This week I attended an excellent excellent Safe-Capture International Inc. immobilization course taught by Dr. Keith Amass.  I learned an incredible amount of useful information for handling animals safety in the field.  I then spent two days in the field with a graduate student studying road-crossings and red-wolf ecology in North Carolina.  We caught a 450lb black bear and I helped work through the processing of the animal to place a radio-collar.  I also attended a Trapper Education Program developed by the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.  We got hands on experience with the best practices for trapping and I am now a certified trapper in North Carolina.

North Carolina Trapping Photos

I'm currently at the Smithsonian’s GIS lab in Front Royal, Virginia to focus on data analysis and writing.  Luckily, I have a very helpful intern who is processing 500 of my interview survey responses.

My field assistant continues to monitor camera traps and is trying to get collars on other dogs.  I did receive a travel grant from my department at UMass, so I am ready to return to Thailand!

My field assistant continues to monitor our camera traps and will attempt to place GPS collars on 2 domestic dogs each month.  My adviser, Nucharin Songsasen, is currently in Thailand seeking more information about our permit status, the capacity of our collaborators to analyze DNA from dhole fecal samples, and the feasibility of future trapping plans.

Good news:  My proposal entitled "The Threat of Domestic Dogs to Endangered Dholes and Other Wildlife" was awarded $3,000 from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Cleveland Zoological Society Conservation Grants Program.

December is definitely dhole month as we continued to get an influx of dhole and even jackal photos.  This is exciting because jackals have not been verified in the sanctuary for years.  My monthly goal was to place 4 GPS collars on domestic dogs.  This was not met due to a number of unforeseen problems including weeks of downed cell-phone communications in the area, a collar manufacturer sending me an incorrect data download cable, conflicts with software and drivers, and problems with battery life and programming schedules.  I did manage to put out two collars a week ago and I will follow-up with the dogs and download data at the end of this week.

At the end of November, my initial research permit of 2 years expired and we applied for an extension (which was supposed to take less than 1 month).  It is nearing the two month waiting period for my research project extension.  This has to be approved by the Thailand Department of National Parks (DNP) and passed on to the National Research Council of Thailand who then writes me a letter to enable me to apply for a research visa.  Therefore, I cannot get a research visa until my permit extension is granted and I am told this will be an indeterminate amount of time.  Because of recent changes in the DNP staff it does not look like I will have approval before my current tourist visa expires on January 14th.  I cannot enter the country again on a tourist visa because I have used up the maximum of concurrent visas of this type.  It appears it will be most useful for me to return to the US on the 14th of January and work at the Smithsonian’s GIS lab. 

I am currently scrambling to make a new plan that will allow me to finish my dissertation.  This may involve returning to Thailand this fall for further data collection.  I would still like to track movements of domestic dogs as part of the disease aspect of my project and we don’t have the full results from the blood analysis disease tests yet either.  I currently have 13 cameras out in the forest.  We were using the cameras to keep track of our focal dhole pack for future trapping.  Dhole collaring is now out of the time frame for my dissertation, but I would still like to pursue this as part of the overall project.  I am working on a plan to pull all these cameras or work with my assistant to keep up some data collection while I am away.  I also need to rapidly figure out how to store my supplies and personal belongings.

Our dhole pack is showing a healthy presence; we had multiple photos at most camera locations.  The clouded leopard is an outstanding bonus.

This month took an unexpected turn because I lost my research visa due to a stamping error when I last re-entered the country.  Despite two full days lost waiting in lines and politely arguing my point at the immigration office, I ended up having to leave Thailand for a couple of days to apply for a tourist visa.  I now have a 60 day visa while I wait for my research permit extension (potentially 1-2 months) and then I can apply for a new research visa.

November 24-27 I participated in a workshop on the small mammalian carnivores of Thailand.  It was an excellent exchange of information between researchers and conservationists involved in monitoring illegal wildlife trade.  We spent hours checking the identification of species in camera trap photos and I learned to better distinguish mongooses, otters, and fishing cats.  The group identified research priorities for groups of species and we discussed appropriate sampling and ways to increase data collection on the small carnivores for researchers who are currently using camera traps.  The organizers brought together camera trap datasets from throughout Thailand.  I will be able to access this collection to conduct a nationwide habitat-suitability model for dholes.  I also plan to research the historical records for canids in Thailand now that I have tips on where to start my search.

At the end of the month Baa Jii (“Yaai”), my cook, gossip connection, and primary friend at the sanctuary passed away.  I am now setting myself up to be a bit more isolated and on my own for food.

In December I will focus on tracking 4 GPS collars on roaming domestic dogs.  I am *still* working on manuscript edits for a paper on the results of camera trapping in Khao Yai National Park.  Plus, this week I will finalize edits from reviewer comments on a short large-spotted civet note.  I also volunteered to help write up the strategy document that will be an outcome of the small mammal workshop.  We hope to have the meeting proceedings finalized by Dec. 27th.

If you are on Facebook, it is no secret that the last two months I have been globetrotting in Africa and Japan.  Unexpected opportunities arose that I took advantage of while there is a lull in my trapping permits.  My ongoing camera trapping was covered by assistants while I was away and resulted in only one dhole photo.  I immensely enjoyed bush camping in game reserves and national parks in South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.  It offered a break from all of the hurdles thrown at me during fieldwork and a chance to reconnect with the energy of actually seeing wildlife (including lions and a serval!).  In Japan, I was invited (and fully sponsored) by Dr. Hayashi Yoshihiro, a professor at the University of Tokyo (and the mammal curator of their museum) to give a presentation about my dhole research.  This took place at the Hyogo Wildlife Management Research Center.  I talked with graduate students involved in carnivore work and also learned about bear traps.

In September, I sent in a pre-proposal to the Asia Seed Grant program of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  My proposal was chosen to advance to the next round, so I am currently working on a full proposal.  My Fulbright grant also ended this month and I was required to write a final report on the year.

We are working on a new proposal for the Smithsonian IACUC committee and on research permit extensions from Thailand (which translates to never ending forms).  What does this mean?  No trapping (probably not until February of next year).  I am now focusing on the potential disease spillover from domestic dogs’ angle.  I have one GPS collar and 3 other collars in transit.  In November I will focus on getting these out on roaming dogs.  We also plan to start the blood disease analysis at the University lab and revisit villages for a census of the domestic animal populations.

August was a slow month as we wait for permission from the Animal Care and Use Committee at the Smithsonian to give the green light for further trapping.  We did have a couple of lone dhole sightings around the Research Station, but no dholes photographed.  Instead, we took a big hit on equipment:  Two of my brand new camera traps were stolen!  We finally got ourselves elephant proof cases, but they aren't bullet proof!  The thief actually shot off the locks, took the cameras, and left behind the steel protective cases still bolted to the trees.  We talked to the villagers and explained the purpose of the cameras, but they confirmed the cameras were destroyed.  Additionally, one more cage trap was crushed by a family of elephants.

We nearly finished the construction of two long box traps for set up directly on trails and ordered 4 GPS collars for domestic dog tracking.  My team conducted 100 interview surveys in Buriram province to the east.  I am now busy with data entry for a total of 500 surveys.

 I also wrote up a short note for "Small Carnivore Conservation" to document the Large-Spotted Civet photographs we have gotten at Khao Yai National Park and in Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary.

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).