Adelaide’s Finest: Fantasyland, Santa’s Cave, and Christmas Lights Galore

The lead-up to my first Christmas abroad has been quite jam-packed and awesome! Chris and I left Naracoorte for Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon, after a bit of last minute gift shopping and a slight disagreement about which way was the correct way to go (not to rub it in, but I was right). After an uneventful four hour car ride, we arrived at Chris’s family’s place in Mawson Lakes. In the evening his mom took us to Fantasyland at the West End Brewery, a delightful collection of Christmas lights, large statues, and fantasy characters. My favorites were a whale sprouting water from its blowhole, a rotating disc with various toys on it (like a dragon, a cowboy on his horse, and a ballerina on top), and Santa being pulled in his sleigh by his reindeer. Among the strangest ones were a volcano with a cave man inside and an extremely creepy Frosty the Snowman (a young child confirmed this assessment when he asked his parents, “Why is the snowman so creepy?”). Lots of people had come to see the Adelaide tradition, and I was so happy to be a part of it.

 

The nearly beached whale (the river level was lower than it’s been in quite awhile).

 

I liked the dragon and ballerina the best.

Merry Christmas from Adelaide, Australia!

 

I have yet to figure out the link to Christmas here...

 

The creepiest snowman I have EVER seen. It’s right up there with creepy clowns.
 

On Thursday Chris and I headed to the Harbour Town outlet mall with his mom and two sisters. I justified a few purchases, including a red belt (which I’ve been looking EVERYWHERE for), a leopard print dress, and a polka dot skirt, with the consolation that I didn’t bring many “nice” clothes to Australia. When I was packing for my year here, I planned for lots of field work and not much going out, so I budgeted a lot of field clothes and left most of my nicer things at home. Also, I know that when I get home I will reassess my wardrobe and purge the things I no longer want/need (at least that’s what I tell myself). So I figure I can buy a few items of clothing while I’m here. After a few hours walking around in the BEAUTIFUL weather (mid-80s) at the mall, Chris and I went to the South Australian Museum to meet up with Terry Reardon, one of my project collaborators and a big bat guru. We gained access to restricted areas and followed him to his office. He copied over some thermal count files from my external hard drive that I’ve been having trouble analyzing. Hopefully he can shed some light on the problem. He then took us around for a tour of the specimen collections. First up was the wet collection, consisting of preserved critters in jars of alcohol/formalin. Some of them looked other-worldly, like little shriveled up aliens. Some of them were collected over 100 years ago. It’s amazing to think that they can still extract DNA and find out many things (like diet, taxonomy, etc.) from samples so old. We moved on to the dry collection, consisting of animals that had been collected and preserved through taxidermy. Chris’s favorite was the Ghost Bat (Macroderma gigas). I didn’t realize just how big these guys are until I saw a specimen with its wings outstretched. The body length was about 8 inches, and the wingspan about 24 inches. Ghost bats are carnivorous and eat fish, birds, insects, and even other bats.

The highlight of our tour was the Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) specimens. Also known as the Dog-headed Pouched-dog, Tasmanian Tiger, or Tasmanian Wolf, these animals were large carnivorous marsupials now believed to be extinct. Many factors led to their distinction, including a bounty established by the Tasmanian government from 1888 to 1909. The last wild thylacine was killed in Tasmania in 1930, and the last captive thylacine died in the Hobart Zoo in 1936. The specimens we saw (which came from the Adelaide Zoo) are considered the best taxidermically preserved specimens in the world and are the pride and joy of the museum. I felt honored to be among the few who get to see them.

The last known thylacine photographed at Beaumaris Zoo in 1933. Look at how wide it can open its jaws!

Outside the South Australian Museum

 

I wish I could get this as a painting!

Once our tour concluded, Chris and I walked to the Botanic Gardens to look at the flying fox colony (it has about 400 bats). We watched and listened to their squabble for a few minutes and then headed off for Rundle Mall, the main shopping area in downtown Adelaide. I got my classic souvenir spoons and some other trinkets, and I also got to play with some puppies and watch some rats at the pet store! That was definitely one of the highlights of my day. I sorely miss pets and having contact with animals. 

 

The puppy that Chris and I are getting. Just kidding. But I do wish...

We then hit up Santa’s Cave in the David Jone’s department store. It’s just what it sounds like: a kitchy Christmas display targeted at children, which of course appealed to me. Chris and his family used to go when they were kids, so I just had to see it. It was full of laughing and playing children and lots of Christmas cheer. I bought a “Lucky Dip,” for which you pay and then pull a surprise gift out of a hole in the wall. When I asked for a girl gift, the cashier asked, “How old is she?” to which I answered, “It’s me”. Haha, I was a teeny bit embarrassed, but I love kitchy things like this so I had no problem admitting that. Of course the cashier found the most “mature” gift she could, and I walked away with a Rubik’s Cube and a pretty ball. Well worth the $6 I payed!

Outside Santa’s Cave. Only 3 days until Christmas!

We took a train back to Chris’s place, which is still something new to me. I’ve never lived in an area where I needed to use public transportation, so taking buses and trains is still a novelty. We did get to witness a belligerent man on the train mouth off to the security guards and then take a swing at them (he was promptly removed from the train, struggling the whole way), which made the experience a bit more exciting. Once home, we headed back out to the Tea Tree Plaza, another big shopping area, to have dinner, get Cold Rock white chocolate ice cream with Rocher (the Australian Cold Rock is the same as the US Cold Stone), and see a movie. I also bought my first can of spray-on deodorant, a big thing here but not something I’m used to. I guess I’ll give it a go. We also bought some marshmallow fluff at a novelty/international sweets shop, which they don’t have here in normal stores. When we got home I introduced Chris to the Fluffernutter, a wonderful combination of marshmallow fluff and peanut butter on bread. He’s now a big fan.

On Friday evening Chris and I drove around the area looking at Christmas lights. There were some really elaborate decorations at some houses. The pièce de résistance was a display that had a sign saying “Tune to 94.3,” which of course we did. We then watched as the music played on our car radio and the lights flashed in sync with it. I’ve seen videos of these kinds of displays on YouTube, but I’ve never seen one in person until now. It was one of the coolest Christmas things I’ve ever seen! Of course my camera battery died in the middle of filming it, but I recorded most of it (see video below). What a great way to end the day before Christmas Eve!

The most elaborate (still) display. The owners had a collection bin out and were raising money to support local disabled children. What a great idea.

One of my favorite displays. I love the blue lights!

 

Christmas lights flashing in sync with Trans Siberian Orchestra’s “Wizards in Winter”

Baking Extravaganza

Chris and I spent the day today baking treats to take to his family for Christmas. I have discovered that while I’m not yet a fan of actual cooking, I quite enjoy baking. We made my Nana’s burnt sugar sour cream cookies (which I haven’t had since she passed away when I was 12; see recipe below), regular chocolate fudge and caramel chocolate fudge, and chocolate chip cookies. 

 A sample of the result of our day-long baking session (the chocolate chip cookies are hiding). 

We made everything from scratch except the chocolate chips cookies (we bought the dough pre-made at the store). I wanted to get those Pilsbury sugar cookies that come in a tube, the ones with the Christmas trees on them, but apparently they don’t sell those hear. What a horrible day when I found that out...

Burnt Sugar Sour Cream Cookies

Beat well together 1 stick salted butter, 1 ½ cups light brown sugar and two eggs.  Add 1 cup sour cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Beat in a little at a time of 2 ¾ cups flour and ½ teaspoon EACH baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Drop by teaspoon fulls onto cookie sheet.  Bake at 350°F (~180°C) about 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown.  Make icing using 1 stick salted butter - heat until brown.  Add 2 cups confectioner's sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Beat until spreading consistency. Add hot water bit by bit if you need to thin it out any.  Ice the cookies and enjoy! 

Our only real mishap was when I ran out of the icing I had made for the sour cream cookies. Chris valiantly volunteered to make more with the leftover butter and confectioner’s sugar. However, things didn’t turn out quite like they were supposed to. The result was basically toffee/brittle and was DEFINITELY unusable as icing. Ah well, we have another tasty (albeit accidental) treat to take to his family!

 Chris’s attempt at making more burnt sugar icing...

Girl Guides Adopt-A-Bat!

A few weekends ago the Naracoorte Girl Guides (the unit I help with) came to the park for their annual end-of-year campout. I took them to the Bat Teleview Center, where we watched, in real-time, the bats in the cave with infrared cameras. The girls were surprised to learn that the bats do not sleep through the entire day, and they enjoyed watching the bats grooming and flying around. Later that evening, we sat outside Bat Cave and watched the emergence. The girls were thrilled to be so close to the bats as they flew out of the cave. By the end of the campout, they had decided they wanted to use some of their unit money to Adopt-A-Bat (they chose the Vampire Bat) from Bat Conservation International (BCI), which will help BCI preserve and protect bats around the world.

If you’re looking for a neat gift for someone who’s interested in bats or wildlife conservation in general, Adopt-A-Bat is a great idea. See the link below for more information:

Bat Conservation International Adopt-A-Bat 

Laser Beam System Trial

This week Terry and several engineering students from the University of South Australia came to the park to trial a new laser beam counting system at Bat Cave. They brought four lasers along to test. The overall goal is to have 12 permanently-installed beams running across the entrance of the cave. The lasers will record all night, every night. They cannot tell if a bat is flying into or out of the cave, so we cannot get actual numbers. However, we can get an index of activity, which will give us information about when the bats return to the cave in the spring, when the activity peaks in the summer (at which point we can use the thermal imaging cameras to take actual counts), when the pups start flying, and when all the bats have left Bat Cave for their overwintering caves. It’s pretty exciting stuff!

Of course the field testing didn’t go quite according to plan (does it ever?). The lasers were very difficult to align with the receivers since the beams are infrared and we can’t see them. The students had to use a neat night vision application on their smartphones to see where the laser was hitting the receiver, and then try to relay directions (up, down, more left, a tiny bit right!) to the person moving the laser. And then we had the problem that the lasers kept double-counting. After fiddling with them a bit, the students got them ready enough to trial at an emergence at the cave. We got to see them in action, even if they still needed a bit more work. Terry decided to take them back to Adelaide to work on them so they are easier to align (and also to figure out a more stable mounting design), but hopefully they will be back soon and we can begin using them!

Trying to align the lasers (left) and the receivers (right). A harder task than it may sound.

Using a night vision application on their smartphones to align the lasers, this time at the cave.

Stars are bright / Trees are green / Christmas is coming / And my knee is clean!

Christmas is almost upon us! Last week Chris and I went Christmas shopping. We visited Trev’s, a super awesome bargain store that has pretty much anything you could ever want. We got a cheap $10 mini-Christmas tree (it stands about chest high on me), some generic ornaments, lights, and garland/tinsel.

A few days later, we spent the evening putting everything up. My mom had sent me some ornaments in the mail: a Grinch ornament that says “‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas—perhaps—means a little bit more!’”, an ornament with “snow” in it that says “The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave a luster of mid-day to objects below”, and a Dorothy (from The Wizard of Oz) ornament that says “There’s no place like home.” Aww. Chris’s mom also sent me three Aussie ornaments: a kangaroo, a koala, and a kookaburra. I’m finally starting my own ornament collection! Chris made tea and we listened to streaming Christmas music online on Warm98, a radio station I used to listen to back home in Cincinnati, while we decorated. I did miss the tradition of putting the tree up with my mom, but for a moment it felt almost just like home. Until I went outside the next day and it was in the 90s...
 

Our tree, fully decorated and with presents waiting to be opened.

All lit up!

 

 Our Christmas photo :)

Last Wednesday we went to the Naracoorte Caves Christmas dinner at Billy Mac’s in the Naracoorte Hotel. Most of the park staff was there, and it was great to see everyone out of their work gear and celebrating the holidays. We did a Kris Kringle (aka Secret Santa) gift exchange. I got echidna earrings from the park gift shop (yay!) and Chris got a water gun (oh no!). For dinner I ordered the Scotch steak, my first steak since I was 10 years old. It was mighty delicious! 

At the Naracoorte Caves Christmas party

 

On another good note, I had an appointment with a doctor last week and she said my knee x-rays and ultrasound images look good, and that there are no fractures or tears visible. I still have occasional slight pain in it, especially when twisting certain ways or kneeling, but for the most part it’s great. I’ll probably still wear a brace at times just to help it, but it’s nice to finally KNOW that there’s nothing majorly wrong with it.

Bunyips and Bats and Birds, Oh My!

What better way to spend the weekend than catching bats and camping in the Outback! Last Thursday my boyfriend, Chris, and I headed up north to Birds Australia Gluepot Reserve, near Waikerie, South Australia for a bat workshop. Terry Reardon, one of my project collaborators and one of the workshop presenters, invited Chris and me up for a fun weekend of batting. How could we say no?

The workshop started Friday afternoon with lectures about bat taxonomy (current research suggests that bats may be most closely related to horses, tapirs, and rhinos!), the bats of Australia, and diseases associated with Australian bats. We also spent some time looking at preserved specimens of male bats to identify them by their penis shape. Yes, some species of bats (in this case three Vespadelus species: Inland forest bat (V. baverstocki), Large forest bat (V. darlingtoni), and Southern forest bat (V. regulus)) are only identifiable by the shape of their penises. I seriously wonder about whoever figured that out. After some poking around under the microscope, we prepared for an evening of mist netting and harp trapping. I was excited about the harp trapping because I had never used one before. All my previous bat-catching experience has been with mist nets. Harp traps are basically two or three (or sometimes more) rows of taut fishing wire strung vertically between poles. The wire rows sit over a cloth bag that collects the bats when they hit the wires and slide down into the bag. Once the bats slide into the bag, they just crawl up the side (there’s a plastic cover that prevents them from flying out) and hang out there until someone collects them. The cool thing about harp traps it that, unlike mist nets, you can leave them unattended overnight and collect the bats in the morning, although of course it is better to check several times throughout the night. Harp traps are a lot less stressful on bats than mist nets. If it’s a cool night the bats just go into torpor and are quite calm when you collect them. Sure beats removing nasty, biting bats from mist nets! You do have to be careful during the summer when the females have pups, as we wouldn’t want the pups to get hungry without their moms! Over two trapping nights we caught some cool bats: Little pied bat (Chalinolobus picatus), Gould’s wattled bat (Chalinolobus gouldii), Lesser long-eared bat (Nyctophilus geoffroyi), Gould’s long-eared bat (Nyctophilus gouldi), several species of Vespadelus (forest bats), and a freetail bat (Mormopterus sp.). While we did have to get up at 4:30am to check the traps and release any pregnant/lactating females or juveniles, it was well worth it. It was great to see some other Australian bats besides Southern bent-wings. And I got to practice my bat identification skills with my new Australian Bats book!

A harp trap set up in a possible bat flyway (under flowering branches that will attract insects and hopefully therefore bats). The bats can’t see the fishing wire on the harp trap well and fly into them, then slide down the wires into the collecting bag at the bottom.

A bat under the plastic protector in the collecting bag.

 

Holding a Lesser long-eared bat (Nyctophilus geoffroyi)

On one of our trapping nights, Terry taught us a “bat dance” he learned while trapping bats in Papua New Guinea. Supposedly it brings good fortune to your trapping so you get lots of cool bats! To prepare, you have to get three branches with leaves, and put one branch sticking out of the back of your pants, like a tail. You hold the other two branches in your hands. You then crouch down low, and begin dancing and stomping around while chanting loudly:

“Jesus is Number 1!

Jesus is Number 1!

Jesus is Number 1!

HEY!” (with a large leap into the air)

I wasn’t quite expecting those words (I was thinking a native chant or something like that), but it was absolutely hilarious to watch Terry do it, and then to do it all together as a group. I’ll have to add that to my bat surveying methods!

The next night (Saturday) we released the bats we had caught in the harp traps. We wanted to get some good reference calls from the forest bats. To do this, we taped small light tubes (about ¾ inch long) to their belly fur. We then released them and I watched as seven little green glowing blobs zig-zagged through the trees in the dark of night, followed closely by a line of glowing Anabat (acoustic detector) screens chasing after them. Quite a funny thing to see!

 A forest bat (Vespadelus sp.) with a light tube taped loosely to its belly fur.

Waiting for my guy to take off. I had to hold him under my shirt to warm him up for a bit before he would go.

In addition to trapping, we also played around with some cool acoustic detectors. Several of the participants had brought their own detectors. These included an Anabat detector connected to a PDA so you could see bat calls in real-time and analyze them in the field, as well as record GPS locations of each call. I must admit I got a serious case of Anabat envy. Maybe that’s what I’ll save my Christmas money for over the next several years...

Serious acoustic detector envy...

An emu footprint, plus a normal foot (me) and giant foot (Chris) for reference.

 A Grey Butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus) visiting our campsite looking for food. These guys prey on small animals like lizards, birds, and insects.

Chris and me at our campsite in the mallee woodland of northern South Australia.

The weekend of batting came to an end all too soon. However, the adventures had only just begun. Chris and I packed up our gear on Sunday and headed off for home. It was about a 5 ½ hour drive, so we decided to take it slow and split it into two days so we could see some touristy things along the way. We stopped for lunch in Waikerie (the Citrus Centre of Australia!), and I was amazed at all the Christmas decorations on the street and in shop windows. Even though the first week of December is over, I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that it’s almost Christmas. It’s so warm out and without the cold and snow I can’t seem to comprehend that it’s almost here. I think it would be much harder for me to be away from home and my family at this time of year if it was more like home outside, with snow and Christmas music on the radio. It will be interesting to see how my first Australian Christmas goes!

With Santa Claus, wearing a tank top. Something’s wrong with this picture.

The main attraction on our return home was the Bunyip, a mythical creature that the Aborigines believed to live in bodies of water and come out at night to devour any human or animal prey in the vicinity. We stopped along the waterfront in Murray Bridge and followed the Bunyip’s giant footprints into its lair, where we inserted a $1 coin into the slot machine and then stood quaking in our boots as the creature rose from the murky water and let out its fearsome roar!

The Bunyip emerges!

So terrifying!

We also stopped at a tiny place in Ki-Ki (a tiny town) called the Recycled Wireworks Gallery. The large wire sculptures on top of the roof had caught our eye on the way to Gluepot. We rang the doorbell and a lady welcomed us into the veranda of the home. Her husband, who makes the sculptures, came out to continue giving us the tour of the pieces located throughout their backyard. He collects old and trash wire and metal from farmers, old fences, etc. and turns them into artistic creations. He had sculptures like a kangaroo, giant dragons, a bumblebee, a coffee table, and the signs of the Zodiac. Pretty neat!

Our tour guide with one of his creations.

Now I’m back home and already missing camping in the mallee woodland, living out of my car, and eating Chris’s delicious bush tucker (no, I don't mean grubs and wallabies and nuts and berries, although that technically is what bush tucker refers to. I just wanted to use that term because it sounds cool). You can bet there will be plenty more camping adventures to come!

Much to be Thankful For

I have spent my first big American holiday away from home. Thanksgiving was last week, and instead of spending it with my whole family in Cincinnati, Ohio, I spent it with fellow U.S. Fulbright Scholars in Canberra, Australia. It was my first major holiday away from my home and family (excluding New Year’s Eve of my sophomore year in high school when I spent a week canoeing in the Florida Everglades with Girl Scouts), and I missed the familiar smells of Grandma’s home cooking and the company of my family. However, I was excited to travel to Canberra to spend the weekend with fellow Americans who were as eager as I was for a bit of home (Australians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving). Luckily, one of the 2010-2011 Fulbright Scholars who was preparing to leave Australia invited us to her place for a Thanksgiving dinner cooked by her mom. Krysten’s family usually has traditional Italian food for Thanksgiving (as they have deep Italian roots) but her mom kindly agreed to also cook some “traditional” Thanksgiving fare like stuffing, corn, and potatoes. We also had a turkey, and this turkey was definitely the most creatively-cooked bird I’ve ever had: one of the Fulbright Scholars who does glass working cooked it in the university’s kiln! By the time dinner rolled around I was starving and watering in the mouth, just like it should be. And let me tell you, all the food was absolutely DELICIOUS! The turkey was succulent and amazingly tasty and Krysten’s mom’s lasagna was fabulous. While we didn’t have a traditional pumpkin pie for dessert, we did have yummy apple crisp and a trifle that one of our Australian guests made. I also brought along some homemade fudge (my third batch. Rosie has inspired me!) which was a big hit. It felt like Thanksgiving in Ohio, as it had been raining all day and it was a bit chilly out. While I did miss spending the holiday with my family, it was great to catch up with the other Scholars and spend the evening with my new family here in Australia. To add to the awesomeness of the night, I met a guy who was a contestant on “Letters and Numbers,” an Australian game show I sometimes watch. How cool is that? I also got to take home a pretty white table cloth and a Thanksgiving table runner that Krysten was giving away. Now I’ll have some Thanksgiving decorations for my house/apartment when I actually get one! And I got two Christmas ornaments, which will go on the little tree I plan to get for my room here. I definitely made off like a bandit!

 Our Thanksgiving feast!

 

My Fulbright family (plus some Aussie guests)

To top off the weekend, on Saturday I went to the Foreshore Festival in town with Lee and Marvin, two other Scholars. The day was full of heart-pounding, dance-inspiring music and the crowd was there to have a good time. I have never been to a legitimate concert like this one, complete with shoulder-sitting (don’t worry, not me), crowd surfing, and mosh pits. I have also never seen so many ripped guys in tight tank tops and tight walking shorts/capris, or so many girls wearing practically nothing. All of which was completely acceptable here. Of course the day wouldn’t have been complete without a bit of rain. Well, more like a downpour. I’m glad I went and was able to get that taste of Australian culture.

Wild and crazy times at Foreshore listening to LMFAO

Me, Marvin, and Lee ready to get our groove on.

First Pups of the Year!

I finally went out to the cave for a census last night for the first time since I hurt my knee over two weeks ago. It was great to get out with the bats again! The females are starting to give birth to their pups (yes, baby bats are called pups), which is 2-3 weeks earlier than normal. The bats came back to the cave from their overwintering sites a few weeks early this year, so we were predicting that they may have their pups early too. Looks like we were right! After the emergence ended I went to the Bat Center to look inside the cave with the infrared cameras and saw some pretty neat stuff. In the farthest chamber, a bunch of adults (probably over 1000) were grouped in about 20 large, tightly-packed clusters. I had never seen that before. Normally in that chamber there are only a few bats flying around, and when I’ve seen the bats roosting in other chambers they’ve always been much more loosely packed. I’m not sure what they were doing in such tight clusters, but they were probably preparing to give birth (all the females tend to give birth around the same day/time). I did see a cluster of four tiny, pink, hairless pups and several individual pups throughout the chamber, but definitely not the numbers I was expecting. The head park guide said there was a crèche (i.e. a group of pups—the moms put their pups in large groups so that when they leave for the night to feed the pups can keep each other warm) in this chamber today, but when I checked tonight, I again only saw those few pups from last night, and this time the adults were not grouped in large, tight clusters. Either most of the females have yet to give birth, or they have moved their pups to areas in the cave that the cameras can’t see. Hopefully the first option is true. It would be a bummer not to be able to see the pups and record information about them (crèche locations, mother-pup behavior, health, etc.). I’m hoping that when I check tomorrow more pups will be visible!

Knee Injury Update

Just a quick update about my knee. As I posted before, I slipped and fell on Sunday and hurt my right knee. I’ve had a compression bandage on it and have been on crutches all week. It’s feeling MUCH better and I can walk on it almost normally. The swelling has gone down a lot, although my ankle and calf are still a tad puffy. It still hurts a bit when I move certain ways, but it’s come a long way since Sunday. I can’t get in to get x-rays and scans for another 2 ½ weeks, but I’m pretty sure I just strained something and it will heal on its own. I’ll get it checked to make sure (my knee isn’t something I want to take chances with!) but right now it seems to be recovering quite well. Hopefully it keeps on improving!

Chinese Visitors

Last night I had a fantastic educational experience: I met with a group of Chinese visitors to talk about the bats in Bat Cave and my Fulbright research. I was a bit nervous beforehand because I didn’t know what it was going to be like. How big was the group? Did they speak English? Would there be an interpreter if they didn’t? They arrived at the cave at 8:00pm, when the bats usually start coming out. I first met the two group leaders, who were Australians from Zoos SA (South Australia). They were taking the group to various natural sites throughout South Australia. They introduced me to the interpreter, a middle-aged Chinese woman. There were about 15 others in the group, most of whom spoke no English. I began by explaining a little about the bats and what we are doing with the project. It was so weird to have to talk through an interpreter! I talked and then she relayed what I had said. While she was interpreting I had to just stand their awkwardly and smile. Quite an interesting experience! Everyone in the group was very nice and they asked some questions, like what the bats eat and how many there are in the cave. When the first few bats came out some of the group members got skittish, and when the resident possums crawled out of the cave they freaked out and backed up. They thought it was a snake! Once they realized it was a cute, furry possum, they immediately gathered around the fence to take pictures. It reminded me a lot of what I was like when I first got here. Even such a common animal as the Common Brushtail Possum elicits such excitement from newcomers! When the bats started coming out in full force everyone was amazed at how many there were and at how fast they fly. I showed them a recording of a thermal imaging count I had taken previously (I didn’t actually set up the cameras for them because of my knee and crutches) and they found it fascinating how the camera can pick up so many more bats than we can see with the naked eye. They also got to see the resident owl fly out of the cave (it lives in the cave during the day and hunts the bats as they come out in the evening). When they gathered to leave and I packed up, they came right up and helped me carry my equipment without me even asking. The Zoos SA leaders thanked me and the whole group started applauding me! One man came up to me and handed me a cute little stuffed animal panda they had brought from China as a thank-you gift. I was completely taken by surprise and touched by their warmth and kind gestures. It was definitely one of the most fun and rewarding experiences I’ve had talking with a group about bats and my work.

P.S. It’s 11/11/11, a numerical palindrome!

 My thank-you gift

I took a trip...

...to an Australian hospital! On Sunday, Cath and I went to Canunda National Park in Southend, on the coast of South Australia, to participate in a Fairy Tern survey. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a stroll along the coast doing some bird surveying. The park ranger dropped us off at the sand dunes and we continued walking along the trail. We had walked for about five minutes when we came upon a small washout in the trail. I looked at it and told myself to be careful as I crossed it because the gravel/dirt looked a bit loose. Despite that, I still managed to slip and fall. I fell with my leg at an odd angle, with the knee bent sideways and inwards. Apparently Cath heard a pop, although I was too busy falling to notice it. When I landed I knew something was wrong, and within seconds the side of my right knee started swelling up. The pain wasn’t terrible if I didn’t move it, but because it was near lunch time and I was on an empty stomach I started to get very light headed and had to lie down and eat my granola bar to regain composure.

 The one picture I got on the trip, about two minutes before I fell. It’s a miracle my camera survived and is still functional because I had it in my hand and smashed it into the ground when I fell.

Cath called the park ranger and he came back to pick us up. Cath drove me to the hospital. When I got out of the car I heard another pop. Maybe if something had popped out of place before it was now popped back in? While we waited to see a doctor, I had to call the Naracoorte park guides to ask them to go into my room at the bunkhouse, get my Medicare card, and read me the numbers. I hadn’t taken my wallet with me so I didn’t have my card, which apparently was a problem. Luckily they found it and that was all squared away. From now on I’m definitely going to carry my Medicare card with me wherever I go! We waited for about an hour and then I was taken in to see the doctor. He poked and prodded my leg and asked me if twisting this way hurt, if pulling on this hurt, etc. Well yeah it did! He said he thought it was either a ligament strain or tear or a crack in the meniscus. He put a compression bandage on the knee and gave me crutches to use (the first time I’ve ever had to use crutches, oh joy). I had an appointment scheduled with another doctor in Naracoorte for Tuesday, so he told me to have her take a look at it then and go from there. I went out to the reception desk to pay, handed over my Medicare card, and that was that! So easy!

I’ve spent the past two days hobbling around on crutches and hopping around in my room. It has definitely made me more aware of the fact that I’m living alone. How do people who REALLY live alone (at least I have a support network with the park people) deal with situations like this?  My knee feels much better today (Tuesday) but still a little sore and swollen. I went to the doctor in Naracoorte this afternoon, and she still wants me to get an x-ray and an ultrasound to check for ligament tears or a cracked meniscus. Unfortunately I have to go to Mt. Gambier, which is about an hour away, to get them. I’m going to call the clinic tomorrow and hopefully get in within the next few days. Until then I’ll keep hoping for more improvement! And I’ll be using this down time to catch up on analyzing some bat counts that have been piling up...

ABC South East SA radio interview

A couple weeks ago I had a radio interview (my first one ever!) with Alan Richardson of ABC South East SA about my work with bats. No, it wasn’t a live interview, but I was still nervous! It aired during a morning radio session and unfortunately I didn’t get to hear it because I didn’t know when exactly it was going to be on. However, Mr. Richardson kindly sent me a copy of it, so here it is!

My New Car!

I finally bought a car! One of the Girl Guide leaders I’m working with had a friend who was selling her car for a price that was within my (very limited) budget. When I first got to Australia, I thought it would be relatively easy to find a cheap, used car to get me through the year. Turns out things are a tad more expensive here compared to the US, so my low budget (which would have been fine in the US) limited me to mostly dodgy cars that were probably best to stay away from. I lucked out with this find and no longer have to borrow the park guide vehicle after-hours or rely on other peoples’ schedules to get groceries in town or run errands.

I am now a proud owner of a white 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer Executive. It’s a tiny little automatic sedan, with do-it-yourself everything, including crank down windows, side mirrors you have to adjust with a knob, and locks you have to use a key to open. It’s quite a step down from my Subaru Outback at home, which has automatic locks and windows, heated seats, two sunroofs, etc. I actually kind of like that. It's kind of refreshing to have to do everything yourself, and I think it adds character to the car. Also, I actually own this car, whereas my dad owns the Subaru at home. For some reason that little detail makes me much more conscious of and invested in my car. As much as having to pay insurance, registration, etc. stinks, it does give me a better sense of responsibility and makes me proud to be a car owner! 

I still sometimes catch myself getting into the left side to drive when I’m not paying attention.

Melbourne Cup

Today I got to experience one of Australia’s important national events: the Melbourne Cup. This horse race is Australia’s major Thoroughbred horse race and is called “the race that stops a nation” because most people will stop what they’re doing to watch/listen to the race. I went into the park office to join others in watching it. Unfortunately they didn’t have the TV there anymore, so we settled in beside the radio to listen. I was kind of bummed at first that I wouldn’t be able to actually see it, but once I started listening to the announcers in the buildup to the start my heart started racing and it didn’t matter that I couldn’t actually see anything. I picked horse #3, Dunaden, to win simply because 3 is my lucky number. A little after 2:30 they were off, and I listened as the announcers got more and more enthusiastic and fast-talking as the race progressed. Even though I had no real stake in the outcome, I still got really excited and into it. My horse, Dunaden, came out victorious, although by the closest margin in the 151 years of the race (they had to call it by a photograph). I should have made some bets!

Speaking of national events, it’s weird because there’s a whole new set of holidays and traditions to learn over here. Yesterday was Halloween, and while a few people celebrate it in Australia, it’s not a big holiday like it is in the US. Plus living in the park in a rural area makes me feel a little less “in touch” with what’s going on in the rest of the country. While the Melbourne Cup is a big deal here, if Cath hadn’t mentioned it to me today I would have completely forgotten about it. I’m glad she said something because I want to participate in as many Australian traditions as possible while here!

Celebrity Encounter

Last week when I was in Adelaide I went to the WOMAD EarthStation Festival, which had a lot of cool, small bands from around the world and talks focused on climate change and sustainability. One of the talks was a discussion on greening in our community, and one of the panelists was none other than Cate Blanchett! It was pretty neat to see a celebrity in real life. My first reaction when she came out on stage was, "Wow, she's a normal person just like everyone else." She didn't look any different from other people and if she hadn't starred in such movies like "Lord of the Rings" there would be nothing really special/different about her. But still, it was neat to get to see and hear in person someone who makes a living playing pretend like you do when you're a kid.

Cate Blanchett, my first celebrity sighting!

Video and articles from Ohio Wesleyan University

Last semester at Ohio Wesleyan I was interviewed for an admissions video. It was a lot of fun and the final product is pretty neat. I agree with what everyone says in the video, that OWU is a great school full of vibrant people and amazing opportunities. My experiences there and the opportunities the school created played a HUGE role in shaping who I am and leading me to where I am today. Take a look at the video:

Admissions video: "Ohio Wesleyan University: The Opposite of Ordinary"

My advisor at OWU, Dr. Jed Burtt, participated in a discussion focusing on the question, "Does creativity require a product?," which was featured in the Fall 2011 edition of the OWU Magazine (pages 14-17). He says, "Working to task certainly is easier for both students and teachers than being creative, but on a college campus we have to help students to begin questioning and discovering. We have to teach and they have to learn beyond the syllabus (p. 15)." I couldn't agree more. Jed, among other professors at OWU, encouraged me to discover things on my own and take my learning into my own hands. That kind of support was what led me to apply for a Theory to Practice Grant from OWU, which funded my Senior Honors Thesis work with bats in Texas (article link below).  I am grateful for the education I received at OWU and for all the mentors I had along the way. Check out the links below for the articles:

Discussion on "Does creativity require a product?," OWU Magazine, Fall 2011, pages 14-17

Article about my Senior Honors Thesis project with bats, OWU Magazine, Summer 2011, pages 12-13

Shingleback Skink Sighting

I spotted a pair of Shingleback Skinks (Tiliqua rugosa) in the grass near my bunkhouse. Pretty cool looking. Each was about 15 inches long with very large scales, a flat triangular head, and a short, stumpy tail.

Some interesting facts about this guy:

1. The short, stumpy tail resembles its head and may act as a defense mechanism to confuse predators. The tail also contains fat reserves that help the skink survive hibernation in the winter.

2. They are viviparous, which means they give live birth. They have broods of one to four relatively large offspring. They also tend to be monogamous. Some pairs have been known to return to each other every year for up to 20 years.

Shingleback Skink (Tiliqua rugosa)

A (Little) Helper

I found this guy on the gate latch when I opened the fence around the cave to do a census last night. It wouldn’t move when I tried to close the gate. I didn’t want to squish it in the lock, so I poked it (gently) with a small stick. It still wouldn’t budge. After a bit of coaxing it finally inched forward enough that I could close the gate.

My Project

I realize that I have not explained my research on my blog yet, so I’ll give a little background information and the overall goals of my project.

I will be studying the Southern Bentwing Bat (Miniopterus schreibersii bassanii) at Naracoorte Caves National Park, South Australia. The overall aim of my project is to monitor the bats at the maternity cave in Naracoorte and at their overwintering sites throughout South East South Australia.

The Southern Bentwing Bat was formally listed as Critically Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 based on the fact that the sub-species has undergone a reduction in population by about 67% over three generations (from about 100,000-200,000 individuals in the 1960s to about 30,000 individuals in 2009) and that it has a highly restricted range, relying on only two maternity caves (Bat Cave in Naracoorte and Starlight Cave in Warrnambool, Victoria). We know that about 10,000 individuals die each year. My project will provide detailed information about the population dynamics of this species and will be a step towards determining where, when, and why so many individuals don’t survive each year.  

Throughout the year I will do several things to monitor the bat population. First, I will take regular fly-out counts with thermal imaging cameras to monitor population trends at Bat Cave and determine the peak population size. By doing these counts regularly we will be able to see seasonal population trends throughout the year and get an idea of how weather affects nightly emergences. This is what I have been doing since I got here in September. I try to go out every night, although that doesn’t always happen due to bad weather (it’s not good to take the expensive cameras out into the rain!) or me travelling. When I take a count, I start setting up the cameras about 45 minutes before dusk (so 6:30pm now that Daylight Savings Time has begun). The bats usually start coming out around 7:15pm and the emergence typically lasts about an hour to an hour and a half. I record the whole time onto a cassette tape. After that’s done, I go into the Bat Center (a short walk from the cave) to use the infrared cameras inside the cave to see if there are any bats left inside. Usually not all the bats come out, so most of my counts are probably underestimates. Then I go home (usually by 9:30pm) and upload the census to the computer. Then I run the analysis, which consists of playing around with the software parameters to get the best visualization of the bats and double checking the count that the computer does. Most of the time I have to run several “scenarios” until the computer count matches closely with my manual count (I do several one minute counts to check against the computer count). This can take awhile but it’s pretty fun, like a puzzle! In addition, a new laser beam system will soon be installed (by students at the University of South Australia) so I will be able to compare nightly emergence numbers obtained from this system with numbers obtained from the thermal imaging cameras. Once the laser beam system is up and running, it will give us detailed information on activity patterns throughout the night, which will be really neat to see.

Taking a census at Bat Cave with the thermal imaging camera

Second, I will monitor pup health in the cave to watch for signs of disease or starvation. I will do this by visually observing pups with the infrared cameras in the Bat Center to look for signs of starvation or lesions and by taking photographs inside the cave to estimate the number of pups present. These observations can then be used to assist with determining possible causes of any observed starvation or disease. This will start once the pups are born in early December.

A view of the bats inside the cave with the infrared cameras

Third, I will conduct overwinter cave surveys throughout the South East region of South Australia. Most of the Southern Bentwing Bats congregate in the two maternity caves during the summer and then disperse to over 60 overwintering sites to spend the winter in torpor. Taking overwintering surveys will provide us with information about dispersal patterns from the maternity colonies as well as information about sites/caves of priority for restoration or conservation. Conducting these surveys will involve organizing a group of volunteers to go into the many caves in the region on the same day during the winter (sometime in June). In order to get an accurate count, it’s important that all of the caves (or as many as are accessible) are investigated on the same day because bats may move between caves.

Fourth, I will monitor the health of individual bats around Bat Cave by trapping with harp traps (I have never used these before so I’m pretty excited!) and possibly mist nets once a month. When we catch the bats during these trapping sessions, we will record basic data on each bat, such as weight, age, forearm length, overall condition, etc. We will also record some echolocation calls from the bats to build a call library. This library will be useful in the future when doing bat surveys with acoustic monitoring (so calls recorded during the survey can be compared to the known calls of the Southern Bentwing Bat).

In addition to the research aspects of my project, I will aid in the development of a public interpretation program at Naracoorte Caves National Park that minimizes the impact on the bats while engaging the public in conservation efforts. I am interested in public engagement and helping the general public understand the importance of bats, so I am very excited about this part of the project.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on with this project and my work over the next year will only begin to address some of the knowledge gaps for the Southern Bentwing Bat. Hopefully the information I gather will aid in the management and recovery of this Critically Endangered species!