Blog entry: Second week

Brazil, Emas National Park, 2 December - 9 December 2012

The last week was quite intense. We went to the field to put more cameras and to assessed the paths for the track surveys. Fieldwork wise we started the day around 7.30 and continue till something around 20.00. I still wonder how the Brazilians can survive with minimal amount of foods and rest. It's for sure not a "Banana Republic". Another reason we had to work hard is because Desiree will leave us alone in the end of this week (actually she already left this morning). So, any time that we could spent in the field with her is a bonus and in the end we had every camera set on Thursday and the transects evaluated on Friday.

We also had some bad luck this week. We were planning to put more of the analogue cameras to fill the gaps, however on several areas we found out that they are harvesting the sugarcanes. So we raced to retrieved all cameras already set on the fields where they suppose to be harvested. Back on the office there was another excitements because we could see if we had ay results from the cameras

Well we had! on one particular sugarcane path (between two fragments) there was a tapir passing by and even a jaguar! too bad that the sugarcane around the areas have been cut down. On another area we captured (on picture) crab-eating fox and on another one we captured armadillo, crab-eating fox and a rare specimens (black one/ melanic) of Pampas cat. Desiree thought at first sight that it was just a regular black cat, but apparently this is an endangered species and we are really lucky to captured it on picture.

A harvester

On the flip side, all of the sugarcanes in the areas have been harvested and we are not sure how it will impact the movement of the species. This is more or less also one of things that we try to answer in our research.

Despite the hard work we still have some free times. Yesterday we cleaned the house a bit and in the afternoon we went to the river with Leandro and the family, Bahiana and the family (employees of Leandro) and us the 4 gringos. The river is a part of rio Araguaia, which goes from ENP all the way to the Atlantic ocean. This is also a part of the natural corridor that connect ENP with the Amazon. One nice little fact is that on this place they have released a jaguar called Lenda (which means Legend). Furthermore, there are caymans swimming around in this river. In spite that fact the river is nice and clear (you need to see it by yourself) and really refreshing. And now we know how to get there, this will be a good hang out spot after a hard day in the field, haha.

View of the Araguaia river 

Our home for 4 months

Now I have update you a bit about the fieldwork, I like to guide you through the place we call "home" for the upcoming months. As you perhaps noticed, I already put a picture of the outside of the house on my previous entry. Now I'm going to go through the interior of the house. Where shall we begin ?? perhaps starting with my room? Okay, as you see on the next photo. there are two beds in my room (with one being a bunk bed). The picture after that is the bathroom. Each room in this house has its own bathroom. The water is heated by an electrical coil in the shower head (a common thing in brazil).

The next picture is the living room. We don't use this room that much. As you can see it is quite humble. So we can't sit with each other in this room anyway (plus we don't have the time because we go back from the field really late). 

This is the veranda of the house. In the morning and maybe in the afternoon we have a breakfast and lunch at this big table, with the view of the park.

The kitchen is perhaps the one place in the house where we spent a lot of time. We cooked our own foods and so after hard day of work we still have to cook dinner if we don't want to go to sleep with empty stomach. The kitchen is actually my domain. So far, I have whipped many dishes and my roomies are quite content with them. Because all of my roomies are vegetarian, I am more or less also a vegetarian at the moment ;).

soyballs / perkedel that I made today 

Well, last evening I broke my vegetarian streak, because last night we were invited by Leandro to join them for a churrasco, Brazilian style barbecue. After two weeks without meat it was a nice treat and also we got some caipirinhas... this was a nice way to end the week.

Até breve in my proximate entry,

Abraço,

Yuga