now, I'm working on getting the lizards to eat, and be happy in their cage. Not really an easy thing right now. The weather here is changing - it's getting cooler and threatening to rain. Uromastyx like to be 40C (104F). It's only been about 28C here during the day, and drops to 15 at night. Too bloody cold for them, so i rigged up a set of heat lamps. Then there was a series of mystery electrical problems, so the lamps didn't work. I don't know what they all were, but there were shorts involved, as well as a tricky circuit breaker that looks like it hasn't been tripped, but really has. Anyway, I'm hoping tonight that there will be heat for the monsters, especially since there is definitely rain in the area. We had lightening earlier today (more electrical problems?) and a few drops here and there. It is supposed to rain tonight and in the morning. As long as it doesn't keep me from getting some sleep this week, I don't care how wet it gets.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Busy week
Okay, so things are moving along quickly right now. I managed to process all of the bat samples, and am just waiting for them to dry before sending them on to Madison for analysis. I'm looking forward to getting the first datapoint. It has been a bit of an adventure trying to get the equipment to do the processing. We had to borrow time on a centrifuge, but the owners of the centrifuge were not too excited about us using their good machine to filter our samples, because it takes 2 hours of centrifugation, and they rely on this machine. So they tried to give us their old machine. We plugged it in and turned it on. It started making strange noises, started walking around on the benchtop, then the top blew off. Okay, actually it was only the logo, but it still looked like the thing was going to explode. After that, they let me use the good machine, but only late at night after everyone else had gone home.
The really good news is that I finally have permission, and a plan, to try catching lizards again. the nature reserves guy finally called, and put me in touch with a ranger who will need to go with me. I'll be going on Wednesday to start the collecting process again. Cross your fingers. I'm going to be renting a car for the experience, so I'll get to try my hand at negotiating the Israeli roads (and drivers!). Actually, the roads are generally good, it's just the drivers that are dangerous, and the fact that the signs are usually in hebrew. I'll take a good map - in both languages.
The other big craziness around here this week is the beginning of the semester. Lots of new students around. Also several old timers leaving, which is sad. It has resulted in several farewell dinners in a row. good food, at least, if not necessarily the happiest of times. At least everyone is happy for the folks who get to leave after a long stay here. It does get hard to be a student here because of the limited opportunity for social entertainment.
All of this craziness resulted in some strange happenings. I found out from a confused secretary that I sent two applications to one job opening in Minnesota. Oops.
I did manage to take a long walk on Saturday, to a local park a few kms up the road. It is called Ein Avdat - a nearly permanent spring in a spectacular canyon. There are also some old Byzantine monk meditation caves high up in the canyons. Very spectacular. I'll try to post some of those photos soon. The only problem with that walk, was the length. There is an impressive set of stairs and ladders cut into the cliffs from the spring at the bottom of the canyon, to the top. the problem is that they are one-way, so when you get to the top, you have to find your own way back to town (or your car at the bottom). This is not a problem when the busses are running, or if you have a car around, but I had neither. so I had a long walk home across the desert. Very beautiful, though. I ended up walking for about 5 hours, went down, up, down and up, the 250m elevation change, and covered about 15km of trails (which weren't exactly flat) and open desert. Oh, and it was a hot day. Beautiful, though.
The really good news is that I finally have permission, and a plan, to try catching lizards again. the nature reserves guy finally called, and put me in touch with a ranger who will need to go with me. I'll be going on Wednesday to start the collecting process again. Cross your fingers. I'm going to be renting a car for the experience, so I'll get to try my hand at negotiating the Israeli roads (and drivers!). Actually, the roads are generally good, it's just the drivers that are dangerous, and the fact that the signs are usually in hebrew. I'll take a good map - in both languages.
The other big craziness around here this week is the beginning of the semester. Lots of new students around. Also several old timers leaving, which is sad. It has resulted in several farewell dinners in a row. good food, at least, if not necessarily the happiest of times. At least everyone is happy for the folks who get to leave after a long stay here. It does get hard to be a student here because of the limited opportunity for social entertainment.
All of this craziness resulted in some strange happenings. I found out from a confused secretary that I sent two applications to one job opening in Minnesota. Oops.
I did manage to take a long walk on Saturday, to a local park a few kms up the road. It is called Ein Avdat - a nearly permanent spring in a spectacular canyon. There are also some old Byzantine monk meditation caves high up in the canyons. Very spectacular. I'll try to post some of those photos soon. The only problem with that walk, was the length. There is an impressive set of stairs and ladders cut into the cliffs from the spring at the bottom of the canyon, to the top. the problem is that they are one-way, so when you get to the top, you have to find your own way back to town (or your car at the bottom). This is not a problem when the busses are running, or if you have a car around, but I had neither. so I had a long walk home across the desert. Very beautiful, though. I ended up walking for about 5 hours, went down, up, down and up, the 250m elevation change, and covered about 15km of trails (which weren't exactly flat) and open desert. Oh, and it was a hot day. Beautiful, though.
Saturday, October 16, 2004
mid-October
It has been an interesting few days. Wednesday was a bit like Christmas, not because of the weather, which is getting cooler, but because of all of the great things that came in the mail, and all the good stuff I got in Beer Sheva. First, the mail. I got a care package from ArmyGirl. It was full of essentials: a huge pile of bubblegum - I might have to start bubble-blowing competitions around here - a CD of very creepy noises for Halloween, some glow-in-the-dark plastic scorpions (much better than the real thing in your shoe!), highly prized ziplock bags, and a great jack-o-lantern pair of boxers. I won't guess how she knew that I needed a pair of those, but they are much appreciated.
I also got my absentee ballot for the US presidential election. I was getting a bit nervous about whether it would arrive in time for me to get it back by election day, but it seems to have come pretty quickly. I immediately filled it out and put it in the mail the next day. Wisconsin's ballot is nice and easy - no possibility of chads, hanging or not, just complete the arrow pointing to the candidate you're voting for. I didn't notice whether it said 'electors for' or just the actual presidential candidates. I've been reading up on the electoral college system in the US. Quite interesting really. It makes a lot more sense (I think) after figuring out the rationale behind it. Basically, the idea is to make sure that the president gets elected both by enough people, and by a geographically distributed group of people. It also has some interesting checks, like the electors can't vote for both a president and a vice president from their own state, but must vote for at least one person from another state. Quite interesting. I'm a bit less against it after reading more about it. I feel at least a little relief at getting my ballot in the mail. Interestingly, there was a group of people here who watched the final debate live (our student club has a satellite TV connection), but none of the people who did were from the US.
On Wednesday, I also made it to Beer Sheva to run a bunch of errands. I sent off my visa application for staying here more than 3 months. I even had a visit to the bank where there were no hassles, and no language related issues of communication. On the way back, I got to stop at the shouk, and found a guy selling fresh dates. I love dates, and have finally found a place to get them. Apparently, this is the middle of date season right now. So I bought a huge bag of them and have been munching ever since. The shouk is a great place for produce.
I also managed to get a toaster oven finally. It's possible to get one from the student union here, for a small deposit. I got really lucky, too, because the one I ended up with is practically brand new. The previous owner didn't have it long, and was mostly gone, so never used it. the toaster ovens here are a bit bigger than what I'm used to - big enough that it is possible to really use them as an oven, which is nice because I don't have an oven, just a hot plate. I immediately made toast, and followed it up with some dates.
I also managed to get some work done on Wednesday and ran experiments on two bats. That went pretty smoothly. When we run the bat experiments, we have to do it during the bats' activity period, so we can't start until dark (about 18:00 right now), so don't finish until about 23:00. After the experiments, I packed up my new toaster and headed home. Along the way, I ran into a fox (not sure what kind - will have to get back to you on that), and some friends watching it. Lina and her mother, who is visiting from Colombia, saw me with my toaster under one arm and my laptop under the other, took pity on me and invited me in for dinner, which, being Colombians, they had just finished themselves, even though it was 11:00 pm. So we ate and chatted in a mix of spanish and english (mostly spanish from them, mostly english from me). I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a lot more spanish while in Israel that I will learn hebrew. While we were talking we had a steady parade of animals roam through. The fox walked past again, followed by 2 cats and a dog which each decided to take up residence in Lina's living room. At least they were friendly, though apparently the dog only speaks russian. Somewhere between the dog's first entrance and the second cat, we decided we need to go to Sinai (once the fallout from the bomg attacks calm down a bit), and I need to visit them in Colombia. Not sure when on either of those, but they could both be interesting trips.
I also got my absentee ballot for the US presidential election. I was getting a bit nervous about whether it would arrive in time for me to get it back by election day, but it seems to have come pretty quickly. I immediately filled it out and put it in the mail the next day. Wisconsin's ballot is nice and easy - no possibility of chads, hanging or not, just complete the arrow pointing to the candidate you're voting for. I didn't notice whether it said 'electors for' or just the actual presidential candidates. I've been reading up on the electoral college system in the US. Quite interesting really. It makes a lot more sense (I think) after figuring out the rationale behind it. Basically, the idea is to make sure that the president gets elected both by enough people, and by a geographically distributed group of people. It also has some interesting checks, like the electors can't vote for both a president and a vice president from their own state, but must vote for at least one person from another state. Quite interesting. I'm a bit less against it after reading more about it. I feel at least a little relief at getting my ballot in the mail. Interestingly, there was a group of people here who watched the final debate live (our student club has a satellite TV connection), but none of the people who did were from the US.
On Wednesday, I also made it to Beer Sheva to run a bunch of errands. I sent off my visa application for staying here more than 3 months. I even had a visit to the bank where there were no hassles, and no language related issues of communication. On the way back, I got to stop at the shouk, and found a guy selling fresh dates. I love dates, and have finally found a place to get them. Apparently, this is the middle of date season right now. So I bought a huge bag of them and have been munching ever since. The shouk is a great place for produce.
I also managed to get a toaster oven finally. It's possible to get one from the student union here, for a small deposit. I got really lucky, too, because the one I ended up with is practically brand new. The previous owner didn't have it long, and was mostly gone, so never used it. the toaster ovens here are a bit bigger than what I'm used to - big enough that it is possible to really use them as an oven, which is nice because I don't have an oven, just a hot plate. I immediately made toast, and followed it up with some dates.
I also managed to get some work done on Wednesday and ran experiments on two bats. That went pretty smoothly. When we run the bat experiments, we have to do it during the bats' activity period, so we can't start until dark (about 18:00 right now), so don't finish until about 23:00. After the experiments, I packed up my new toaster and headed home. Along the way, I ran into a fox (not sure what kind - will have to get back to you on that), and some friends watching it. Lina and her mother, who is visiting from Colombia, saw me with my toaster under one arm and my laptop under the other, took pity on me and invited me in for dinner, which, being Colombians, they had just finished themselves, even though it was 11:00 pm. So we ate and chatted in a mix of spanish and english (mostly spanish from them, mostly english from me). I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a lot more spanish while in Israel that I will learn hebrew. While we were talking we had a steady parade of animals roam through. The fox walked past again, followed by 2 cats and a dog which each decided to take up residence in Lina's living room. At least they were friendly, though apparently the dog only speaks russian. Somewhere between the dog's first entrance and the second cat, we decided we need to go to Sinai (once the fallout from the bomg attacks calm down a bit), and I need to visit them in Colombia. Not sure when on either of those, but they could both be interesting trips.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Sede Boqer sports
It's been an interesting week of 'sports' here. The weekly volleyball game has started up again. Unfortunately, this week, we showed up at the gym on Saturday night, and it was pitch black. No lights. Apparently the power was out on that block. Because it was still the holidays, there was no one to call. We rummaged around the fuse box by the light of a cell phone for a while until someone pointed out that the next building was dark also. We couldn't even play by moonlight because the moon didn't come up until much later. Ugh.
So, we retired to the ping pong table back in the student lounge in the apartments. Ping pong tables aren't quite so convenient for 8 people. We ended up playing a version where there is a line of people on each side, then after you hit, you run to the other side. If you miss, you're out, and it goes down to the last 2 who play for a point. Points accumulate, etc. It's a bit of a dizzying game. We tried changing directions, but that just resulted in the world spinning around the other way. After that, we tried standing still and letting the table spin around, but that didn't really work either. It was good fun, though.
On Sunday, we decided to try to try playing volleyball again, but thought maybe it would be better to try while the sun was still up. We got to the gym, and saw lights on - good sign. Then, there was a Lord of the Flies scene where a tribe of little kids swirled around the gym floor bouncing basketballs. Turns out they have practice at 4:00, followed by slightly bigger kids at 6:00, then even bigger kids after that. So, we went on a quest to find a place we could play. We tried the soccer pitch, thinking that the goals there were about the right height. If you haven't seen the photo, go back a few pages and have a look.
Next, we tried the tennis/basketball courts. Turns out that there are holes in the court for poles for a net (presumably the tennis nets take the same kind of pole as the volleyball nets), and there was much rejoicing. There were even lines marked for a volleyball court. Then we tried to convince the folks at the gym to let us take the net to the tennis courts. No luck, can't do that, wouldn't be proper. At this point, several of our number we're going into obvious signs of volleyball withdrawal and were making strange twitching motions, punctuated by an occasional leap as if for a grand spike. So we decided to play anyway. Without a net. We lined up 5 on 5, and started playing as if there were a net. It made for some interesting calls on whether the ball would have gone over the net. It is also surprisingly disorienting when a nice set goes up and there isn't a net there. The hits that would have hovered just over the net made for some interesting tangles. There were only a few points where someone moved so far past the net that they could have easily played for the other team.
Needless to say, we got some strange looks from the people who showed up to play tennis on the next court. And I think we scared the high school kids who wanted to play basketball. They sort of hovered around the court for a while with puzzled looks on their faces, and then wandered off to play a makeshift frisbee game on the tiny plot of grass nearby.
I hope the electricity is on for next week's game.
So, we retired to the ping pong table back in the student lounge in the apartments. Ping pong tables aren't quite so convenient for 8 people. We ended up playing a version where there is a line of people on each side, then after you hit, you run to the other side. If you miss, you're out, and it goes down to the last 2 who play for a point. Points accumulate, etc. It's a bit of a dizzying game. We tried changing directions, but that just resulted in the world spinning around the other way. After that, we tried standing still and letting the table spin around, but that didn't really work either. It was good fun, though.
On Sunday, we decided to try to try playing volleyball again, but thought maybe it would be better to try while the sun was still up. We got to the gym, and saw lights on - good sign. Then, there was a Lord of the Flies scene where a tribe of little kids swirled around the gym floor bouncing basketballs. Turns out they have practice at 4:00, followed by slightly bigger kids at 6:00, then even bigger kids after that. So, we went on a quest to find a place we could play. We tried the soccer pitch, thinking that the goals there were about the right height. If you haven't seen the photo, go back a few pages and have a look.
Next, we tried the tennis/basketball courts. Turns out that there are holes in the court for poles for a net (presumably the tennis nets take the same kind of pole as the volleyball nets), and there was much rejoicing. There were even lines marked for a volleyball court. Then we tried to convince the folks at the gym to let us take the net to the tennis courts. No luck, can't do that, wouldn't be proper. At this point, several of our number we're going into obvious signs of volleyball withdrawal and were making strange twitching motions, punctuated by an occasional leap as if for a grand spike. So we decided to play anyway. Without a net. We lined up 5 on 5, and started playing as if there were a net. It made for some interesting calls on whether the ball would have gone over the net. It is also surprisingly disorienting when a nice set goes up and there isn't a net there. The hits that would have hovered just over the net made for some interesting tangles. There were only a few points where someone moved so far past the net that they could have easily played for the other team.
Needless to say, we got some strange looks from the people who showed up to play tennis on the next court. And I think we scared the high school kids who wanted to play basketball. They sort of hovered around the court for a while with puzzled looks on their faces, and then wandered off to play a makeshift frisbee game on the tiny plot of grass nearby.
I hope the electricity is on for next week's game.
Holidays over
So the holiday season seems to be over for a while. It's been several weeks of holidays now, and people are finally back to work. Most seem to be sort of walking around in a daze, trying to re-orient. It feels a bit like January 2 in the US - the first days after a long break.
Not much of interest has been happening. I've mostly been trying to push things along slowly, and been trying to get some job applications out the door. Looks like a good season for jobs. I've got 17 lined up to apply for, spanning the whole of the US, from Seattle to Los Angeles, to Texas, to Florida to Connecticut to Michigan and Iowa. Not much right in the middle, though there are good ones in Colorado and Wyoming too. There are about 5 that would be great, and most of the rest would probably be quite good as well. We'll see if I get any interviews. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Let's see, on the Australian front, not much. The elections came at a pretty lousy time for the grant cycle. Normally the Parliament would be voting on the recommended proposals right now, so we'd be hearing in the next week or so. Instead, there was an election this weekend, which is going to delay things for a while. We're hoping to hear about the grant the first week of November.
On the lizard front, well... Still haven't actually talked with the guy at the Nature Reserves authority, but I have heard second hand from him. Apparently, he's got a spot lined up for us, and wanted to go this week to do some collecting, but the ranger that is supposed to be with us is doing his military duty this week. Ugh. We're trying to work something out. I wonder if I'll ever actually talk to this guy with the unpronounceable name - Dror. Looks innoncent enough, but the hebrew 'r' is not easy for english speakers. It's a lot like the french 'r' - sort of a 'uwrwah' sound. Try putting two of those together with an 'o' in between and it sounds like you suddenly forgot what you were saying in mid word. The first time I heard it, I just blinked. Hebrew speakers have the same reaction when I try to say it. Oh well.
I'm pretty nervous about getting these lizards soon for two reasons. First, the weather is changing. It's definitely starting to feel like autumn here. It's been increasingly cloudy, and today it rained. Well, there was water coming out of the sky in drops. It was almost possible to count how many drops fell, but they did fall. I think the only way to measure the amount would be to measure the distance between the drop marks in the dust. But it was rain. Along with the moisture comes cooler temperatures. It's been consistently 25C (75F) during the day and 16C (60F) at night. Too bloody cold for cold blooded animals. My salvation is that the Arava valley is much hotter than here, but I'm still very worried. A cold snap in the valley now would send them into the burrows for good. So, I'm a bit nervous.
The other reason I'm worried is that I want to get the experiments done with them before going back to Australia in December. It will take a good month to do that (if things go smoothly, which they won't, if Murphy has his say), and a couple of weeks of acclimation to captivity. That doesn't leave me much slack. It's going to be tight.
I suppose there is another issue related to the weather also. I'm not sure how warm I can keep their outdoor enclosure. I've got a bunch of heat lamps set up, but don't know if I'll be able to keep them warm enough to keep them out and active if it gets cold. I also don't know how temperature will affect the experiments we're doing. Argh.
The bat work is moving along slowy also. I'm still waiting for people to return so I can use their centrifuge to process samples. (at some point, I'll describe the actually process here, but not today) I'm also still waiting for some capillary tubes. Turns out that it is really hard to get heparinized capillary tubes in this country. Not sure why - I'm sure that they are used. The ones I ordered last month are supposed to arrive in December. Maybe. I just found out today because everyone has been on holiday for most of the last month, and not returning phone calls or responding to orders, etc. I may call one of you to order some capillary tubes for me and ship them here. It's bound to be faster than ordering them directly.
Not much of interest has been happening. I've mostly been trying to push things along slowly, and been trying to get some job applications out the door. Looks like a good season for jobs. I've got 17 lined up to apply for, spanning the whole of the US, from Seattle to Los Angeles, to Texas, to Florida to Connecticut to Michigan and Iowa. Not much right in the middle, though there are good ones in Colorado and Wyoming too. There are about 5 that would be great, and most of the rest would probably be quite good as well. We'll see if I get any interviews. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Let's see, on the Australian front, not much. The elections came at a pretty lousy time for the grant cycle. Normally the Parliament would be voting on the recommended proposals right now, so we'd be hearing in the next week or so. Instead, there was an election this weekend, which is going to delay things for a while. We're hoping to hear about the grant the first week of November.
On the lizard front, well... Still haven't actually talked with the guy at the Nature Reserves authority, but I have heard second hand from him. Apparently, he's got a spot lined up for us, and wanted to go this week to do some collecting, but the ranger that is supposed to be with us is doing his military duty this week. Ugh. We're trying to work something out. I wonder if I'll ever actually talk to this guy with the unpronounceable name - Dror. Looks innoncent enough, but the hebrew 'r' is not easy for english speakers. It's a lot like the french 'r' - sort of a 'uwrwah' sound. Try putting two of those together with an 'o' in between and it sounds like you suddenly forgot what you were saying in mid word. The first time I heard it, I just blinked. Hebrew speakers have the same reaction when I try to say it. Oh well.
I'm pretty nervous about getting these lizards soon for two reasons. First, the weather is changing. It's definitely starting to feel like autumn here. It's been increasingly cloudy, and today it rained. Well, there was water coming out of the sky in drops. It was almost possible to count how many drops fell, but they did fall. I think the only way to measure the amount would be to measure the distance between the drop marks in the dust. But it was rain. Along with the moisture comes cooler temperatures. It's been consistently 25C (75F) during the day and 16C (60F) at night. Too bloody cold for cold blooded animals. My salvation is that the Arava valley is much hotter than here, but I'm still very worried. A cold snap in the valley now would send them into the burrows for good. So, I'm a bit nervous.
The other reason I'm worried is that I want to get the experiments done with them before going back to Australia in December. It will take a good month to do that (if things go smoothly, which they won't, if Murphy has his say), and a couple of weeks of acclimation to captivity. That doesn't leave me much slack. It's going to be tight.
I suppose there is another issue related to the weather also. I'm not sure how warm I can keep their outdoor enclosure. I've got a bunch of heat lamps set up, but don't know if I'll be able to keep them warm enough to keep them out and active if it gets cold. I also don't know how temperature will affect the experiments we're doing. Argh.
The bat work is moving along slowy also. I'm still waiting for people to return so I can use their centrifuge to process samples. (at some point, I'll describe the actually process here, but not today) I'm also still waiting for some capillary tubes. Turns out that it is really hard to get heparinized capillary tubes in this country. Not sure why - I'm sure that they are used. The ones I ordered last month are supposed to arrive in December. Maybe. I just found out today because everyone has been on holiday for most of the last month, and not returning phone calls or responding to orders, etc. I may call one of you to order some capillary tubes for me and ship them here. It's bound to be faster than ordering them directly.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Next holiday
This week we had the holiday called something like 'Sukot'. There are a lot of holidays this month (which makes it yet harder to get anything done, but is good if you can do a bit of touring around the country). This one is a celebration of the first few days when the jews left Egypt and started to wander around the desert. Apparently the first 8 days were hard, and were spent in little tents called something like 'suka'. So the holiday lasts 8 days, and people build little outdoor huts and spend most of their time in them, especially meals and prayers and sleeping. it's pretty interesting seeing what people build. The usual hut is a square frame, with sides of anything from plastic tarps, to palm fronds. There is usually a covering on the floor, and plenty of pillows - actually, it's a bit like a cross between a bedouin tent and an ice fishing shanty (with one side missing). My neighbors have strung up what looks like a parachute over their porch and have been sleeping outside.
I've been spending a lot of time in the lab. The bat research is moving along. I'm now as far as I can go until the holiday is over. I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive, which won't happen until after the holidays (postal service is sporadic this week, and the university is completely shut down, including complete shutoff of air conditioning, and mail service). I'm also waiting for some people to return from the holidays so I can use their centrifuge to process the blood samples I've been collecting. So, now I wait, and work on writing some manuscripts, and a large pile of job applications, and try not to get so bored I slip into a coma. The other problem with all these holidays, is that the bus service is pretty sporadic, so unless I can catch a ride with someone, I'm stuck here. Of course, even if I could go somewhere, I wouldn't be able to do anything because everything is shut for the holidays. At least in this part of the country. I'm sure Tel Aviv is different.
I did manage to get out yesterday with Carmi and a visiting bat person. We went into the Arava valley (the rift valley) to make some recordings of bat echolocation signals. We went the scenic route, which apparently used to be the only route between Beer Sheva and Eilat. Wow. The dropoff into the rift valley is truly awe-inspiring, and more than a bit scary to drive. We went down by way of the Aqribbim or scorpion pass, which apparently was an ancient Nabatean route out of the valley, and was later used by the Romans. It's not easy to get out of the valley, so the routes are well worn and ancient. The road looks like there is no way two cars can pass, and it would be a challenge for anything bigger than compacts to do it. The dropoff is basically a cliff with switchbacks on it. It drops a lot, I'd guess maybe 2000-3000 feet, and has about 20 switchbacks. They are so tight that the curves are more than 180 degrees. Looking down from the top, you can see the curves of about a dozen switchbacks - amazing. There was no way to get a photo of this - too grand a scale. The edge of the road was lined with rusted out barrels filled with rocks and dirt. I'm not sure why - there is no way that they would stop anything bigger than a pushcart. On several curves, there was a pile of rusted car wrecks several hundred feet below as testimony to how dangerous the road is. It is impossible to tell how old they were and some could be several decades old because there is no way to get them out. Every time I go to the rift valley, I'm absolutely in awe of the landscape.
After succesfully navigating the Aqribbim, we went to Hazeva, where there is a bit of a research station, and where I hope to be able to collect Uromastyx, if I ever get new permits. The Nature Reserves biologist seems to have evaporated off the face of the planet. No one seems to be able to get in touch with him, and he is supposed to be working during the holidays because a lot of Israelis go camping during Sukot (sort of like wandering the desert for 40 years, only the 8 day version). Anyway, we drove around in an area with a lot of acacias, went 'ooh' and 'aahh' at the scenery and temperature (it's bloody hot down there below sea level), then went to a small reservoir to set up to record bats.
The reservoir looked a lot like a small pond in a park, and had signs posted around saying how dangerous it is to swim there. Dangerous because there is water there, not because of any particular hazards in the water. There was a nice lawn around the pond, and lots of date palms (it's date season here right now). We set up an array of fancy microphones and equipment to record the echolocation calls of bats, and some mist nets to catch the bats to see what they were. Unfortunately, the two car batteries we brought to run the fancy equipment were both flat, so we spent the first half hour of darkness recharging one with jumper cables attached to the car. After a while, the bats came in and cooperated nicely by foraging right in front of the microphone arrays. Unfortunately, there was a very bright lamp lighting the park, so the bats could see the mist nets, and avoided them. The only one we caught was one of the Egyptian fruit bats I've been working on, which wasn't terribly interesting for the echolocation stuff. A few hours of recording and we packed up and went home the less scenic way, which isn't nearly as terrifying as the Aqribbim.
I've been spending a lot of time in the lab. The bat research is moving along. I'm now as far as I can go until the holiday is over. I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive, which won't happen until after the holidays (postal service is sporadic this week, and the university is completely shut down, including complete shutoff of air conditioning, and mail service). I'm also waiting for some people to return from the holidays so I can use their centrifuge to process the blood samples I've been collecting. So, now I wait, and work on writing some manuscripts, and a large pile of job applications, and try not to get so bored I slip into a coma. The other problem with all these holidays, is that the bus service is pretty sporadic, so unless I can catch a ride with someone, I'm stuck here. Of course, even if I could go somewhere, I wouldn't be able to do anything because everything is shut for the holidays. At least in this part of the country. I'm sure Tel Aviv is different.
I did manage to get out yesterday with Carmi and a visiting bat person. We went into the Arava valley (the rift valley) to make some recordings of bat echolocation signals. We went the scenic route, which apparently used to be the only route between Beer Sheva and Eilat. Wow. The dropoff into the rift valley is truly awe-inspiring, and more than a bit scary to drive. We went down by way of the Aqribbim or scorpion pass, which apparently was an ancient Nabatean route out of the valley, and was later used by the Romans. It's not easy to get out of the valley, so the routes are well worn and ancient. The road looks like there is no way two cars can pass, and it would be a challenge for anything bigger than compacts to do it. The dropoff is basically a cliff with switchbacks on it. It drops a lot, I'd guess maybe 2000-3000 feet, and has about 20 switchbacks. They are so tight that the curves are more than 180 degrees. Looking down from the top, you can see the curves of about a dozen switchbacks - amazing. There was no way to get a photo of this - too grand a scale. The edge of the road was lined with rusted out barrels filled with rocks and dirt. I'm not sure why - there is no way that they would stop anything bigger than a pushcart. On several curves, there was a pile of rusted car wrecks several hundred feet below as testimony to how dangerous the road is. It is impossible to tell how old they were and some could be several decades old because there is no way to get them out. Every time I go to the rift valley, I'm absolutely in awe of the landscape.
After succesfully navigating the Aqribbim, we went to Hazeva, where there is a bit of a research station, and where I hope to be able to collect Uromastyx, if I ever get new permits. The Nature Reserves biologist seems to have evaporated off the face of the planet. No one seems to be able to get in touch with him, and he is supposed to be working during the holidays because a lot of Israelis go camping during Sukot (sort of like wandering the desert for 40 years, only the 8 day version). Anyway, we drove around in an area with a lot of acacias, went 'ooh' and 'aahh' at the scenery and temperature (it's bloody hot down there below sea level), then went to a small reservoir to set up to record bats.
The reservoir looked a lot like a small pond in a park, and had signs posted around saying how dangerous it is to swim there. Dangerous because there is water there, not because of any particular hazards in the water. There was a nice lawn around the pond, and lots of date palms (it's date season here right now). We set up an array of fancy microphones and equipment to record the echolocation calls of bats, and some mist nets to catch the bats to see what they were. Unfortunately, the two car batteries we brought to run the fancy equipment were both flat, so we spent the first half hour of darkness recharging one with jumper cables attached to the car. After a while, the bats came in and cooperated nicely by foraging right in front of the microphone arrays. Unfortunately, there was a very bright lamp lighting the park, so the bats could see the mist nets, and avoided them. The only one we caught was one of the Egyptian fruit bats I've been working on, which wasn't terribly interesting for the echolocation stuff. A few hours of recording and we packed up and went home the less scenic way, which isn't nearly as terrifying as the Aqribbim.