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Published: January 30th 2010
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Life in the field (particularly in the Amazon) certainly has its hazards, but there are some things that you just don’t see coming! Here are some anecdotes:
I’ll start with what is probably the most impressive one - this morning I got bitten by a bullet ant, which apparently is the most painful insect bite (as the name might suggest). At any rate, the supersize ants are terrifying and heavily avoided due to the unpleasantness (is that a word?) of their simultaneous bite/sting. As we were doing some bushwhacking, I felt something biting my knee and looked down to see a bullet ant biting me through my pants! So rude. The bite definitely hurt and basically I became a really angry person. I called Kat, a fellow field assistant, over to me to break out the venom extractor and to try to get some of the venom out of my leg. Not going to lie, having venom sucked out of my leg with THE EXTRACTOR (as it’s called) felt pretty hardcore. Anyways, the bite hurt and only a few minutes after I started sweating profusely, and felt nauseous and like I was going to faint. I quickly popped an
extra strength ibuprofen and began to feel better. So while I’m fine now the worst is yet to come - about 12 hours or so post-bite, you start to feel really sick; nauseous with a splitting headache. Super. Being the nerds that we are, after the bite incident, all of us started cursing bullet ants and questioning why they had evolved such a powerful bite! Seriously, what eats these guys?!
I’ve also mentioned the fire ants before, which are heinous little things. They’re so tiny that it’s difficult to see them on you and they love to crawl into your clothes, but they pack a pretty powerful punch for something so small. I’ve gotten several of those bites in the past couple of days, so I’m kind of hating on ants in a big way right now.
Some other dangerous animals include capuchins, which I’ve talked about before. So these monkeys are basically awesome. They are really really smart (probably the smartest New World monkeys) and kind of obnoxious; they make tons of noise and you always know when they’re about. Fun fact: they also try to throw things, big things, at you when you’re below them. I
wasn’t really too concerned about it, but the other day Kat and I were hiking and we looked up to see a capuchin sitting near a stick that legitimately looked like a spear. As we kept watching him, he decided it would be a good idea to grab another stick to hit the spear free so that it would fall on us. Though he missed, it was kind of a startling experience. Never really thought I would have a capuchin trying to spear me in the Amazon, but I guess it happens.
Another nice early morning surprise: we were tracking the tamarins early in the morning around 5am, when it’s still dark, and there’s this particular deep swamp that they like to sit above, probably because we can’t get to them there. Anyways, on this morning, we decided to be a bit more aggressive and Kat, who was leading the way, tentatively stepped into the edge of the swamp in the hopes of spotting our little guys. Bad idea. We heard a huge splash and I’ve got to say, as soon as I heard it, I turned around and booked it out of there before I even knew what
was going on. Yeah, not the best teamwork, but I can’t help it if I have really sharp survival instincts. Turns out that Kat had stepped near the black caiman that lives in the swamp; she saw its back legs and tail before she sprinted out of the swamp in a frenzy.
While we’re out in the field, we frequently try to collect any poop samples we can from the saddle-backs. The other day, we saw an untagged saddle-back eating a huge bug about one-third the length of his body, so we knew it was inevitable that he was going to take a dump soon. Sure enough, he let one drop a few minutes later. Rushing over, I stood directly beneath him and bent over, searching for the poop. As I was stopped over scanning the ground, I not only heard but felt something drop onto my head with surprising force. Guess what it was. Yup, he had pooped on me as I was looking for his poop. Ironic, huh? Gideon excitedly rushed over to scrape the sample off my head into a test tube; there was so much that it wouldn’t all fit.
In addition to all of the animals, there are tons of other things that can and do scar your body in some way, but I’ll just quickly comment on one: bamboo thorns. Actually thorn isn’t an adequate name for these guys, spike is better; they’re basically thorns on steroids. It’s pretty painful when you’re hacking through the bamboo and get spiked.
Well, I know I’ve been rambling on about all of the hazards, but there’s so much amazingly cool stuff going on here it’s ridiculous! I’ve seen so much cool wildlife - all kinds of monkeys: tamarins, capuchins, spider monkeys, titis, howlers and sakis (which are so cool, they look like angry old ladies.) And cool snakes, spiders, armadillos, birds, etc. I actually went out frogging the other night, which was a lot of fun! It’s neat to hear how different the jungle sounds at night, with all of the frogs calling. We ended up catching two, one of which was an awesome tree frog that sits so still he almost looks like a leaf. People here have also caught poison dart frogs and brought them into the lab, though I have yet to see one in the wild. It’s been dry here lately but after the next bout of rain I’m planning on heading out to see what I can find.
You also come to appreciate the simpler pleasures as a result of life in the field: the sounds of the jungle, the stars at night, the cold showers. And Kat and I have developed a new system for instant happiness. Peanut butter shots chased with chocolate. Kat, in an immense stroke of genius, brought organic peanut butter, which is drinkable. So you take a shot of the peanut butter and then pop dark chocolate into your mouth and it is one of the most satisfying things I have ever experienced. Also incredibly satisfying is scratching the plethora of chigger bites covering my legs. I usually do this for a good 10 minutes before going to sleep. The other night, in all seriousness, my cabin mate Emma told me that the noises I make when I scratch myself make her uncomfortable. Yeah, that’s how good it feels.
OK well this has been a bit longer than expected, but not too boring I hope. As always, I hope everyone is well and happy! Please send comments/updates my way as I’d really like to hear some news of your lives in the real world. Take care!
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uncle mike
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When are we gonna see some pics?? I want to SEE one of these monster ants you speak of. And all the other sights as well.