Blog entry: Short summaries

Blog entry: Short summaries

This last month was an accumulation of lot of things (e.g. power lost, lost of internet connection, no water, food shortage) therefore it has been difficult to put my thoughts together and write an entry. So, I like to write something "light"; in this entry I like to write short summaries on various aspect in and around the fazenda and on the field.

Frankie and Beth, the tapirs

To start, I want to inform you about the tapirs, my favourite animals in this property. At the beginning I think that these beasts are quite ugly (just like everyone in general). When we arrived they were enclosed in the front of the fazenda with the peccaries. However, after a while Leandro moved them to the enclosure on the back of our house. He also mentioned that we could give them the left-over we got and thus we fed them with some left-over. To be honest, at first I was a bit afraid of them and when I gave them the left-over, I quickly open the gate, dumped it and quickly close it again. It started to changed when one day I mustered all of my courage to pet one of them (the male) actually. Surprisingly, they are quite meek or perhaps they are already grew accustomed to me. The sudden change in liking came because I decided to base my research on the big grazers (i.e. the tapirs), hence I decided to learn more about them.

Between December and January was the mango seasons. Back in our house we have 2-3 mango trees and everyday lot of mangos fell on the ground. Leandro then asked as to give these mangoes to the tapirs, and so I collected mangoes almost every day and gave them to the tapirs.

Coincidentally it is also the time when Mario came for a visit. Mario is a professional animal trainer and has worked with variety of animals. In that week-end that he was with us, maybe it was an accident or maybe not, the tapirs got loose. The male was exploring the house and eating the plants on the yards. With some difficulties Leandro was able to herd him back to the enclosure. However, the next day when me and Mario were going to feed them with some mangoes, we could not find them. Leandro was by chance around and he informed us that they were loose again and the female was actually nearby his house that morning. We saw that the back-door to the eucalyptus was open and decided to go and search for the male. Mario saw him in the distance and we approached him quietly, but he already noticed us and fled to the corner of the plantation. We went to that direction and surprisingly we didn't found him. Both of us were amazed on how quick he was able to run and disappeared from our sights

Then Mario saw him again, not far from us. He was lying on the ground, relaxing. we approached him quietly. Mario then gave him some mangoes and started to walk away while hitting the bucket. Miraculously, he followed us back to the enclosure.

It's when I fed them jack fruit

After that I started to hit the bucket every time I come to feed them. I also decided to name them. I call the male Franco / Frankie (because of mafia movies and uncle Frankie, I find the name quite fitting for this big fellow), as the name that Leandro gave to him was quite difficult. The female I decided to call her Beth (a short version of Elisabeth) because Effie told me that is her name.

I still remember the time when I came in the enclosure and Frankie already sniffing the scent of mangoes and came running towards me. I dumped the mangoes on the ground, he came sniffing and immediately jumped on the pile of mangoes. One of his legs stepped on a mango and was slipping, though he didn't mind and carried on with the mango feast. Beth was quite timid (now not so much) and more tranquil in her approach. She came cautiously to the pile though when she started to eat she also ravaged the mangoes as her better half.

Frankie likes to eat with his eyes closed

Mario trick with the bucket worked, Frankie and Beth are already familiar with the sound. Now, even if they are sleeping, when they heard the sound they know that food is coming and run immediately towards me. Mario also teach me to caress the animals. Every time that I feed them I spent some time petting them and removing some ticks. I grew attached to them and I think the feeling is vice versa (see the picture).  I will have a hard time leaving them ...

Courtesy of Efstathia Sideri

The fungi

Now comes a part that maybe not so relevant with the work that I conducted, but still it is something that I like to do. My interest in fungi started in high school when I grew bread molds for  a small research.  My report for that research was graded quite high. Although, sadly I do not continue to the next step (to collect and identify mushrooms). The interest lay dormant and I started to like it again after I did a small project during the second year of my bachelor. It was when I met Dr. József Geml and learned a lot about the phylogheny of the Lactarius clade. Because, I really liked the project I decided to do my bachelor internship under supervision of József.

During the internship I had the chance to accompany József during the fieldwork in Costa Rica (last year). It was there when I found and gathered my first mushrooms. From then on I always keep my eyes open for any mushrooms and surprisingly, I found many of them here in cerrado.

So, this part of entry is actually more or less directed to the people of NCB naturalis. Guys, these are the mushrooms that I have found around sugarcane and in forest fragment.

The first one I found in the forest, nearby a tree and a small stream of water. I think this is an ectomycorrhiza.

The second one I found in the sugarcane. A lot of these mushrooms grows on the cut stem of the sugarcanes.

This mushrooms I found it along the road. It resembles an Amanita, I am not sure though. I didn't saw any trees nearby and on the record there are a lot of cattle passing through this area. 

Furthermore, I found more mushrooms after rain. I hope you like these images and perhaps could identify some of them.

The end??

My honoured audiences, my time in Brasil is almost ended. The fieldwork went well although we had some accidents in the end. Don't worry, I'm fine, the real damage was in the equipments. Thus because it is almost the end I would like to dedicate my last entry to the jaguars. I hope you stay tuned for that last entry, however I also want to warn you that it will contain images of jaguars playing and devouring a dead animal. 

Até proxima,

Yuga