This morning we rose early, even
before the roosters, to check traps with Vitor the Rat Man and Cecelia
his undergraduate research assistant. By the time we ate breakfast
at 5:00, the roosters had started in and the sky was taking on the first
tinge of day. We set out for the transects (trails with traps along
them), in a jeep full of our gas masks and peanutbutter tubs of bait and
spare traps and ear tags and rubber gloves and film cans for scat and
a water cooler and the data book.
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Vitor has a master’s
degree and will use this research for his PhD, and Cecelia is a third-year
undergrad who is helping him, and Tom and I were the volunteer labor.
We skooted along the transects, which are not so long, and have 3 traps
at each station, two on the ground and one low in a tree. We checked
and re-baited each trap with a mixture of peanut butter, oats, bacon and
manioc (yum!). If there was a small mammal in the trap, Vitor would
put the mammal into a sack, and he and Cecelia would measure its mass,
its head and body length, its tail length, and its sex. |
| Vitor and Cecelia would then tag the mammal on
its ears if it didn’t already have tags. Ear tags help scientists
to know when they have recaptured a previously caught animal, which can
help them to tell how many of that kind of animal there are in the area.
Tom and I would also collect any feces from the trap and put them in a
film can for later study. We were also in charge of writing down
the data. |
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Oecomys
Opossum
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While the animals were being
measured, we all wore gas masks and rubber gloves for protection.
We are wearing them in case of hantavirus, which is a disease that people
can get from rodents. People think that there is no hantavirus here,
but nobody is really sure, which is part of the reason that Vitor is doing
this work.
We found several rice rats (Oecomys
marmorae) , a tiny yet fullgrown mother opossum (Gracilianus microtarsus),
and a Thrichomys pachiurus which is another kind of rat.
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We set out again about 3:00 to put out some
traps on a new transect. The driving was a little challenging but
Vitor pulled us through, though in places we had to get out and walk to
lighten the load. I had previously thought that bushwhacking was
something you did on foot, perhaps with machetes, but apparently it’s
OK to do it with the jeep. We got good and scratched up from the
branches coming in the windows. |
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Eventually we noticed
some steam coming from the radiator. Uh-oh. But we pressed
on, and after about an hour we were at the transect site. But what’s
this? All work stopped and we drank terere. This is a mixture
of dried leaves which you fill the glass about halfway then pour in cold
water. You put in a thing that looks like a tea infuser with a long
spoony handle which turns out to be hollow. This is the bomba (“pump”).
So you drink through the straw to keep the leaves in the cup. You
have to drink it all, until you are making swampy noises and the leaves
are all packed toogether, then the cup goes to the next person who refills
it with water. The cup goes around and around, and when you don’t
want any more, you say “Obrigada”. So don’t say
it before you’re set or you won’t get any more. It was
very refreshing and surprisingly strongly flavored for something made
with cold water and steeped for maybe 10 seconds. I guess that’s
what happens when you use all those leaves. |
Fortified for the work ahead, we grabbed 10
sherman traps and added them along an existing transect. We also
tied the traps that were already there to trees. If the traps aren’t
tied, sometimes a fox or other larger animal will drag the trap away as
it tries to get at the yummy snack inside. Some larger animals like
the bait; others like the trapped small mammals! So to keep from
having to replace lots of traps, we tied them down. |
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Upon returning to the truck, we realized that the radiator was no longer
steaming, because it was completely empty! So we opened the hood and propped
it with a branch, and fed the radiator our cooler of water. It was
still thirsty. So we gave it the water from our water bottles.
It was still thirsty. So Vitor and Tom went off to ta nearby baia
with the terere glass and a big Ziplock bag, and eventually the radiator
was full. Good thing it’s the rainy season! By
now it was after 5:00 and we were a long way from the farm. But
we had one more stop to make. Cecelia pointed out the corner of
a salina just ahead, and we continued on so we could see it. It
was indeed beautiful.. Quite long and just a bit curved, with palms and
grass along the shore, and forest a few meters inland, reflecting in the
still water in the civil evening twilight. |
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At the far end of the salina was an observation tower.
After
drinking in the lovely view, we set off back home. We passed
a caiman doing a mating display. They bring their heads and tails
up out of the water in a u shape, but the neatest part is that they
also do Something Mysterious that makes the water dance and shiver around
them in patterns. This one had a small fountain going above his
back, and rings of speckles and droplets spreading out from his body.
Incredible.
We passed also a herd of capybara, adults and young,
and of course lots of species of birds. What a marvelous
day. |
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