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.
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