A Small Joke...

Two zoo keepers are chatting over a coffee.
The gibbon keeper says: "So how come you don't want to work with gibbons then? They're awesome."
The orangutan keeper replies: "They're alright, but they're not great apes..."

Get it? Great Apes... Made it up all by myself. Okay, so maybe my comedy career is limited. But maybe I could get a crowd of primatologists? Ones with no sense of humour? No? Okay, I'll stick to the day job then.

16 JUN 09

Before heading back to the jungle from Kota Kinabalu we took a slight detour to bid farewell to our friends in Sukau. It was our last visit to the village for the foreseable future, certainly for this stay in Malaysia.
Whilst there we sorted out our data/computer issues with Mislin, visited some old friends in a village further downriver and were able to spend some time with the family at the homestay. We also took another trip to the study site where the orangutan-staff were following Jenny and her baby Mallotus. They were particularly 'un-bovvered', munching on leaves in a particularly tall tree, but it was a nice way to spend a day and say goodbye to the field-staff, for the time-being at least!

Of course, there's still a month to go, and a busy one at that. There are lots of jungle visitors scheduled in for the next four weeks, as well as the 2009 field course coming out from Cardiff... I have a feeling it's going to be a hectic time!

More soon,
Rachel

12 MAR 09

Hello again, terribly sorry for the lack of communication recently; we've had a few technical glitches that need ironing out, but all is well in the jungle!

We've had a busy time of it recently, zipping back and forth between Danau Girang, Kota Kinabalu and Sukau for various reasons. It's been quite a while since the parents returned home now and we're back in full swing getting our work done and 'being jungle'.

I tried to follow an orangutan for a coupe of days this week but to no real avail. My attempts at recording behavioural information failed miserably but I had to have a go! He was spotted one afternoon on a brief jungle walk, so I followed him until he built his nest for the night which was about four hours after he was first seen. The next morning I was up at half five to catch him before he left for breakfast and at first I thought it was all going rather well. I managed to keep up with his fruit-eating-rampage until he seemed likely to stay put for a while and I strung up a hammock to sit in whilst he ate. He was feeding for over an hour and I was just replying to a text message (amazed that I had any signal at all!) from my brother, wishing him all the very best for his show, when I looked up and found that 'Dunstan' had gone! I struggled to get the hammock down and searched for over an hour but he was obviously hiding and I was quite hungry by this point. I was just contemplating going to find some breakfast (it was about 10am by this time) when I heard an unusual bird approaching at an alarming rate. It turned out to be Chloe calling to me in the style of our friends in Sukau who make 'natural type noises' to find each other when they're in the field. She'd brought a food parcel from the field centre after reading my note!

Yesterday I was sat out on the steps of our studio (little house thing) playing guitar and wondering how I could possibly have lost a bright orange orangutan amongst a green forest when a familiar cracking of branches nearby caught my attention. I looked up to see Dunstan suspended between two trees, giving me exactly the same 'don't you dare follow me' look I'd been given on that first afternoon when I found him in the forest. As I wasn't wearing any shoes at the time he was in luck, but it's good to know he's still in the area and I'll have another search for him tomorrow. I'm sure he likes me really...

This morning Chloe and I went to Sandakan to collect a parcel that's been waiting for us for over a month. We arrived, signed the appropriate documents and ran back to the car with our precious packages... only to open them and find that we'd each received a blue holdall from Reader's Digest. We were both a little confused as the only link we have to this particular magazine is the online daily draw my Mum has tried to force me to enter every day for the last two years in a bid to win a huge amount of cash. This didn't explain our curious parcels and it was only when I turned the packaging over that I realised that we were in possession of two holdalls belonging to a Mr Huing Wan Hung and a Mr Richard Gibley. Returning to the Post Office I tried to explain that my name wasn't Richard and that Chloe certainly wasn't Mr Hung, and only suceeded in convincing the clerk by explaining that 'Mr' is a term for a male and we were most definitely female. Unfortunately my Malay is still pretty dire and so the best I could do translated as "I girl, Mr Gibley boy. I not Richard, I Rachel. I no have Reader's Digest. I want letter mine." He got the picture and after reluctant searching brought out three parcels, all with 'Reader's Digest' printed on the outside and addressed to a 'Mr G.Smythe', 'Mr Chung' and another name I forget now but did not include the words 'Rachel' or 'Chloe'. Some further exasperating conversation and waving of my driving licence convinced him that I wasn't going to accept any of the identical blue holdalls and really did want my mysterious parcel. Miraculously he managed to find both and Chloe now has her Marks and Sparks ingredients for a Christmas dinner (non-perishables...) sent by her Mum in time for (next) Christmas and I have a make-your-own monkey door hanger for my birthday! When we return to the jungle I think we'll have to have a Christmas pud and craft session...

13 FEB 09

After a tense 48 hours last week wondering whether or not the snow would lift enough for Heathrow to begin operating like a normal airport again, Mum and Dad walked into the Arrivals Lounge of Kota Kinabalu airport.

The last eight days have been so busy that I've not had time to write anything, but I'll highlight a couple of our momentous points before the cafe who's internet we're using closes. It's just taken Dad over an hour to type three emails because he's not used to this laptop and has been repeatedly deleting and re-typing them. At least it's nice and warm outside; I imagine that sitting outside a shop at midnight typing an email in England is the last thing most people would be doing in the current weather situation.

Today we visited Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. For me this was the third trip in seven months, but orangutans never get old. Well, they obviously get old but not 'old'. Mum and Dad loved it (I think), and we watched several orangutans feeding on the specially built platform.
There was a young orangutan who seemed intent on winding up the adults in any way he could. This started with a mild pestering of his mother when he'd had his fill of bananas . Not getting anywhere he opted for swinging away from the platform along the rope, designed to protect the nearby saplings from the hungry mob twice a day, and bounding back onto the platform to stand over 'Mum' expectantly. Seeing that 'Mum' was still engrossed in her fruit-feast he chanced a tug at her fur, which resulted in an unimpressed look and Mum turning to face the other direction. The little one then turned to face Dad who was concentrating on a particularly juicy looking piece of lunch and climbed on top of him. Dad shook him off and gave him a very definite 'Do that again and I'll clock you one' stare. He went back to hang around on the rope for a while before getting fed up and swinging over to wind up a family of macaques who were patiently waiting for any leftovers from the great ape feeding session.
The next time I saw him swing into view he was holding a branch twice as long as he was tall in his left foot and trying to maneuvre back to the platform with his prize. I'm convinced he wasn't trying to be awkward, but like so many small children his intentions went misunderstood, and hitting his mother on the head with it whilst trying to drag it onto level ground didn't go down very well. She grabbed him by the arm and wrenched him back to a behaving, sitting position. Sulkily he snatched an entire bunch of bananas and retreated to the rope with the bunch grasped in his feet.
The 'eyes-bigger-than-stomach syndrome' soon set in though and he flumped down next to Dad in search of attention. None came his way, so he started poking his father. This, understandably, was as appreciated as accidentally hitting his mother on the head with a tree branch and resulted in a wrestling match with Dad, who must have been at least four times his size and weight. As we left, the little one stood up looking very proud of himself and probably would have been able to walk away with his head held high, but he chanced one last swipe at Dad and the fiasco recommenced, just as the park closed and we were ushered away from the feeding area.

The jungle's been flooded since the day Mum and Dad (human versions) arrived and it's been touch and go as to whether we'll be able to get there or not, but fingers crossed...

01 DEC 08

It's December 1st and this evening I get to open the first door of my CADBURY'S Advent calendar!!! It arrived from Mum last week, so Chloe and I each have a very squashed, slightly melted, but very Christmassy treat to lead us up to Christmas!

We returned back from our trip to Sukau last week, and since then have been writing up our field course reports from July. Yesterday afternoon, the monkeys that have been causing so much trouble at Zainal's house came to visit us outside the computer room. There were about twenty macaques sat on the grass, having an afternoon snack. Other wildlifey encounters incude Pumbaa the pig snuffling around the kitchen on a regular basis, and a particularly brave monitor lizard who had somehow made his way into the kitchen on Friday. Goodness knows how he got in, but he certainly left in a hurry!

In Sukau we discussed our work further and were able to go into the field to help collect the data. It was really nice to catch up with our new friends there again, including Haji who let slip to Boss Benoit about the existence of this webpage, so I'll have to be a bit more careful now... (Don't worry Benoit, your Centre's in good hands!) During our stay, we saw a large, flanged male orangutan and two mother and baby pairs. We were also lucky enough to see a group of elephants at a very close range. They weren't at all bothered by our presence after a little while and carried on munching away at the vegetation and destroying every small tree they came across. From the small clearing we found them in, they then headed for an oil palm plantation, where we witnessed them stripping several palms of their leaves and demolish an electric fence. Eventually they moved on from the plantation, but they certainly made their mark. I don't know why anyone ever used the phrase 'Bull in a china shop', 'Elephant in an oil palm plantation' is much more appropriate! By the time they'd left us, I was bright orange with the contents of an oil palm kernel (as the 'Orangutan Warrior') and we were all drenched due to the heavy rain. We looked a comical assortment of people as we headed back to the river, with Marc carrying the bags in a black binliner over his shoulder, much like a tramp, Haji tripping over various remnants of elephant-damaged vegetation, Chloe soggier than my washing (which I can never seem to get dry out here) and me in orange war-paint. It was one of the best afternoons I've had since arriving though, and every time we spot the elephants they go up another notch on my favourite animal scale. Of course, the orangutans are still safely at the top, especially after seeing Maria and Jenny's tiny babies this week! They're ever so funny to watch as they explore the branches near 'Mum' whilst she's sat nibbling nonchalently on whatever fruit she can find, and amazingly the regular characters seem to get on with their day whilst completely ignoring the presence of researchers on the ground below!

Unfortunately this computer is giving me awful trouble typing so I'm going to have to call it a day. I hope everyone's well, and as rumour has it that internet may be slowly snaking its way to Danau Girang, I may be able to write again soon!

Love from Rachel x