Where are the Dogs?

 We have started fitting domestic dogs from surrounding villages with passive GPS tracking devices.  We plan to document their movements into Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary (KARN) and eventually determine the proportion of overlap in the home ranges of dogs and dholes.  This will help us perform an analysis of disease transmission risk.  My terrific field assistant, LungDaeng, is in charge of collar deployment and download while I am back at UMass for the fall semester.  He has never used a computer before, so teaching him to download and save a GPS file was an adventure in patience.  The key was for him to write the directions in his own words, step-by-step.  

Testing of collars in July showed active dogs that roam across the main sanctuary road.  The yellow lines on the above map show the path of a 10 year old female from 10-23 July, 2010.  The main road 304 of the sanctuary is visible west to east in white.  The red line delineates the boundary of KARN.  Forest to the west of the line is inside the sanctuary.

Where are the Dholes?

We have been camera trapping in Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand for over two and a half years.  From 30 January 2008 through 20 June 2010, cameras placed at 276 locations totaled 5,794 trap nights.  (The below maps shows where we set up cameras and where we photographed dholes).  Camera trap surveys resulted in a total of 2,541 wildlife photos. Sixteen carnivore species were caught on camera.  Overall, elephants (n=722), sambar deer (n=241), and Malayan porcupine (n=238) were the most common recorded species.  We targeted camera set up in areas to consistently locate one target dhole pack with six pack members.  Our camera trapping has provided a baseline picture of population distribution, information that is critical for selecting study sties for a detailed ecological study using radio tracking.

North Carolina Trapping

This week I attended an excellent excellent Safe-Capture International Inc. immobilization course taught by Dr. Keith Amass.  I learned an incredible amount of useful information for handling animals safety in the field.  I then spent two days in the field with a graduate student studying road-crossings and red-wolf ecology in North Carolina.  We caught a 450lb black bear and I helped work through the processing of the animal to place a radio-collar.  I also attended a Trapper Education Program developed by the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.  We got hands on experience with the best practices for trapping and I am now a certified trapper in North Carolina.

North Carolina Trapping Photos

Smithsonian's GIS Lab (Again)

I'm currently at the Smithsonian’s GIS lab in Front Royal, Virginia to focus on data analysis and writing.  Luckily, I have a very helpful intern who is processing 500 of my interview survey responses.

My field assistant continues to monitor camera traps and is trying to get collars on other dogs.  I did receive a travel grant from my department at UMass, so I am ready to return to Thailand!

It's been awhile since I've been hiking in the snow...Shenandoah NP with Maureen, Kate, Vincent, and Yang. (Picture from Maureen)

Cleveland Sponsor

My field assistant continues to monitor our camera traps and will attempt to place GPS collars on 2 domestic dogs each month.  My adviser, Nucharin Songsasen, is currently in Thailand seeking more information about our permit status, the capacity of our collaborators to analyze DNA from dhole fecal samples, and the feasibility of future trapping plans.

Good news:  My proposal entitled "The Threat of Domestic Dogs to Endangered Dholes and Other Wildlife" was awarded $3,000 from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Cleveland Zoological Society Conservation Grants Program.

Dhole Influx

 

December is definitely dhole month as we continued to get an influx of dhole and even jackal photos. This is exciting because jackals have not been verified in the sanctuary for years.  My monthly goal was to place 4 GPS collars on domestic dogs.  This was not met due to a number of unforeseen problems including weeks of downed cell-phone communications in the area, a collar manufacturer sending me an incorrect data download cable, conflicts with software and drivers, and problems with battery life and programming schedules.  I did manage to put out two collars a week ago and I will follow-up with the dogs and download data at the end of this week.

At the end of November, my initial research permit of 2 years expired and we applied for an extension (which was supposed to take less than 1 month).  It is nearing the two month waiting period for my research project extension.  This has to be approved by the Thailand Department of National Parks (DNP) and passed on to the National Research Council of Thailand who then writes me a letter to enable me to apply for a research visa.  Therefore, I cannot get a research visa until my permit extension is granted and I am told this will be an indeterminate amount of time.  Because of recent changes in the DNP staff it does not look like I will have approval before my current tourist visa expires on January 14th.  I cannot enter the country again on a tourist visa because I have used up the maximum of concurrent visas of this type.  It appears it will be most useful for me to return to the US on the 14th of January and work at the Smithsonian’s GIS lab.  

I am currently scrambling to make a new plan that will allow me to finish my dissertation.  This may involve returning to Thailand this fall for further data collection.  I would still like to track movements of domestic dogs as part of the disease aspect of my project and we don’t have the full results from the blood analysis disease tests yet either.  I currently have 13 cameras out in the forest.  We were using the cameras to keep track of our focal dhole pack for future trapping.  Dhole collaring is now out of the time frame for my dissertation, but I would still like to pursue this as part of the overall project.  I am working on a plan to pull all these cameras or work with my assistant to keep up some data collection while I am away.  I also need to rapidly figure out how to store my supplies and personal belongings.