Wet Monkeys

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It's been raining here. I like it. It may prevent us from seeing some of the creatures today during our field studies but the sounds it very soothing. It's also funny to see the monkeys all wet. the fur on top of their heads looks like when someone towel dries their hair and stands up all crazy. SO CUTE!
Today is Herpetofauna day. Herpetofauna is the study of amphibians and reptiles. We just had lecture and after luch we are going to have lab. Then, we will roam campus and look for more specimens. Today we have Prof. Anselm de Silva. He is one of the most qualified herpetofauna experts in all of Asia, the most qualified in Sri Lanka. He has about 300 published books and has conducted many studies here. He is a great teacher. So helpful! He brought many of his "pets" to show us in lab today. I might get to milk a snake in a little bit. We'll see if he'll let us all do it. I really want to! There are many poisonous snakes here. The cat snake is common around our bungalow. And there are a few that are very poisonous around campus too. I can't wait to see them.
I knew Sri Lanka has been credited for it's biodiversity but I never grasped how well deserved their credit was. Sri Lanka is one of 26??? "hot spots". A hot spot is a country in which the biodiversity exceeds a certain number. Sri Lanka has thousands of endemic species of plants and animals. Endemic means only found in this country/habitat. I get to see a few today and when we go out to the parks. 26.5% of Sri Lanka is protected because of its biodiversity. I believe that's more than any other country in the world. It's really amazing!
Yesterday after I wrote in my blog I went to the vertebrae lecture. That was cool I leaned about a lot of animals I've never even heard of before. We went to Kandy to shop last evening. I met a man named Ernvu??? He helped us out a lot! He took us to the local market and made all the vendors stay honest about the market prices. He is half Sri Lankan and half Italian. He was a character!! Awesome man! I hope I see him again! I bought a few gifts. It was fun. Then Siri made us dinner. His goal is to fatten us all up before we leave here. So far he is succeeding. He is the best cook EVER! (sorry grandma) Speaking of food it's luch time, got to go! Bye!
- Allegra

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