Carnivore Study

Sorry for the lack of pictures again, the camera stopped working.

The night of telemetry follies

Estela, the boss, has gone to the city to help a friend whose mother has just passed away and I am alone in the field house. I am determined to do some telemetry while she is gone, so I gather the equipment, put on my field clothes, and find the old clunker of a bike in the garage. The bike mechanics I know would have fun with this one. The wind is blowing like crazy, but I really want to do something for Estela so I try anyway. The closest carnivore is Ringo, a fox, and is 4 km away from town. The wind is whipping down the dirt road and blowing so much sand in my face, I can’t hear all the horrific noises the bike makes as I crank on the peddles, trying to make some progress down the road. 4 km is usually only a short distance, but in these circumstances, it felt like forever. The sun was quickly setting and I didn’t have much time. I took the antenna in my right hand to look for Ringo while I desperately tried to steer with my left hand.

Beep Beep Beep…

Ah Ringo, there you are… over in that patch of tall grass near the creek. I have to take a few closer points of telemetry so I ditch the bike on the side of the road in some tall grass and take the gear to Ringo. I climb two barbed wire fences and then a third. I take another point, closer to Ringo. I can hear with the equipment that he is moving so I have to be quick. I quickly surround Ringo in the grass patch and easily take all the points I need. Thanks for cooperating, Ringo! I head back to the road in the dissapearing sunlight and finally make it to the road. I was in such a hurry to leave the house, I just grabbed the first headlight I could find which happened to be one that only worked 6 inches in front of your face. By the time I made it to the road, all the residual light had disappeared and I couldn’t see where I left the bike. The moon was just beginning to appear as a tiny sliver in its cycle and wasn’t any help in luminating my way. Hmmmm. Wandering up and down the road searching for the bike, I started to worry about what I would have to tell Estella if I couldn’t find the bike. I would have to walk the entire 4 km alone at night back to the house and break the news when she returned. It was so dark that I couldn’t see any of the topographical landmarks to give me a clue of how close I was to the creek, or the patch of trees, or the pile of rocks. Nothing.

But low and behold, there it was, right where I left it on the side of the road. Relieved, I grab my things and start to ride back to the house. The wind is now blowing on my back and I realize I am riding downhill. Ahhhhhh.

In the distance I see headlights. Ahhhh man! A car. I don’t want to have to explain what the hell I am doing in the dark on a bike, in the middle of agricultural land with a huge antenna… in Spanish. I contemplate jumping into the ditch and hiding from the car. Then I think, no, they are too close, they have already seen me, and that would be even harder to explain. I get off the bike and smile and wave as they race by. Thank goodness they didn’t stop. I finally make it back to the house and check the time that I took the triangulation to make sure it wasn´t at the same time. Well, as luck would have it, the triangulation occurred at the exact same time as the day before. All for nothing. Ha-ha.

Anyway, I am so happy I ended up taking the volunteer job with the carnivore study. The best part was meeting the people of the project, making connections with other biologists, and discussing how research is conducted in countries out of the first world. Looking for the carnivores with the telemetry was great, but I really cherished meeting all the people from the University. A couple days during the week the jefa (boss) and I came to the University and that is where I got to meet so many great people. I hung out at students´ houses, drinking mate, trying to speak spanish, and laughing a lot. Ugo and Patricio, a couple of undergrad students, took me to the movies that evening, and later that night we went back to the jefa´s house and ate pizza and drank Budwieser (Blah!).

Introducing Patricio, 25

Patricio talks like he has a potatoe in his mouth in Spanish, but is learning English and is eager to practice. He speaks much clearer in English even though he knows few words. He likes hard rock and is almost finished with his biology degree.

Introducing Ugo, 24

Wow- Que Guapo!
Ugo is a very good looking and funny guy, but the language barrier is so difficult. He talks very fast and uses a lot of slang and hardly speaks any English. He is very friendly and takes me on a walk around the park to show me the polluted pond and we laugh at the few sentences we can understand. He is studying the biology of bed bugs. His girlfriend has been in Australia doing her PhD for 8 months now, but he is still holding on. Everyone else says she doesn´t want to be with him, but he is still talking about her and is being faithful. ahhhhh, que pueril y triste.

Introducing Estela la Jefa, 33.

Always laughing, not taking life to seriously, standing about 4 ft. 11 inches tall, Estela and I stay at the Field House together to conduct the telemetry. She and I have so much in common, and I frequently see myself in her. She grew up in a town in the interior of the country near the Chilean border, but uses the strong sczha sczha sczha accent of Buenos Aires. She is in love with foxes, being in the field, and would prefer to climb over fences chasing a carnivore than talk to the local people and be involved in the politics of conservation. However, she has good relations with the people she knows, sharing asado (BBQ) and mate with the farm people on Sundays.

Introducing Lucia, 37

Lucia is Estela´s funny roommate. She laughs a lot and is a bad influence on Estela. They are contantly gossiping together and Lucia loves to make jokes. She wants to tell her stories in English, but she doesn´t want to leave anything out. By the time she figures out how to tell all her jokes about her story, we have moved on to a new topic and she never gets to finish the story. They say their number one priority is wrinkles, the number two is rolls, and number three is their relationships with men.

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