More Monitors

The first week of April we concentrated on keeping the traps open and we used live chickens as bait.  We caught a few monitor lizards and are still having trouble with reliability of the trap transmitters.  I need to fiddle with alternative ways to attach them to the doors so that the VHF is triggered when the trap door closes.  The camera traps only photographed one bear and elephants in the vicinity of the traps.  We lost one camera to ants.

The extended holiday for Songkran in mid-April reduced time in the field, but I used that break to change my Bangkok apartment location to a building that seems to be safer (the last place was broken into twice and my computer was stolen).

At the end of the month I attended a workshop in Bern, Switzerland at the Cat Specialist Group Office, headed by Christine and Urs Breitenmoser.  This was funded by me and my frequent flier miles.  Another one of Todd’s students, Jennifer McCarthy (studying small felids in Indonesia), and a team from Germany (studying wild cats) also attended.  The workshop included presentations on our study sites and animals, field demonstrations of various trapping methods, a brainstorming session, and a day of tracking wild cats in the Jura Mountains.  Networking with researchers who know what it is like to start a project (telemetry of lynx in the mountains) when everyone tells you it is impossible, was invaluable for me to gain perspective on my project. And, Jen and I were able to sympathize with each other over the specific challenges of tropical field work.

We brainstormed the environmental and ecological factors influencing capture probability (e.g. seasonal aspects, land tenure, behavior) and then the technical factors influencing capture probability (e.g. trap layout, human disturbance, type of trap, bait) to get us thinking about what we can then change/improve/test for our projects.  For dholes, I am going to spread my box traps over a larger area, locate the traps on trails (we looked at a new double door walk-through design that I will build), try to place traps at kills, and trap closer to human activities where animals are maybe less suspicious of scent (e.g. the sanctuary border).  The idea was brought up to perhaps train a domestic dog to find kills in the field.

I also got great hands-on experience with various trapping methods.  They have been developing a new remote darting system where they set the dart on a tripod and sit back several hundred meters watching a TV screen.  They can then aim and fire the dart from a distance.  This method allows them to choose whether they want to dart an animal or not (I.e. aim for a certain collared animal, or get a dhole, but let a bear go by).  They have also been using snares; however, the design would be difficult to boil (to reduce human scent), so I don’t think this is practical for dholes.  Jen showed me the details of setting up a foot-hold trap (I stuck my hand in it for a test).  I do think these would be ideal to use at a kill site, but we need to extend our current permits to include this type of trap.

After being done with the "work" part of my trip I planned to relax in a nice hotel.  I got stuck in the bathroom for 8 hours! (Broken door latch).  Then, I developed a nasty bacterial infection in my hand that was so painful I could not type or write.  On the way back, coming through Moscow, I was almost quarantined at the airport (because of my fever related to my hand).  Needless to say, I am quite happy to be back at my field site.


I plan to be at KARN throughout May with the traps open.  I will also coordinate student volunteers to interview villagers and draw blood samples from domestic dogs for disease testing.  This was delayed in April because of scheduling with the local university professor who will come out to help me introduce the project idea to the village chiefs.

Finally, I was awarded a Smithsonian Predoctoral Fellowship for Jun 2009 - May 2010!