This has little to do with lemurs but...

... Hornbills are important too! Or at least I think they are, and I have some neat pictures of them so hopefully my readers and fellow lemur-enthusiasts will forgive my stray from the normal banter about how much lemurs rock.

That being said, here's my connection between hornbills and lemurs: my research site has an aviary which houses several hornbills and has even been successful in breeding a few which is an amazing feat! During my last visit to the island, whenever I had a few minutes away from collecting lemur data (those minutes were few and far between) I went and watched the birds.

Here's some background info for those of you who are unaware of what a hornbill is: A hornbill is a type of bird found in Africa and Asia. There are over 57 species, most of which, if not all, are endangered by hunting and habitat loss. Instead of me typing out their biography, if you're interested read about them on wikipedia (love love love wikipedia!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornbill

Anyways! I recently started researching lar gibbons at the Toronto Zoo with two other researchers (photos to come next week). During our first visit we were lucky enough to encounter a female Great Hornbill named Asha who has unfortunately suffered some brain damage from an attack from her mate and is now mostly blind. However, she is well cared for and lives in the zoo kitchen. I was lucky enough to be gripped by her presence, so to speak...

My other encounters with Great Hornbills have not been as pleasant as my encounter with Asha though. In the island aviary is Joe. Joe is an adult male who is bonded to his mate Josephine ,who is lovely, but Joe is a complete terror. Where as he is amazing to look at, standing at a striking 4-5 feet from beak to tail, he has a double chain fence on one side of the enclosure to ensure the safety of unsuspecting passersby. Here is Joe-

In case you were wondering, that's horse meat stuck on his beak. That's right, horse.

And this is Josephine:

Josephine is really old, I'm pretty sure she's over 60 which is impressive for a hornbill. Fun fact: you may have noticed that Joe has a red eye and Josephine has a blue eye. This is how you can easily tell apart the sexes of this species, kind of neat!

Moving on from great hornbills, I also spent some time with wrinkled hornbills, this is Mr. Toots:

And finally, the extremely gentle, impressive, and playful rhinoceros hornbills!

In case you were wondering, the large protrusions from the upper part of the beaks of the hornbills are called casques (pronounce ca-sks). They are hollow and either serve as an instrument of sexual selection, or aid with long calls, the exact function is unknown.

I mostly just wrote this post to share the pictures, but something else has come to mind: what can we do to help stop the extinction of these amazing birds? Well, not too much, but at a consumer level, try buying things without palm oil in the ingredients. Palm plantations are responsible for destroying rain forests and habitats for all kinds of amazing creatures. At the risk of sounding morbid and extremist, think about it like this: next time you buy a cheap chocolate bar or a pack of instant noodles, not only is it really bad for you but the palm oil filler is responsible for the displacement and death of many hornbills. What's good to know is that Nestle has acknowledged this problem and is starting to eliminate palm oil from their products! Hooray for a step in the right direction!
Keep it real.

Of mice and lemurs

Yesterday I had to mow the lawn. I really don't like the concept of lawns in general, and the idea that I have to waste two hours of my day killing plants, insects, and other things that live in the lawn, not to mention wasting gas, makes me pretty angry. That being said, it's important to help out around the house and if mowing the lawn is my contribution then it must be done.

When I pulled the lawn mower out of the shed and started it, smoke came out, as did a pile of fluff: there was a mouse nest in the mower. No mice were killed, but their nest had jammed up the engine, so apart the mower came! My father had the idea to get the leaf blower to force the fluff out as it was too thick to vacuum. Leaf blower in hand, I reach down to start it and what happens? A big Momma mouse falls to the ground from the blower with 4 babies attached to her mammary glands! She hit the ground and for one moment looked up at me, possibly more dumbstruck than I, and then started running across the lawn, babies in tow. One more baby had dropped from the leaf blower, and two had detached from her as she ran. I made an effort to re-assemble the family but to no avail.

This got me thinking, that momma mouse made a tough choice fast. Sacrifice three pups (are baby mice called pups? I think so...) to save herself and the others, or try to run with 6 pups in tow and risk them all getting eaten. Where as I sympathize with the babies who probably didn't make it through the night, I have to give props to the momma, I think she made a good choice. Not only that, but are any of us tough enough to attach more than our body weight to our nipples and run for miles? Probably not. What does this have to do with lemurs? Here's a fun story about lemur reproduction and social structure.

This is Newport. She is the oldest lemur at my site, coming in at 16 years of age. Newport has had over ten babies, and in her life time has spent years carrying them around on her back and breast feeding them. As a result she has pretty severe arthritis in both of her hips. But that doesn't stop her from having more babies or running around with the rest of the troop.

Ringtailed lemurs are female dominant, so when they come across food, or when they change locations, the females are always first or leading. Even when it comes time to mate, the females will present to the males. If they males try to do anything without submission to the dominant female he's cruisin' for a bruisin' as they say. Below is a screen capture taken from a video of mating from last season. Below we see Newport (bottom) and Ronnie (top). The males, after copulating, do this funky thing called a Post Ejaculatory Clasp. This means that they stay clasped to the female for hours after mating to ensure no other males come mate with her. And by clasp, I mean that he pretty much piggy-back-rides her until he gets bored. So below, poor Newport with her arthritic hips, is carrying around a male.



As if it can get worse than that, when he lets go she is still looking to mate. While she presents to him, he just sort of sits there licking his... parts.



Why am I telling you this? Seeing this happen to Newport (and pretty much all other females) and seeing that momma mouse yesterday made me realize how strong females are. We have to gestate, birth, sacrifice, wait, and put up with a lot of crap for the survival of our species. This is not to say that males are totally useless, but we definitely take first for the amount of physical and psychological junk we have to deal with. Newport carries a male on her back with two bad hips, a mother mouse desperately drags her infants from her glands, at some point in my life I will probably have to push a human through my body. I guess my point is that I never realized how amazing females are until I saw how brave and enduring they are in the wild.

Here are the babies that I tried to help. I gave them some formula and cozied them into some socks and a piece of their nest. I left them in a sunny spot by the shed.



This is a picture of me with a gopher tortoise last season, note my broken nose and double black eyes.


So what happened to my face? I didn't actually get attacked by a bear as I hinted toward last week. On our way through the airport I tripped over a piece of metal and had a bad landing. I was carrying about 50 pounds of electronic equipment which came down on my head, resulting in my broken face. I skinned two knuckles, and had some severe bruising on my knees. I also split my bottom lip in half and shifted two of my teeth. With blood literally squirting everywhere, bruises already forming around my eyes, and skin hanging from my hand, I got up and said "Hurry up! We're going to miss our flight!" and boarded the plane. As I walked down the path to my seat people turned their faces in horror and someone asked "Wow miss, were you attacked by a bear?" I said yes. My injuries were pretty severe, but I boarded the plane regardless, I guess I am a female after all!


(This picture was taken after I cleaned the blood off and took several anti-inflammatories, my nose didn't stop bleeding for three days and I glued my lip shut)

31 days

Long time no post!

With my exams and 20 page papers finally completed, graded, returned, and finished forever, I am now a free woman with time to blog. The problem is that I am now distracted with my job as a health promoter (along with being a lemur researcher I work with a wellness centre promoting sexual health to anyone who wants to listen), and I have ignored issues in modern primatology and am lacking issues to write about at present. However, with this years field season quickly approaching (in 31 days, hence the title), perhaps now is a good time to make a virtual list of things that need to be done, and things that are good to know about field work in general (for all of you aspiring primatologists out there!).

First up: footwear.

Last season I was warned about the amount of poisonous snakes at the field site. Not many people love snakes more than I, so I was really excited to hear this even if it potentially meant my untimely demise. If someone on the island were to be bitten by a snake it would take at least 5 minutes for a helicopter to come and airlift them to safety, solution? 1) instructional video on what to do in the event of a snake bite, 2) SNAKE BOOTS!
Snake boots are boots that are snake bite proof. I ordered a pair last season made by Redhead and they were great! Not only did they stop a water moccasin from killing me, but they kept the chiggers away from my legs. Problem is that I ordered them too big (everything from the states seems to be bigger) and they're hot. So this year I think I might take the risk (and stop chasing the snakes around) and wear Blundstones instead. I highly recommend Blundstones to everyone: they're not cheap but they are the best boots for walking, winter, running, you name it.

Second: Sunscreen and sunglasses

Third: Good radio equipment, not just for tracking animals but for emergency use. There are wild boars at my site, I feel comfort in knowing that I can use a radio to call the rest of my team to say "uh.. hi guys, I'm being eaten alive by feral pigs, by the time you get here I'll be dead, but could you tell my mom I love her? Thanks, bye!"

Fourth: Make sure your passport does not expire in the time you're out of the country (as mine is about to)

Fifth: Get travelers insurance

Sixth: When working with primates it is possible for them to catch TB from humans (and viceversa) so it's important to get a TB test.

Seventh: Bug spray
Eighth: Bug spray
Ninth: Bug spray
Tenth: Bug spray

You'll also need a deck of cards, a good backpack, movies if you have electricity, and books, lots of books. Doing field work can be very quiet and isolated. If you aren't good with silence for long durations, or in some cases being alone for long durations then this job isn't for you. That being said, if you do like being away from your family and friends for long durations, getting eaten alive by gnats, risking your life in the presence of boars and snakes, being torn apart by saw-palm, and getting peed on by lemurs, then this is your ideal profession!

For those of you who skipped through my text, picture time = now

Field work means leaving your pets with a sitter. In my case, I have to leave my babies Tammy and Stella to my mom for 2 months, sniff sniff...

This is my field sweater complete with lemur ears (soon to have a lemur tail). This is also going to be my Hallowe'en costume, and yes, I am cool enough to wear an ear sweater.

Apparently last year when I checked off "was not on a farm" at the airport, I forgot to mention the lemur poo stuck to the bottom of my boots... so gross.

Blundstones <3

One of the perks of field work is exploring places where not a lot of other humans have been, which for me means finding antlers and shells and making jewelry holders!

Here are my snakeboots, and this is me with a broken nose, double black-eyes and swollen face, testing GPS collars. Why do I have a broken nose, double black-eyes, and a swollen face? Tune in next week for "Carey got attacked by a bear"