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!

Wild Encounters

I haven’t been very good with keeping up with the blog the past few weeks. It’s been quite a busy time! I was out of town in Mt. Gambier and then Melbourne recently. I stayed with Cath in Mt. Gambier for part of the weekend, and then on Monday she took me to Cape Bridgewater in Victoria. Mt. Gambier is very close to the South Australia/Victoria border so it was only about an hour drive to Cape Bridgewater on the coast. And let me tell you, the coast was GORGEOUS! The water was probably the bluest water I’ve ever seen. Not quite as clear as Florida waters, but the blue was much deeper and richer.

It was here that I saw my first Australian snake. We were walking along the coastal cliff path and we almost walked right over it. It was slithering along the path, but when it saw us it stopped. We also immediately stopped, but were about three feet away by then. I got a few pictures before the snake decided to move along. Of course instead of turning slightly and moving away from us it came right towards me. I held still as it slithered between my legs and continued on its way. I’m not quite sure what type of snake it was, but I think it was an Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis). According to the Australia Zoo website, “The Eastern Brown Snake rates number two on the world's most venomous snake list.” However, the one we ran into was not acting aggressively at all, so we just stood still while it moved on. Overall a cool experience!

Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis)

Farther along the trail we stopped at a deck overhanging the cliff to look for the Cape Bridgewater Australian Fur Seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) colony that usually hangs out on the rocks. Unfortunately most of them were not there when we looked, but I did manage to see a few playing in the crashing waves along the shoreline.

 Australian Fur Seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) at Cape Bridgewater, Victoria

On our walk along the beach we found a washed-up Bluebottle Jellyfish, also known as the Portuguese Man-of-War (Physalia physalis). According to the Australian Museum website, “The Bluebottle or Portuguese Man-of-War is not a single animal but a colony of four kinds of highly modified individuals (polyps). The polyps are dependent on one another for survival. The float (pneumatophore) is a single individual and supports the rest of the colony. The tentacles (dactylozooids) are polyps concerned with the detection and capture of food and convey their prey to the digestive polyps (gastrozooids). Reproduction is carried out by the gonozooids, another type of polyp.”

 The float of a Bluebottle Jellyfish, also known as the Portuguese Man-of-War (Physalia physalis)

 Touching the waters of the Southern Ocean for the first time!

On Tuesday I flew to Melbourne to tag along with Jed Burtt (my advisor from OWU), his wife Pam, Pam’s sister Leslie, and Pam’s friend Pam on their birding/mammal-seeing adventures for a few days. We went searching in the forest for the Superb Lyrebird (we didn’t see one), took a walk in the suburbs to find koalas (we found one, my first koala!), and driving along the coast looking at shorebirds.

 My first koala (taken right before my camera died)!

It was so great to see Jed and Pam again and to really learn some of the birds I’ve been seeing around me. We also saw a Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus), one of Australia’s very venomous snakes, on the road as we were driving. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of it because when we stopped to get out, Jed and the rest of the crew jumped out of the car and left me trapped in the back seat. Jed came back to let me out but by the time I got to the snake it was in the grass. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll see plenty more in the next year!

 At Somers Beach with Jed 

 Is this a common occurrence in Australia?

A Noteworthy Accomplishment

I cooked my first meal in Australia! To many this may seem like a minor accomplishment, if even that. For me, it’s a big deal. As a recent college graduate who lived in a dorm the whole time, I have had little need to actually cook for the past four years. In school I usually subsisted on meals from the Smith Hall dining room or the Ham-Wil cafeteria, or sometimes frozen meals from the Thomson campus store. If I was lucky my roommates and I would pick up some Chipotle from the newly-built store in Delaware. Since coming to Australia I have lived on mainly turkey sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, muesli (like granola), yogurt, and things like that. I’m actually okay with this because I can eat the same thing for quite awhile without getting bored of it. So it was a major step when I turned on my gas oven and made my first meal by myself: pizza! And it wasn’t even a frozen pizza. I bought all the ingredients and put it together myself. Behold the masterpiece:

 A few days later I tried my hand at spaghetti and it turned out pretty well. Nothing fancy but I was still proud. I’m going to try to cook a real meal at least once in awhile so I can feel a little more like a grown up. We’ll see how that goes...

A House Visitor

I saw my first Redback Spider (Latrodectus hasselti) the other day! She was hanging out along the ceiling in the bathroom, starting to make a web. According to the Australian Museum website, "Only the female bite is dangerous. They can cause serious illness and have caused deaths. However, since Redback Spiders rarely leave their webs, humans are not likely to be bitten unless a body part such as a hand is put directly into the web, and because of their small jaws many bites are ineffective." Don't worry, I didn't stick my hand in the web, but I did get a few pictures before I collected her in a cup and took her outside, far away from the house.

 

 Female Redback Spider in my bathroom (Latrodectus hasselti)

I also had a close encounter with a Huntsman Spider (I'm not sure which species). I was finishing a census at night and was reaching for the power box to turn off the electricity when I saw a HUGE spider sitting right on the handle. It startled me to death! It did not like my light so it immediately scurried off and tried to hide. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but this picture from the Queensland Museum website gives a good approximation, although I'm not sure if the Grey Huntsman Spider occurs in South Australia:

A Grey Huntsman Spider (Holconia immanis) from Queensland (No, that's not my finger.)

Huntsman Spiders are the "tarantulas." These guys are not really dangerous, although their bites can be painful. I'll just have to be watch out where I stick my hands from now on!