Degu Power

Trapping has been going very well- except that the sun is rising earlier and earlier so we will have to get up earlier and earlier. We're still waking up around 6 because I can't bear to set an alarm in the 5am hour. That will happen this week though. My new assistant is here! I'll have to do a little profile on him next if he lets me. His name is Matias and so far he has been doing a great job! More importantly he has a lot of movies and tv shows on a hard drive so we have new stuff to watch at night! We watched American Psycho the other night and he and Katie had nightmares about it. We watched Pitch Perfect with Juan- he said he couldn't fall asleep that night because he kept laughing about the movie. We even got Megan to watch it and she never watches movies with us! We're still quoting lines from the movie. One day we thought he was lost hiking up to the forest so Katie and I drove up to find him. The guardaparque told us he had already started hiking back down but it wasn't a waste because I got to see the ocean of clouds! 

We also saw the ocean from the forest on one of Matias' first days in the park.

As you have probably heard from Facebook. Little Jorge the hummingbird died. He was doing very well but I doubt his wing would ever get better. On very cold days he would go into torpor and then it would get really hot again in the house, so maybe his body was just very stressed. 

In more positive animal news....Nubz survived another fox attack! She's invincible. Matias found her in a trap and clearly a fox had been digging all around her. She was unscathed except for a small cut on her ear. What a badass. We are going to stay out by the traps in the mornings to scare foxes away. 

I've still been finding new degus while I'm focusing my trapping efforts. I have around 75 burrow systems tagged- a social group of degus will use around 2-5 burrow systems to sleep and rear young. So it is important I find all the burrow systems a group may use so that I can trap their pups in September/October. I have enough traps for around 40 burrow systems. We have found some very pregnant females lately and I can't wait to see the pups! They do not emerge until about 30 days after being born, and no females are lactating yet so I still have weeks until I will be able to hold one of the little guys. 

Just call me Mountain Maddie

Megan, Erin and I left Fray Jorge for Santiago on August 6th to take Erin to the airport. That's right, Erin has returned to the US and a life of regular showers, shaved legs and internet! We are going to miss her so much, but we had a very fun last night in the park with her. Unfortunately Santiago was not as fun as we thought it would be. The city was so overwhelming, and having to drive a truck in that city did not make the experience any more pleasant. But I decided pretty quickly that I preferred Fray Jorge and pretty much wanting to get back to the park and Juan ASAP. My parents are afraid I will want to live in the mountains with only dogs now. Not to be a downer but the energy, massive crowds and intense noise was just to much for me to handle and made me appreciate the peace and quiet in FJ. Plus if I want solitude in the park I can just wander into the desert alone. Also, if you've driven with me you know I have a lead foot so driving in the city was miserable- and no one follows traffic laws. In FJ my only competition on the road is a fox or a rabbit- and the occasional tourist or guardaparque- so I have can drive however I want. One positive thing about Santiago is all the happy dogs!!! I am smiling just thinking of them.

Erin's last night party!

There was a surprise visitor when we returned to Juan's house in FJ- a little hummingbird named Little Jorge (or Little George). His wing was hurt so Katie took him in and they've been trying to nurse him back to health. He has to eat every couple hours and I told them that I do not want to take responsibility for an animal's life so I just look at him. He probably won't make it is a little sad. 

Katie feeding her George. The boys have been calling him her son. 

My assistant comes early Tuesday morning (I have to pick him up at 5am!) And then the real work begins. 

Nubz and river trekking

On 8/1/14 Megan found a really tough lady degu with a nub for an arm! I was still in Valley #1 when Megan and Erin were in Valley #2 and apparently there was a lot of excitement upon her discovery. The crazy thing is that we ear tagged her in June and have trapped, handled, and weighed her many times since then and somehow did not notice the nubbin!! We can’t decide if it is a birth defect or maybe she survived a fox attack? Anyways, Nubz was an exciting find.  

I’ve been trapping a lot and started radio-collaring ladies to find out where they are sleeping so I can trap all the right burrow systems once my project officially begins in a few weeks. Katie came with me the first night and I was terrified the whole time that a puma would jump out at us. I feel more comfortable doing it in the morning when I know the sun will come up. The trouble with radio collaring now is that the females have to be heavy enough that the collar doesn’t add too much weight but at the same time we don’t want to collar ladies that are too far along in pregnancy.  

Little lady enjoying some oats after radio-collaring

We visited Juan’s family again. He had to go home to get something for his motorcycle and we asked if we could come along for an adventure. Juan brought out a bunch of books for us to pick from so now I will be really challenging myself by reading Spanish! He also brought out many photo albums to see pictures from his past! It was great!

I finished the book Cloud Atlas-it was so good! Megan and Erin have also seen the movie and say it’s really good. It’s so weird though that I can’t really picture it as a film. I’m out of physical books now. I have many on my computer but the battery charger doesn't always work in the house so I can’t read on it all the time. Hopefully the Spanish books will be interesting!

River Trekking- Juan took us on another adventure! When I was opening traps in the morning I saw a falling star (estrella fugaz) and thought that meant it would be a lucky day. Trapping did not go well but I was excited that Juan was going to take us swimming in the river. We had a great time (except when my Chacos were almost lost in the mud). But we went swimming with Juan and laughed a lot.

String of frog eggs

The gang minus Erin- Megan didn't have shoes on so Juan carried her around!

THEN… we realized when we were almost back to the house that we had a flat tire. Juan, Erin, Katie and I spent the rest of the day and night driving around the highway trying to find a mechanic to patch up the tire. Not exactly a lucky day. But we had fun with Juan and we decided to drink a lot of wine to forget our bad luck. ALSO, Juan made picarones that night. Picarones are a peruvian donut dessert made with a squash called zapallo. He had made us another dessert with squash a few nights before that was more like fry bread. 

Picarones

Picarones with the syrup like sauce

Megan and I will be taking Erin to Santiago in a few days because she is going back to Tennessee. I don’t know what I’ll do without her here. She has the best attitude and great positive energy. I am excited to visit Santiago again, but I have to do a lot while I’m there- meet with colleagues, change out the truck, pack up the new truck with traps and supplies, and wait in line forever to extend my tourist card. 

The next exciting thing for the blog will be the arrival of my new field assistant in about a week!