Interviews

After last month’s excitement, we toned down a bit and focused on interview surveys in July. Next week I will collect the memory cards from camera traps that have been out in the forest for a month, but right now I do not have any new dhole news.  We did work with a team from Kasetsart University to interview villagers living near the border of Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary.  Spread over three villages, we have now interviewed 84 households regarding domestic dogs and collected 113 blood samples for disease analysis.  

I sent another team to provinces in the East to finally complete long-overdue carnivore interview surveys (focusing on dholes, tigers, and clouded leopards).  They conducted 300 surveys despite problems such as a blind man wanting to answer a survey, Cambodian language barriers, and a group demanding a whiskey payment for answers!

In August I will organize what we need to analyze the blood samples and possibly open traps if we have a veterinarian living on site.  I am slightly ahead of schedule with the blood draws and may even be able to analyze all of the samples by the end of the year (earlier than my original target of next summer).  

We are now ready to choose village dogs to monitor their ranging movements.  This has been delayed because of lack of funding for GPS collars.  I am working with Peter on a budget and hope to have 4 collars ordered by mid-August.

I also need to prepare forms and reports to extend our research permit (which expires in November 2009).