Pocket Mice!

Contrary to popular belief, life as a graduate student can actually get quite hectic.  While many popular coping mechanisms involve watching hours of YouTube, searching funny animal photos, and of course, Facebook, I have actually done something both fun AND productive!  I've started blogging on the San Diego Zoo website (check out my first post here!) about my research with the Pacific pocket mice.  My co-advisor is a researcher at the Institute for Conservation Research at the SD Zoo, and I am working on a conservation project they are getting started up over there.  I'll be contributing regularly with updates on my PPM work and what it is like to be a graduate student and working towards a career in conservation research!

Eel Attack!

Being a graduate student is (surprise!) a lot like being a student again. I'm taking a few classes my first quarter here and am actually enjoying them.  But then again, I was always the kid who liked school (much to the astonishment of many of my classmates, I'm sure).  I'm having fun mentally challenging myself, and there are so many mini discoveries every day that I'm constantly on my toes and excited about something.  Granted, when I am talking about animals and conservation and biology, it doesn't take much to make me happy.  Today, for example, I was reading an article for class about evolved morphological traits in the parrotfish, one of them being a pharyngeal jaw. I couldn't quite picture what that meant so I Googled it (also- thank goodness for the internets! I can't imagine being a grad student without it!!).  I found a picture of how they work in Moray eels, another awesome creature.  Basically, it is a second jaw that comes forward and helps drag food down your throat if you are an eel and can't swallow.  It seems like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.  Nature is the coolest!

Sueños de Chile

It's been almost a year since I finished up my degu work in Chile, and I was feeling nostalgic the other day.  Luckily, I was able to catch up with both Tina and Morgan and reminisce about our giant bag of mustard, silly names for all the street dogs, coffee and ice cream obsessions, and general sense of wonder that pervaded those 5 months.  I found the blogs written by the current students in Chile who are on the same grant that we got to participate in last year.  Most of their posts are actually about their projects and scientific theory and all that "appropriate" stuff.  While Tina and I do (honestly) plan on finishing up and publishing our projects, it was the Chilean experiences- with some amazing kindred spirits- that will always give me a warm fuzzy feeling... and a simultaneous twinge in my heart.

Little daily reminders in my room: the Chilean flag from a fonda, mug from Pablo Neruda's house, and of course, Slothsicle; Valparaíso degu. 

*** Oh dear. I never actually finished writing about my trip to Southern Chile after finishing degu work.  It took me all the way down to Patagonia (the region, not the store) and in the town of Puerto Natales there is a cave where they found fossils of a giant ground sloth (milodon) and have a fantastic statue I wanted to pose with.  On the last day I was doing some souvenir shopping and found a woman who made little clay figures on top of pencils.  The best was obviously the milodon, but she had just finished painting them and couldn't put it in a bag.  Instead she wrapped a paper bag around the pencil part (for what reason was lost in translation) and promised it would dry shortly if I let it air.  So we walked around for the rest of the day holding a sloth pencil like a popsicle- which, incidentally, is what my hand felt like since it was freezing outside and I couldn't keep it in my pocket.  That's a lot of background, but I can't remember laughing so much that my eyelashes froze since :)

Stumbling into Coincidences

I recently stumbled upon www.stumbleupon.com. I don't know exactly what it is - just that it is like a guided tour of interesting pages on the internet based on a couple of questions and an uncanny insight into your head.  You sign up, select a couple categories of interest, and start clicking the "stumble" button.  It brings up a page - a blog, a photo, a video, anything - and you can like it or dislike it, see what other people have thought of it, and then move on after as little or as much time as you please.  It shows you things based on what people with similar interests have liked, and I have to say. I was Impressed.

Tonight, after clicking through half a dozen or so somewhat interesting pages (for some reason it really wants me to like the Maldives), I stumbled upon a TED talk on crows.  First of all, I love TED talks.  Short talks by insanely intelligent people on interesting and thought-provoking topics.  Score.  But CROWS? I have had a number of conversations lately on the merits (or lack thereof) of crows, and someone mentioned teaching crows to pick up coins from the street which I thought was a bit clever.  Turns out it is MUCH cooler and crazier than that, and this talk was by the guy who designed that study.  I have a new respect for crows and all, but the real point is - it is kind of creepy stumble sent me that video, on that topic, a couple of days after I had that seemingly totally random conversation.  I am sufficiently impressed (and a little creeped out).

This is the link to the talk.  It really is fascinating, and will definitely give you something to think about the next time you see a crow!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2zBIz8

P.s.  I just remembered another crazy coincidence this weekend.  We were being chided by our professor last week as none of us could come up with the name of the man given credit for starting the Green Revolution and thus saving over a billion people from starvation in the 1970's.  On Sunday, while waiting for the bus, I randomly selected a podcast to listen to and it happened to be about food science.  And of course they spent a few minutes talking about the Father of the Green Revolution.  So now, next time that question comes up on Jeopardy, let's all be sure we can answer correctly "Who is Norman Borlaug?"

Riding the Big Blue Bus

I feel like a true urbanite using public transportation every day.  Los Angeles is the city of the car, but the roads (rather the highways) scare me and the little CRV, so I stick to the bus as often as possible.  Plus, parking on campus costs something like $20 a day and that is waaayyy beyond the grad school budget.

I am starting to get a handle on the bus routes through the process of trial and error (example: even if the route looks close enough, where the bus will actually stop may be much further away than desired.  Duly noted).  Going to school I pretty much have to chose a line and commit, as there are 2 close by but in opposite directions.  At first I was closely following the printed timetables (ok the Google Map timetables) but somehow I was waiting 15-20 minutes for the bus EVERY TIME.  So I have started just leaving when I am ready and hoping it works out for the best.  (Where's your equivalent of nextmuni.com, Los Angles? Get on top of it!).

Given the erratic nature of the bus schedule I typically leave my house fairly calmly, then begin to get nervous I'm going to miss the bus and power walk the alley to the main street.  I have found that the alley is my best option because it provides 2 options - if I don't see the bus I can walk half a block against traffic and wait at the closest stop.  More often than not, however, I seem to time it and see the bus passing me just when I am nearing the end of the alley.  Luckily (in these situations, anyway) there is usually enough traffic in the morning to hold the bus up at the next stop light and I'm able to make a run for it through the 7-11 parking lot and make it on.  Nothing like a little heart pumping action first thing in the morning.  It is incredibly frustrating when I see the bus whiz by on a quiet morning and have no chance of catching up with it and am stuck waiting a full 20 minutes for the next one to come along.  Some day I will get brave enough to ride my bike...

On a side note, the walk down the alley gives me a chance to observe one of the other urbanite experiences, that of the bottle (or just trash) collectors.  There are dozens of people that methodically go through every recycle bin in the alley looking for cash-redemption bottles and cans.  The 7-11 may draw them in, but there are clearly enough gems to keep them coming back.  The major downside to this is that there is a dumpster grouping just outside of my window and there aren't conventional business hours for this system.  The other morning I was startled awake around 4am by a bang- the dumpster lid being thrown open and hitting the side of my building (aka the wall 3 ft from my head).  Good morning to you, too, Los Angeles.

Catalina Island

The first weekend here (post move-in) consisted of a field trip to Catalina Island with my cohort so we could get to know each other, meet some grad students further along in their studies, and find out about opportunities to do field work off campus and collaborate with outside researchers.  Actually, our first real gathering was for a full day of "quantitative boot camp" consisting of 8 hours of tutorial in using the statistics program R. THAT was a true bonding experience!  So Catalina was a cake walk after that.

When we arrived we were whisked away (slowly whisked. In a large, lumbering van) and bypassed the main touristy town of Avalon which is home to the majority of the population and visitors.  We went straight to the interior of the island, which is almost entirely controlled by the Catalina Island Conservancy who work to protect the island from man-made fire, over use, and invasive species.  Two members of our cohort have been working on the island for the last few years and gave us an excellent behind-the-scenes kind of tour along with the chief conservation officer, Carlos de la Rosa, who is also adjunct faculty at UCLA.  

Catalina is part of the Channel Islands archipelago and home to the endangered Channel Island Fox.  A few years ago they did a major captive breeding and reintroduction program after the population was nearly wiped out by canine distemper.  During this program they learned a lot about the behavior of the foxes, and one pup was born with too many health problems to be successfully released so they kept her as an "ambassador" to the public.  We got to meet her and she was adoooorable- she had short little legs, like the corgi of foxes.  

We also got to meet a bald eagle (native and a recovering population) as well as a golden eagle (non-native and a predator of the endangered foxes) who were in similar situations to the fox and wouldn't survive on their own in the wild.

Ironically, the most iconic animal on Catalina 

is the bison. A herd was brought to the island in the 1920s for a silent movie shoot, and 

because it cost so much to ship them off the island, they were left there.  (Their scene was actually cut and they never even made it into the movie!)  The bison have a long history on the island and are a major tourist draw (downtown Avalon is full of bison statues and pictures) and many places serve buffalo burgers or tacos or jerky, though there are strict rules agains actually eating the bison on the island (instead they ship all the bison meat in from farms.  Seems silly).  The herd has grown quickly and its size is naturally unchecked, and the animals were causing some serious damage to native plants and cultural sights.  The Conservancy has begun implementing an innovative birth control method through shots to keep the population down, and so far it seems to be working.  All the crazy things you learn about when you hang out with scientists!

As a group we also got to visit some of the island's lovely beaches and go on a couple of hikes.  It was great to get to know people, and find out about this amazing part of Los Angeles County that is 20 miles off the coast!

A Whole New Sort of Adventure

*Side notes- I believe I fixed the problem of not being able to post comments without a Blogger account. Anyone should be able to post now, so comment away! Also, the blog has a fancy (and easy) new mobile interface if anyone feels like reading it on a smart phone or iPad! Yay!

After a couple of years cavorting around the world I'm settling in for the long haul and have officially moved to Los Angeles, where I'm starting my PhD at UCLA in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program!  The move itself was very successful thanks, in large part, to my parents for being such good sports about driving me down and spending the better part of the weekend assembling Ikea furniture.  I love the stuff, but they sure make you work for it!  We got my room set up in record time though, and it feels great to be all moved in and able to focus on other things (like the 5 chapters of statistics programming homework I am procrastinating about!).

The campus is just a 20 minute bus ride from my apartment.  I brought my bike in case, but am totally intimidated by the streets around here! LA drivers are FAST!  I think the bike will wait for weekend cruises, or maybe when I know the streets better and am braver (or crazier).

Sunday night I went out to the field to help with the release of 50 Stephen's Kangaroo Rats, an endangered species that were being translocated from an area that is about to be bulldozed and developed to protected habitat.  The little guys have been in acclimation cages on site for a week, and we simply lifted the wire cages off the top and pulled out the plugs of their cardboard tube burrows.  Now it is up to them if they want to stay or go, but we're hoping they hang out and make that field their home!  They are adorable little guys!

Since I've had some free time before classes start, I went to the LA Natural History Museum on their free Tuesday (can't beat that!) to check out the brand new Dinosaur Hall, which was excellent.  The fossils were in bright, uncluttered rooms with lots of interactive touch screen activities, which was all very modern and grand.  But I can't help being drawn to the classic natural history displays like the giant dioramas in dark, wood paneled rooms which are both morbid and fascinating.  It brings you back to a day when science was really about collecting, and I'm glad we have moved beyond that but there is something about those displays that is still totally captivating.

I took more iPhone photos which I've been a little obsessed with lately, so I'll share a few of those here.

Road Trip to LA

In late July I took a road trip with Jenna to Los Angeles. We found me a place to live for the coming year(!) and explored some of what the city has to offer. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised :) (More photos from my phone camera)

(Me & Jenna at brunch; movie night in the Hollywood Cemetery; view of the hills and the Hollywood sign; Venice Beach; Planetarium; UCLA's Guide to Life- that'll come in handy!; backyard BBQ; cakes at The Alcove; driving back up 101; vineyards near Santa Barbara)

Adventures Close to Home

I've been playing with some apps on my (fairly) new smartphone (and what a smarty it is!) and taking a lot of pictures, since I have this device on me all the time anyway. To share a few of my latest adventures here in the Bay Area- and show off my photo editing skills (haha thank you hipstamatic and instagram) here are a few.

(Creme brûlée maker at the San Francisco Street Food Festival; Dunkin' the pup; Annie & Ian dancing with Dunkin'; Stinson Beach; water lilies in front of the de Young Museum; pie shop)

Tortuguero and the Terrible Turtle Tour

Tortuguero was my last real destination on my travels in Central America, and I really liked the town. I had my own private room and bathroom (!) at a small hotel recommended by a friend that sat right on the beach. There aren't hostels here, so it was more expensive ($20) since I was on my own. I spent the afternoon wandering the town and along the water and watched a spectacular sunset. That night I went on a turtle tour at 10pm to spot sea turtles laying their eggs on the beach. I'm not entirely sure what I expected, but whatever it was, it wasn't this. Obviously I knew it was dark at night, but I had envisioned spotting the turtles from a respectful distance, watching them silently, and feeling a sense of awe at the magnitude of their task. The females swim hundreds of miles to return (usually) to the area where they were born in order to lay eggs 1-4 times a year. They haul themselves out of the surf, clamber up the beach, dig a giant pit of a nest, lay hundreds of eggs over an hour or more, cover the eggs, pat the sand, camouflage (sort of) their nesting site, and then drag themselves back into the water. These creatures, so graceful in the sea, are cumbersome giants on land and it is a miracle they are able to successfully reproduce at all!

Knowing all of this I was excited to witness "the process" as our guide, Robert, called it. But instead of an awe inspiring experience, he viewed it as his means for his existence and seemed to take only a cursory interest in the animals or the quality of our experience. There were 7 of us in his group, and he literally ran us up and down the path along the beach according to the information he had from the professional spotters about where the turtles were. At first I thought he was worried we wouldn't get to see a turtle, but then I realized he wanted to show us the minimum promised as quickly as possible so he could get home.

On paper it was a satisfactory trip for him. We saw a turtle covering her nest, another one returning to the water (followed at a minimal distance by about 20 people), and saw a final mothering laboring through the laying of her eggs. When he moved her back flipper so we could have a better view it almost made me sick with anger. Instead of amazing it all felt so intrusive, so unnecessary, so voyeuristic.

While the tourism of watching turtles at night is fairly well regulated (you must go with a guide, paths are used in the woods behind the beach so you are doing minimal walking on their actual nesting sites, no regular lights or camera flashes are allowed, only faint red lights from the guides) I asked our guide about beach use during the day time and he said it is open to everyone for recreational use. There is nothing that marks known nest areas, there are no signs that there are eggs shallowly buried in the sand, and there is nothing to prevent people from walking on and digging at the nesting areas. For all their talk of conservation, this is one endangered species that needs a lot more protection, even from many of the people and organizations "protecting" it.

Travel Time and La Fortuna

In my final few days I decided to make the haul out to Tortuguero, an area along the Caribbean coast where sea turtles come onto the beaches to lay their eggs. July and August are prime time for the green turtle, though also rainy season and not high time for visitors. The ever helpful Evan from the Tucan hotel in Monteverde made a million phone calls for me and helped me get a direct shuttle-boat combo from the town of La Fortuna, and a taxi-boat-taxi in order to reach Fortuna. Traveling is not always simple, though it is typically worth it!

My one night in La Fortuna I stayed in Gringo Pete's, which had come recommended to me (and, conveniently, was the cheapest in town at $6 a night). I spent the few dusky hours wandering the town which consisted of one main street packed full of tour operators pushing swanky natural hot springs that turn into discos at night, buffet included for $80. I passed on those. At the hostel, Pete, who was akin to Santa Clause in age and stature, though decidedly less jolly, was not my favorite though I ended up meeting some friendly other travelers. Turns out a Dutch guy there had been through Utila months before and my sister was his divemaster. Such a small world! A group of 8 of us went out for drinks and dancing (though it is not as glamorous as it sounds. It was a Sunday night and the one place playing music was a kind of hall with a man singing karaoke. We were the only people on the dance floor at the beginning, and it seemed the locals only decided to come out because we were doing such a butchery of their elegant moves). We all, however, had a good time and when we returned to the hostel after 2am, Pete came out onto a balcony and I am pretty sure was shooting us with rubber bands and definitely hissing at us to be quiet. It was good riddance to his hostel at 7 in the morning when I was picked up by my transport bus.

I made it to Tortuguero without incident. It was a beautiful ride (the parts I wasn't sleeping through) and we drove by mile after mile of banana fields. A "farm" doesn't do these places justice- truly the only way to describe them is as "plantations". There were complex drawbridges and pulley systems over the road, and the trees were producing an inordinate amount of fruit, each bundle of banana practically pulling its slender tree over. Every bunch was wrapped in a large blue plastic bag, protecting it from insects but contributing to the waste that goes into growing (not to mention transporting) this food. Many of the fields were tagged with Chiquita Banana signs, and undoubtedly end up in our local supermarkets. It is pretty incredible to actually see the early stages of this process- and realize how far our food travels!

The final stage of the journey was another boat ride, this time up a river and through a natural canal system, to the island of Tortuguero. (While not actually an island, it is accessible only by boat or by air). The boats are scheduled to leave at 1:30, and there was a long line of people waiting to get on. Though there are 3 different companies, people are shuffled, in a fairly orderly fashion, onto an empty boat and once it is full it pulls away and the process is started again. The boat I ended up on was definitely one of the older ones available, and before setting out our captain came down the narrow center isle to make sure we all were wearing our bright orange life vests. I have been on some pretty dodgy boats, but rarely has the life jacket policy been enforced- I was a bit worried that they expected their passengers to be falling out. Thankfully we made it in one piece, and the town was worth the trek.

Monteverde

I made it to Monteverde a couple of days ago. The weather finally turned great in Tamarindo and some of my favorite people from Utila showed up to hang out for a few days- Alon and Eitan who I had been traveling on and off with, Jen who just finished her divemaster, and Sarah doing a visa run. We all spent a couple of great days on the beach and Jen and I got surf boards and rocked the waves!! By that I mean we surfed baby whitewash, but we were able to get up a bunch of times and had a lot of fun.

I set off with Pablo, a guy I met in San Juan del Sur and ran into again in Tamarindo. We took a 7:30am bus from Tamarindo and after 2 changes and a lot of bumpy roads, arrived in Monteverde at 5:30pm! On a map it looks like it shouldn{t be too far away, but the roads here and windy and the bus will stop for anyone along the way. Our final leg of the trip was the most scenic as well as adventurous, up a steep and windy dirt road in an ancient vehicle. Every time we stopped and had to start again (which was painfully often) there was a great grinding of gears and we all held our breath, hoping we would actually go UP instead of just rolling back down. Luckily I think the driver has been handling that particular bus for the last couple of decades at

least, and we made it slowly but without incident.

Yesterday we went on a canopy tour with Extremo, which consists of wearing a harness and flying around over or through the tree tops on zip lines. Needless to say, it was fantastic! It was almost 3 hours and at least a dozen different lines. We also did a rappel, where you are attached to a rope and drop straight down, and a tarzan swing which is exactly what it sounds like- jumping off a platform on a long rope and when you reach the end with a lurch you just swing back and forth through the jungle. The final zip line, 1km long and 180m high (more than 590ft!!) and we did the Superman, where you are hooked up by your back and feet, flying stretched out and face down over all the trees and valleys. I imagine it is about as close as you can get to feeling like an actual bird, and it was incredible!

Last night I also opted to do a Night Hike through the jungle at Finca Santamaria. Most mammals here are nocturnal, so your best chance of seeing them is to go out at night, in the dark. Even in 2 hours it was amazing how much we could see! Costa Rica is one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world- there are more species per capita than almost anywhere else, and it was great to see a tiny fraction of this. Within the first 5 minutes we spotted a 2 toed sloth and her baby, and they were eating in a tree maybe 8 feet off the ground and right in front of us! Later we spotted another sloth and in the same tree an opossum and a porcupine! There were a bunch of blue morphos butterflies, an owl and a sleeping brown jay, a couple of walking stick bugs, and an ENORMOUS orange kneed tarantula! We got up close to another opossum and saw an armadillo burrow (sans animal, unfortunately) and I saw some sort of housecat sized feline when the guide wasn{t around. We weren{t too far from the start of the hike, so I asked if there actually were housecats in the jungle. He said he had never seen any and didn{t think so, so it is quite possible I saw a wild jungle cat!! The guide showed us bioluminiscent mushrooms- microscopic fungi that use a chemical reaction when it is dark to create light and attract moths, which land on them and then spread their spores which is how they reproduce. We all turned our flashlights off and hiked for about 5 minutes in the pitch black looking for them, which was quite an experience. The guide was great and very knowledgable about all the flora and fauna of the jungle, and has been working there for the past 8 years so was amazing at spotting interesting animals when the rest of us were just worried about tripping over roots! Such an incredible day, I{m so glad I finally made it here!

Costa Rica in the Rainy Season

I've made it all the way down now to Tamarindo, Costa Rica, a beach town on the Pacific. After sleepy San Juan, I feel like I'm in Waikiki. There is a clear disparity of wealth between the two neighboring countries, which was maybe more obvious doing the border crossing with local buses and on foot as opposed to an international bus that shuffles you across. On the ride down to the Nicaraguan border we took the beat up old school buses, and as soon as we crossed into Costa there were more luxury buses, car dealerships everywhere, and prices of pretty much everything had doubled if not tripled.

I'm actually taking a little break from hostel life and staying with a friend I met in San Juan who is from Argentina but lives here in Tamarindo. It actually feels like a mini Argentina here- she has a big group of Argentinian friends who are very sweet and remind me that my Spanish still has a long way to go when I'm in a group of 5 girls gossiping and joking and speaking extremely quickly!

The only downside to Tamarindo is that it is undoubtedly rainy season here. On my first full day it rained heavily and constantly and that night was practically a monsoon! Roads were waist deep with water, the hostel my friend worked at flooded, and all the clubs and bars were shut for fear of electricity in all that water. Somewhat ironically yesterday, when it wasn't raining during the day, all the city water was turned off for about 10 hours. It foiled our plans of showering, cooking, and doing laundry. Once it started raining again in the evening and the water started trickling I took a gamble and went for a shower. Unfortunately it all stopped running in the shower once my hair was full of shampoo and I had to rinse it in the trickle of the kitchen sink. Thank goodness that was still even semi-working! Everyday has been an adventure, and in a few days I will set off again for the jungle and hopefully the Caribbean coast where I will get to see sea turtles laying their eggs on the beach!