Small Mammals, Big World: Time Travel

I recently read Amy Poehler’s book Yes, Please, and in it she talks about time travel, which she has experienced a lot in her life. She describes a way in which we all time travel. It is that time when you buy some clothes and think about when you might wear them, or when you are anticipating some big event in your life, and then before you know it you are in that moment and still remember the time when you were just imagining being there. When I told Megan about this she knew exactly what that felt like and we talked about feeling that way in elementary school and thinking about being a 5^th grader one day, or thinking about when you would finally get your driver’s license. I keep thinking about time traveling to the end of November when I am back in the US, or to the day when I have officially completed my Master’s degree. Before I know it I will realize I time traveled there. I am experiencing somewhat of the opposite right now. I can’t believe a year has passed since I started my field season last year. I feel like I have gone back in time. I experience the same emotions: wondering if the degus are actually pregnant, excitement when I see that they’re gaining a lot of weight, worrying if I have enough social groups, and thinking about all the other measurements I will need to be taking soon. When I’m out in the field I feel like I’m back in 2014. Of course, I’m in a different house (with a fridge, real bedding, an adorable dog, and electricity!) and I have a different assistant, but it is still very familiar, which sometimes bums me out since it makes me feel like nothing has changed and my degus will fail to have pups again.

Luckily, I don’t think that will be the case! We have females that are steadily gaining a lot of weight (ok, that happened last year, too), but they are definitely more pear-shaped and are even heavier (one is already 208g) than last year.

This season is very different because of all the rain from last month. I swear every day it gets greener and greener with more and more flowers (pics below). I love seeing them push up through the dirt! I’ve seen a few guanacos at my site in the last month, and this time they were moving slowly through, so no threat of getting run over J The other day a big group of donkeys came to hang out in our front yard. One night a gigantic spider came out from under a blanket that was on the floor by my bed, and I was too freaked out to even scream. Besides a tarantula it was the biggest spider I’ve seen, and last year we saw a few tarantulas here that were smaller than this spider. The picture doesn’t do it justice, it was scary. I think its diameter was around 4 inches. I put it outside and besides googling it to figure out if it was dangerous, I tried not to think about again (and I haven’t until now). Please don’t tell me if it was the Chilean recluse, I don’t want to know. Our dog Zorro is finally getting over his social anxiety! He has made friends with other dogs and knows how to play now. We have a cat that hangs out with us when we’re home, and even though she hisses like crazy at him, he doesn’t bat an eye. I respect him for that because she can be horrible for no reason. He is ridiculous with his separation anxiety though. When Megan was still here there was a day we left to go to the field and at that time we were still leaving him outside the house. We knew he chased our truck in the mornings, but he would always be back at the house when we got home in the afternoon. One day we left really early so it was dark and we couldn’t see if he was chasing us. As per usual we had to stop at the gate to the park to get the key from its hiding spot, open and close the gate. It didn’t appear that he’d followed us. We got to my site and after a few minutes of getting equipment ready, I hear a weird noise, look over and see Zorro running at us. He had sprinted 10 miles to my site in the park! I don’t even know how he got in through the gate because there is another fence to keep wildlife out. We left him in the truck (with the windows cracked and with water) while we worked. After that we started leaving him in the house. He doesn’t do any damage and probably sleeps all day, but acts like we are leaving him forever as we pack up in the morning. Seriously, he starts shaking and tries to go out and get into the truck with us. When we come home he is just as emotional. Luckily, he seems to understand the routine now.

This Friday Chile celebrates the Fiesta Patria, which is their independence day. It is the biggest holiday they have and we’ve been invited to celebrate with our neighbors. We’ve been chatting with them a little more, and one even brought us eggs from his chickens. We’ve learned that they’ve only had electricity here for 2 years. Before that they said they just carried candles around at night. It’s interesting to speak with them about the animals we see in the park, because they have different names for them. One of our neighbors is involved in educating the public about Fray Jorge, and he says it’s hard to talk to biologists that work there because they use the scientific names and he knows the informal names (not even the common names). They call the degu the rat with the paintbrush tail (ratón cola de pincel), which is a very accurate description.