Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Jungle Lessons



The air is so thick it feels like sucking in honey, the smells here are much different than the forest smells of my native Michigan. The scent that surrounds you in these forests is a mix of decay of wood and old fruit, and when in the vicinity of the ephemeral streams there is an even greater rotting as the swiftness of the flowing water expedites the breakdown of flora and fauna. Since it is not the major fruiting, flowering season there is no sweetness to drown the smell out. This forest is constantly reclaiming the areas that humans try to occupy. There are many broken down boardwalks where the rot has taken the once usable boards and made them slippery slides that deliver you into mud pits that try to claim your shoes. The forest is teeming with creatures that actually do welcome fresh blood, literally. The leeches and mosquitoes are so happy that we are slip sliding our way around in the peat swamp, also attracted to the novelty of our human presence are the sweat bees, who buzz continuously around our heads but with no regard for personal space as they dive bomb ears, eyes, nose and mouth.  

Then there are the orangutans, the reason I am here. I was so lucky, my introduction to this forest was not only to the harsh reality of death and renewal, but it also included the magic of meeting one of the earths most magnificent creatures, one of our evolutionary cousins. Many of the orangutans here have been habituated so we can follow them in the forest without stressing them and causing them to Kiss squeak, a vocalization that sounds just like its name, or having them run away, because they can move much faster through the tree tops than we can slicing our way through the forest with machetes.

Following an orangutan is not all staring googly eyed at the impressive, graceful red apes as you stumble through the forest as the antithesis of grace. It is really demanding work, not just because of the unyielding grasp the forest has on you as you climb over dead trees, through vines, under prickly rattan plants. The real work is in attempting to fill out the data sheets as you are trying to successfully navigate the treacherous forest while keeping your eyes skyward. The data is taken with instantaneous sampling where the sheets must be filled out every two minutes with what the individual is doing (if eating, then what and how), how high they are in the tree, if they are vocalizing (then what voc), are other individuals eating the same food within 10m, if there are two or more orangutans how far are they apart from each other. Also while filling out this sheet you need to write down any social interactions between two or more orangutans and also any unique actions your individual is doing. So you really can never take your eyes off the orangutan even when you are between the two minute intervals. Plus GPS data needs to be taken every half an hour and when the orangutans spend more than 5 minutes eating in a tree. Also there are sheets to fill out when the individual gives a long call or hears a long call and also sheets to record their nest behavior.

The intense pressure of trying to write everything down, trying to make the right approximations for heights and what the orangutans are eating is kind of overwhelming. Then the fact that you follow the orangutans from their morning nest to their night nest means you have to get up at 3am to walk out to the nest (to make sure you get there before the orangutans leave) then you must stay with them until they make a nest in the evening so you know where to go in the morning again. This will make a day of at least 13 hours and sometimes up to 15 hours. It is rough, tough, terrible work. Then to come back to camp and have to try to dry out gear, dump GPS data, dump pictures (to identify other individuals that are found on the follow), put cameras, GPS, Binoculars, compass, watch in silica gel to dry out, and pack new data sheets for the next day. This leaves just enough time to shower (by dumping buckets of water over your head) and eating (usually rice and some sort of vegetables, sometimes eggs) and going to bed. The people who do this work are really a unique breed. They work tirelessly in the forest and then come back shovel in some rice, splash water on their face and then work into the dark entering data, sorting GPS data and pictures and planning the next days follows. You do not have a life while here, there is barely time to get to know the other researchers since you are busy with research constantly. I am trying to juggle all of this while learning Indonesian since the assistants do not speak English and sometimes you follow alone with just an assistant.

Not sure if I could really do this for a couple years like is required for the Ph.D. programs. Camp makes me a little stir crazy since there is no contact with the outside world. No cell service, no Internet access, no new faces, no escape from being with the same people day and night. But since we don’t really know each other it is like standing in a crowded room but being so very alone. It makes me appreciate all the things I have taken for granted at home. The fact that I have a washing machine to clean my clothes; running water that I can drink out of the tap, a refrigerator for vegetables, milk, butter, eggs. Being able to run to the store if I want an ice cream or a cold beer. Being able to talk to my boyfriend, being able to be with people who really know me and care about me. This has been a life changing experience for me in more ways then one but the most important I can see is that it has opened my eyes to my life. It has shown me how finite my time on this earth is and that I don’t think I can stand to spend it continually hunched over a computer worrying about the next publication while time spent with loved ones is pushed aside again and again until it is too late. I don’t want to wait to start living until I get through my Ph.D.  and then until I finish my postdoc, after that when I get a professor position, then when I get tenure. By the time that would happen I will be older, and some of the adventures I want to take will no longer make sense. I want a life and I want it now!

But what about my dream of being a primatologist, of seeking the connections we have with the great apes and then sharing these findings with the world. That still is a respectable pursuit, I have the GPA, the GRE scores, the research experience, I just need to make that decision to go for it and apply to graduate school. How to do both... have a life outside of research and still commit the time needed to be a successful researcher?