Play It And They Will Come

Up at 6am to go to Nong Pak Chi and test my new battery with the playback equipment. Problem? Connection from battery to player socket is broken. I couldn’t test it last night because I was waiting for the battery to charge. So, I stressed, then figured out my computer speakers work with the battery. I made the attempt, but they aren’t loud enough. I fiddled with the game caller speaker. I cut off the original 12V battery and rigged two alligator clips that work with my new battery. Done all with a roll of black tape and my leatherman multi-tool.

So the speakers are fixed. Play it and they will come—that was my “great” idea that dholes might be attracted to other dhole vocalizations or sounds of prey in distress. The literature on hyenas and kit foxes, etc. makes it seem so simple – cause and effect – play it and they will come, curious to check out the invader. Of course, as a field biologist, I never expect anything to be simple and I certainly don’t expect results on the first try (or even my equipment to function on the first try for that matter). Still, it seemed like such a good idea, a novel approach to try with dholes. As much as I willed it though, that swaying clump of dark grass didn’t turn into a wild dog. I usually wait about an hour during each playback attempt, all that time willing movement that will materialize into a dog shape every time I pick up the binoculars for a scan. Nothing.

On another note, I was attacked by a huge angry fang-bearing pig-tail macaque today. He charged just inches from me and chased ME away. I was busy typing and concentrating and looked up briefly from my computer screen to see the big guy on our table – 10 feet away helping himself to our rice bowl. Usually we just make a move or shout and they flee. I stood up and yelled “hey” – and he was NOT afraid. He took it as a threat, spiked his eyebrows in my direction and lunged toward me! I backed slowly away to try to reach the slingshot and moved out of his view and he came charging through a different door and chased me around the chairs! He hesitated just long enough to stop shy of biting me. After the third charge I had to close myself into an adjacent room and wait him out – after he tried to get at me through a window!

Pied Piper

The major goal this month is to try playback vocalization tests with dholes. (At least I know the equipment works…we broadcast dying fawn sounds all across campus yesterday). Playback is a method of broadcasting previously recorded natural or artificial sounds to animals and observing their response. My problem? I have some yipping dholes recorded from SanDiego zoo, but no baseline for what their reported “whistle” sounds like. Luckily, Todd is all excited about trying to find dhole sounds. He called me in for a meeting and popped in a video from his 8-year old daughter, “Animals of Asia.” Seems they show dholes whistling. Unfortunately, there is voice over, so I can’t directly record the whistle. But, as I was watching it the second time through, suddenly the whistles came from behind me. My advisor found a recorder flute that plays an exact note that sounds like a dhole whistle! Anyway, so now I can hike through the woods, toot my little whistle, and pray to see dholes.

My friend, Heather, had this to say about the concept:
“I’m imaging you walking through the woods with that recorder like the Pied Piper and the dhole heads just popping up one by one from beneath the vegetation. Once again, there’s those experiences in science they don’t tell you about that never really make it into the scientific journals…”