Small Mammals, Big World: Rain, research, reading and rescues (sums up what I’ve been doing)

So since the last time I blogged (which was sooo long ago I know!), it rained for a whole solid day inside the park and out all the way to Ovalle where we go for groceries and internet. We set out to trap that day in the park and soon realized that what we thought might be a morning sprinkle was going to be a true “rain”. When we talk about rain here the people always say “was the water running?” which basically means was there flowing water moving down the roads. If not, then it’s not really a rain. So we had to stop working and took that opportunity to go to town for groceries. We noticed as we were leaving the park that there was some kind of bike event going on, we kept seeing groups of people biking through Fray Jorge and even outside the park by our town. When we left to go the highway some were sticking out their thumbs to hitchhike so we let them get in the bed of the truck with their bikes and dropped them off at the highway. They were very appreciative and asked us what we were doing here, and then said thank you very much in English to us. When I drove into Ovalle that day there were literally rivers flowing through the town. Luckily we have our high clearance 4x4 truck so the water didn’t stop us but I couldn’t believe how some of the little sedans were risking it. The rain is very exciting for me because it means that it might not be such a bad year for the degus food-wise, and the chances of them forgoing breeding this year, like last year, will be much smaller.

Wet pups

Each day Megan, Alex, Kendra, and Kendall go out to perform day telemetry from 9:30-5pm. In the morning I trap at my site to find degus that will be part of my official trapping in September-October. In the afternoon I move over to one of the enclosures to trap degus for Megan’s project. She still needs 1 more degu from an enclosure to give more power to her research, but unfortunately it is a very inactive enclosure biologically. We call it the ghost town. I don’t catch degus often, and if I do they are male (we need a female).

Megan's team ready to rock!

Simulating telemetry

Kendra's always making a silly face for pics

Some of my degus

We are very lucky to have Alex working here with us because she is a great cook and enjoys it (she says). After a long day in the field we are always grateful that she is willing to cook. Also, she makes delicious zucchini bread. We’ve had it so many times in Chile and you can imagine that between five of us it does not last long (doesn’t even usually make it past dessert).

I started reading an interesting book called What We Should Be Worried About. A group of scientists come together each year to talk about a specific topic and one year it was what they are worried about. They are psychologists, physicists, evolutionary biologists, mathematicians, economists, etc. It brings up interesting points for conversation but I know that since each point is the opinion of one specific scientist it is very biased. I asked Kendra about one piece that mentioned the Baha’i faith (of which her family are members). Specifically the author mentioned that Baha’i believe, like Christians, etc. that there will be Battle of Armageddon. She wrote to her mom and it seems that that is not in fact a belief of the Baha’i so that makes me question the fact-checking of the group/editors/etc. Nonetheless, it is a very interesting book that brings up topics like aliens, dependence on technology, population growth vs prosperity growth, and even some people’s concerns about future underpopulation on Earth.

As I was waking up the other morning I had that moment where I didn’t know I was here and felt like I was home and I genuinely felt that my dog Waldo was sleeping the crook behind my knees. He did this a lot and I would know that I couldn’t just kick my legs around as I might have if he wasn’t there. I quickly realized that there wasn’t an actual dog here with me and I was wishing that there was. I told the group about this as we drove to the park. We parted ways for our daily activities. When I was driving back from trapping before I could even get out of the car Juan and Megan were yelling to me about a little dog in the park and pointing out by one of the enclosures. Kendra was luring a scared little black dog to her with peanuts. I guess they had been seeing this dog around all day and fed it some of their lunches. Kendra managed to pick up the dog and we all agreed to take it back with us. We had this same issue last year when we found 3 dogs in the park and the park guards take it seriously about no dogs being in the park to the point where I remember us all being concerned last year that they were going to kill the dogs (we never were sure what happened to them). So we took him home. He was so scared of all of us at first and didn’t like the other dogs around the property which bummed me out because I was hoping he would just join their pack. We decided to let him hang out in the house, where he started to warm up to us, and immediately made himself home on the little couch we have. We gave him water and food and decided to keep him in the house overnight because he was skin and bones, scared, and it was very cold and very very windy that night. He didn’t have any accidents or anything, he has an instinct to pee outside, and didn’t make a peep in the night. We felt bad about leaving him the next morning to go to work, and he tried to chase our truck at first. We all thought about him throughout the day, and I was worried we would never see him again. Kendra and I were walking around the property looking for him when we got home and we both had a concerned look in our eyes, I think we were both assuming he was gone. And then it was just like the scene from Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey! He came running out of nowhere to us sooo excited wagging his tail and leaping up onto us!!! We were so happy. Today was much better, he was just sitting under my hanging laundry when we came home. Still soo excited to see us though!! He is very vocal and likes to “talk” to us and but his front paws and stretch on us, and almost leaps into our arms. He would be an awesome agility dog, but his is sooo tiny! As silly as he is in those moments, he will just curl up on the couch and sleep for the rest of the time. The first day we had him, a couple selling empanadas came to our gate and we bought some. I ate one and put one on the table meaning to bring it for lunch the next day but when I came out of the kitchen what do I see but Zorro up on the table and he grabbed my empanada!! We took it from him but he got a big bite out of it and then I figured he might as well have rest. It had some meat in it which we don’t keep in the house but clearly a dog needs in their diet so I was happy to contribute that to his dinner. We will be getting him dog food tomorrow in Ovalle. It’s so nice to have a dog inside the house to pet and talk to. But I do want him to join the pack of dogs that hangs out around the property so when we leave he will have that stability. They get fed by the construction workers and other people in the town. It was funny that we found him the day that I was wishing I had a dog to sleep in my bed. I restrained from bringing him into our room because he could have fleas, ticks, etc. but by the second night I said I was going to put him on my bed for the night. He was passed out on the couch when we came back from telemetry around 1130 so I let him stay put, and I’m very glad about that now because the next morning I discovered that he has worms! Not surprising for a stray dog. In fact, the dog Oso has the same problem (the construction workers told us about it a while ago). We are going to pick up some medication for him in Ovalle, where it is apparently pretty cheap.

The little prince. I know it's not good quality but I had to show him in his spot

The day we rescued him!

Sleepy Zorro

So that’s been the excitement around here! For anyone that’s wondering about my project, it’s going well. There’s not many degus, even compared to last year, but I’m working everyday to find active burrow systems. Due to the rain, there is actually green things sprouting from the ground which didn’t happen last year! Maybe I’ll actually have food to measure for my dataset this year (fingers crossed).