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Not
Your Typical Day's Work:
A Conversation with Sarah Hurley, CVT
For more
than ten years, certified veterinary technician, Sarah Hurley of Champagne,
Ill. has been volunteering to participate in research projects for Earthwatch,
an organization that promotes conservation through partnerships between
scientists, educators and the general public. Recently, she traveled
to Sri Lanka to take part in a project studying the evolution of social
behavior in toque macaque monkeys.
Here are
Sarah's experiences and reactions in her own words.
1.
What organization did you volunteer for?
Earthwatch, which funds field research projects through the donations
of the volunteers who also provide needed labor.
The projects include archeological, sociological, and geological studies
as well as those that focus on animal species and ecosystems. The length
of time volunteers commit varies with the project, as do the team members'
tasks, and the location of the study and living conditions. I have participated
in projects involving leatherback sea turtles, black bears, and wildcat
species (jaguar, mountain lion, etc.) over the past 10 years. Their
URL is www.earthwatch.org.
2.
What is the purpose of the monkey project? What was your role? What
did you do during a day on the monkey project?
This project was started over 30 years ago and is still run by Dr. Wolfgang
Dittus. Basically, he is studying the evolution of social behavior in
toque macaque monkeys. Over the years, the project has had a number
of different focuses. A current focus is to understand the long-term
genetic consequences of major social events such as the splitting or
fusion of troops of monkeys. Along with two other volunteers, I spent
about seven to eight hours a day observing one troop of about 30 monkeys.
Specifically, we recorded data on two individuals,
Osaka, a female with an infant, and Oso, a 30-year-old post reproductive
female. Though the monkeys were tattooed, we learned to identify individuals
based on facial features and "hair-style." We would follow
our group around through the forest, noting at one-minute intervalswhat
they were doing and how high off the ground they were doing it. Ifthey
were eating, we identified what the food was and whether they wereactually
chewing it, or storing it in their cheek pouches. We also mapped the
movements of the group, noting the amount of time spent in each area,
the species of trees used for resting or foraging. When our troop encountered
one of the other troops, we attempted to identify the individuals involved
in the confrontation, the resource being contested, and which group
prevailed.
On
one day, we took physiological data from one troop of macaques that
had been trapped for that purpose. We had to work very efficiently in
order to get the monkeys anesthetized, recovered and back with their
troop in one day. This was especially important since the infants are
infrequently carried by their mothers, and are often separated from
their mothers during the trapping process. Several of the field staff
actually did the trapping, which involved baiting a box trap with a
small amount of rice and hiding in the bushes until the monkey went
into the trap, then cutting a rope to close the trap. The monkeys were
then anesthetized with Ketamine, identified with a toe tag and sent
over to us. The vet students were concentrating on collecting parasite
specimens, Dr. Dittus would pull blood samples and take precise measurements
of the length and breadth of dozens of body parts, others would weigh
the animal, check for breast milk, look for scars and injuries, pull
hair samples for DNA analysis, tattoo the inner thigh, record data,
and administer fluids. My role was to concentrate on obtaining vaginal
swabs for a pheromone study, and to do TPRs at specified intervals on
each monkey. The TPRs were part of a new study on the effects of anesthesia.
The big challenge was counting heartbeats and respirations
as others were flipping the monkeys around and calling out measurements
to others recording the data. The toe tags were invaluable ID, since
I was often working 3-4 monkeys simultaneously. I was able to detect
a heart murmur in one young monkey in the process. As a storm unexpectedly
blew up, and we rushed to finish, I also helped look for parasites and
evaluate wounds.
3.
How many people were in your group? Were there any other vet techs?
There were no other vet techs, but there were two Sri Lankan vet students
who were working on a study about parasites in the monkeys and who helped
with processing the lab specimens from the trapped monkeys. Veterinary
medicine in Sri Lanka is focused on food animals. It is a very poor
country. Stray, intact dogs and cats were everywhere. About 80% of the
dogs in Polonaruwa had severe mange and were underweight. The dogs were
all what dogs would look like without any selective breeding: 30-35
lbs, erect ears, long legs, short coats.
4.
How long did the flight take?
Total flight time, including a 2-3 hour layover in Europe was about
24 hours.
5.
How long were you there?
I was in the country for one month. I spent three weeks on the project
and a week traveling around Sri Lanka.
6.
What kind of food did you get to eat?
Mostly, I ate Sri Lankan food, though in the hotels western type foods
were available. Sri Lankan food is primarily vegetarian or fish. Typically
they eat rice and curry. There is a large bowl of white rice and three
to five different dishes of curried vegetables or fish to choose from.
The curry is a blend of cinnamon, curry leaf, cardamom, ginger, saffron,
and nutmeg. Vegetables included breadfruit (a melon sized fruit that
when cut and cooked resembles potatoes), tomatoes, green beans, dhal
(lentil), eggplant, onions, snake gourd and lotus root, among others.
Sambol, a concoction of dry coconut and chilies is added to increase
the spiciness as desired. Most dishes served to westerners were not
very spicy (think Taco Bell mild taco sauce), and since I like my food
very hot, I usually ate with the Sri Lankans and added heaps of Sambol
to boot.
Most of their food has coconut incorporated
into it, though you wouldn't know it if they didn't tell you. A flat
bread, roti, is made from coconut flour, as was a delicious crispy crepe-like
thing called a hopper. The hoppers were bowl-shaped and either used
like a taco shell or held a fried egg (egg hoppers). String hoppers
look like angel hair pasta shaped into a disk or bowl and were an alternative
to rice. There was also fruit at every meal: papaya, mango, pineapple,
mangosteen, plantain, jackfruit, and rambutan were some. Mangosteen
looks like a purple apple. When broken open, it reveals large fleshy
white seeds, which taste something like a cross between a strawberry
and a grape. Rambutan had a similar seed inside a bright red spiky husk.
A fruit I would have liked to encounter, but did not,
is the durian. It is supposed to be delicious, but smells on the outside
like sewage. Most hotels don't even let you bring it inside.
Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) is known for its tea.
I also drank the water from the King Coconut. It is an orange colored
coconut with little meat, used primarily for drinking. I initially tried
it because I had a bit of traveler's diarrhea and had become dehydrated.
The water from the coconut is a natural electrolyte replacement. I felt
rehydrated within 20 minutes of drinking it, something that sipping
water constantly for hours had failed to achieve. I later found out
that during wars when LRS was unavailable, they actually ran this stuff
IV because it is sterile inside the coconut.
7.
What were your sleeping accommodations?
For this project, six of us stayed in a bungalow and the others in small
cabins. There were two people to a bedroom with mosquito nets for each
bed. The bathrooms had cold showers and regular toilets. We had a green
frog that lived in our toilet, jumping up to hide under the seat at
auspicious moments. Though hotels had western style bathrooms as well,
most places in Sri Lanka used squat toilets. These were pits in a cement-floored
outhouse with footprint shaped pads on either side. The pit was ceramic
lined, and usually there was a faucet and a bucket right there to "flush"
with. These were far less smelly than the outhouses typical in US campgrounds.
Rooms were cooled by ceiling fans, except when there was a power outage.
Power outages were scheduled daily, as the country depends upon hydroelectric
power and the monsoons hadn't come yet. Water outages were also common,
since it takes power to pump the water.
One other unusual thing about the accommodations was
that we had to be careful to take precautions to keep monkeys out of
the house. When people complain about raccoons in the garbage here,
I will tell them about monkey proofing. All the windows were covered
with 3X3 wire mesh to keep the monkeys out. Except one of the squares
of wire had to be cut to allow one to insert their hand through to open
and close the windows. The monkeys learned to send in a baby through
that small opening and the baby would then hand stuff out the window.
They will steal and tear apart anything that is edible or smells edible
--cosmetics, shampoo, etc. So we had to close up the windows when we
left during the day. The monkeys also chew the electric wires outside,
forcing homeowners to run the wires through PVC piping.
8.
Were you in any danger in the jungle? What precautions did you take?
The
ecosystem there isn't what most people would think of when they think
of a jungle. It is more like a forest here --with deciduous trees and
a lot of 5-8 foot bushes. The area we were in was only a mile from a
village and was actually a substantial village (and the capital of a
kingdom) in the 10th
century.
Archeological ruins share the space with the macaques.
It is a small peninsula of forest, which is connected to a much larger
forested area on the other side of a reservoir. There are poisonous
snakes about, but unfortunately, I didn't get to see any. These are
not too much of a danger, since usually the monkeys will spot them and
give an alarm call. Some large scorpions came out after it rained one
day. We found several at the research station. Wild elephants visit
the area and we did not study one group of monkeys in order to avoid
an accidental encounter with an elephant that was in their home range.
Probably the biggest danger, as is often the
case, comes from the smallest creature. Malaria is present in Sri Lanka,
though rare in Polonaruwa. Many volunteers chose to take preventative.
I did get attacked by a leech, but that was walking through the botanical
garden in one of the cities. I didn't even know it until I realized
my pant leg was soaked through with blood. I continued to bleed for
another eight hours! Amazing anti-coagulant.
9.
What did you see while you were traveling around the country?
After I finished up my stint with the project, I traveled around the
country and attended the Perahera in Kandy. Kandy is the second largest
city and the site of the Temple of the Tooth. The tooth is Buddah's
and is the most sacred of relics in this largely Buddist country. The
Perahera is the largest festival in
Sri Lanka. For 10 days leading up to the full moon in August, a nightly
parade of dressed up elephants, traditional dancers and musicians, fire
jugglers, and whip-crackers proceeds slowly from the temple.
Each night the parade becomes more elaborate
and elephants arrive from all over the country, so that there are over
50 elephants participating in the final parade. It was the most fabulous
spectacle that I have ever witnessed. The fire from the torches, the
constant primitive melodies and drumming, the whirling dancers (who
never stopped during the entire course of the parade) and the stately
elephants in their bejeweled garb were mesmerizing.
10.
Anything else you may want to throw in?
There's probably too much already, but here's more. The wildlife was
amazing. I saw wild elephants, buffalo, and boars, as well as flying
foxes, crocodiles, land monitor lizards and a water monitor that had
to be 90 pounds. Grey langurs, purple langurs, and loris are other primates
that share the forest with the macaques. We regularly saw a species
of squirrel the size of a housecat, hare, raptors and large water birds,
colorful kingfishers and beeeaters, and deer. It is very cool to see
people riding elephants down a busy city street.
Many people were aware that while I was there,
the airport was attacked by terrorists and half of Air Lanka's planes
were destroyed. I was not near the airport when the attack occurred,
but my departure from Sri Lanka was delayed by 24 hours, since they
were unable to accommodate all the ticket
holders, even 10 days later. Despite the problem at the airport, and
the State Department's subsequent warning, I would recommend Sri Lanka
to anyone thinking of making the trip. It is a fascinating place, and
I never felt remotely in danger.
They have a political situation that is not
unlike the one in Ireland. There are armed checkpoints on the roads,
but the terrorism has been mostly aimed at government targets and 95%
or more of Sri Lankans of all cultures and faiths get along beautifully.
I didn't feel any tension or threat and would not hesitate to go again.
Some of my photos can be viewed at http://communities.msn.com/ShurleysSite.
Click on "Photo albums." Some photos are represented by a
graphic. Click
on it, and the photo will appear.
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