Into the wild

Christmas was celebrted this year despite being in Thailand. I spent Christmas at the centre eating and drinking myself into a state of zombie. I shall be taking it easy for a while I think.

waterfall nap rock

My gift to myself was a two day trip into Keang Krachan, the national park nearby. I camped there and did a 16 km trek on the first day. We walked down to several spots along the waterfall past some huge old trees and great views. The waterfall was beautiful and I got to swim in the amazing clear water and have the best nap ever on a large rock (wouldn't have thought it could be so comftable)

leaping langur

One off the many pretty butterfies

The horrendous walk back to the campsite was worthwhile as I saw a wild great horbil and several families of langurs which was amazing. They throw themselves into nearby trees with what looks like no planning and let the trees break their fall. It was good to see them being free and wild and I loved it. The sunset and sunrise was impressive, had I had more energy I would have witnessed more of them. The second day was more relaxed with a picnic by the lake and stroll through a butterfly area. We also discovered wild leeches and what must be the most annoying sounding bug in universe, but all in all a great trip.


sunset

sunrise



Velocirickens and Chickaraptors

These are a rare throwback to the time of dinosaurs. The Velociraptors were rife in Thailand and in the name of survival grew smaller and disguised there scales with feathers so they could live amoung the chickens without being hunted down by people who feared dinosaurs.  

And if you believe that you'll believe anything. These are apparently normal Thai chickens that happen to look and walk (sorry no video) like dinosaurs. They have freakishly long legs and necks and have kept me very entertained since their arival at the centre two weeks ago. Little things...

Tis the season

This is also the season of celebrations in Thailand. The last full moon was Loi Kratong, a Thai festival that takes place at the end of the Thai lunar year. We made Kratongs out of sections of banana trees and decorated them with flowers, leaves, incense and a candle. We then lit them at night and floated them into the lake. Its beautiful and supposed to send away all the sins of the previous year and welcome the new one in. I love this festival and enjoyed watching all the decorated lights go off into the lake (don't worry, non of the gibbons on the islands got hold of them). Today is also the kings 83rd birthday and we will be celebrating in the village by lighting a candle for him. We are ment to wear pink to respect the king and blue to respect the queen. I like the lack of western colour sexism.

Animal news includes the fact that I have finally been allowed to work on Primates 1 and spend some time with my gibbons. I've loved every minute of it but my appreciation of the macaques and bears is still growing all the time. My faviorite part of the day is enrichments when you get to use your creativity to make something to entertain the animals you are working with. I've had some success with new ideas and get to watch the animals try to figure out what you've given them and what they are supposed to do with it.

Enriching Ollie the otter is fun and also the only time in the day when he is quiet.

Three gibbons from one of the islands, mum, dad and baby got moved up to the release site last month. They will be given a soft release back into the wild and a new couple has moved to the island from the centre. This was great to see and will be great for the gibbon family.

A less enjoyable thing to watch yesterday was June, the oldest elephant at the centre. She is 70 has lost her last set of teeth and came into the centre 5 months ago incredably thin and covered in sores. She has put on a lot of weight since being at the centre but doesnt have much strength in her legs. Yesterday for the 5th time she collapsed and had to be lifted by a crane. These collapses are becoming furthur apart and the ordeal of lifting her is becoming easier and quicker everytime, so she is improving in some ways. She gets a lot of special care and is doing much better today.

I am still working on getting some pictures on the blog. Hopfully in the next couple of weeks. Will update again soon.

Losing track of time

Its been a while since my last update. Time seems to have dissappeared, slipping away into the trees while im working. Its been an eventfull couple of weeks. A few animals have escaped, most have been returned safely and without too much drama. I have got to work on a few other jobs but not yet my favorite which involves the gibbons. (I'm being kept off this job for the time being on purpose but Im not sure of the reason, shockingly im taking this well) I have got to work with the macaques though, they are very intelligent and have amazing personalities, all very different. They can however be quite trying when your feeling tired as escape or entertainment is at the forfront of there minds when you are cleaning their enclosures. You have to keep an eye on them or locks, keys, glasses, watches and occasionally some hair can be taken from you without much warning. Its a bugger getting them back too (especially the hair). Despite recently feeling ill and run down (charming stomach bug I picked up somewhere) I have yet to lose any of the above or let any of them out by accident. Go me.

Pocky one of the macaques Ive got to work with.

The last few weeks havnt been all about the animals either. There was the very boring short stint in bed with my bacteria and a few nights out and much socialising. After being very well behaved and not drinking too much I decided it was time to have a day away. Stayed in a hotel, went out for some drinks (managed to fall down the stairs before the alcohol, bruises are fading now), went to a lady boy show (when in Thailand) and hired a bright pink hello kitty tandum bike. They are look more fun than they are. I tried to mask my poor efforts of steering by singing Queen's bycicle song. After 20 minutes I was out of breath and energy and we returned the bike 40 minutes early. But Im sure we looked cool.

I also attempted to bring bonfire night to Thailnd by watching V for Vendetta and organising a BBQ for 30 people. It happened despite my doughts and everyone seemed to have fun. After the meat was cooked and eaten and the stress was gone I felt too tired to do much and made a mental note not to try an plan something like this again. Someone else can have the stress next time.

Aside from these sporadic bursts of fun most of my socialising recently has been with two young dusky langurs who still need looking after in the night. Every fourth night I become mum and get to hang out with the gourgous duo. They may not stay up late or be much for conversation but I look forward to these nights and happy that I am trusted with them.

Apologies for the lack of photos in the last two posts my camera isnt playing witht the computers at the moment. When I can upload again I shall update these bare and boring looking posts.

Bears

I have been working a lot with the bears this week (they are trying to keep me off primates as I'll want to stick to them once I start). I am starting to enjoy working with the bears more than I used to. Getting over the initail fear and the fact that they are quite slow has helped. There are 26 bears at the centre including one that was rescued this week. Asiatic black bears and Malayan sun bears (much smaller but longer claws). I got to give them a great enrichment, we drilled holes into logs and filled them with mashed banana and seeds. Its was great to see them spend ages tring to get into the logs. Its very hard to come up with enrichments that keep them busy for long periods of time so when we do its a wonderful feeling. They all have large enclosures to roam around in though so they are not usually bored.

Birds, otters, cats and langurs

I have been back at the centre nearly a week and I have only worked on 'other wildlife'. This is a job I did not get to do the first time I was here and is both enjoyable and slightly scarey. The otters are very cute but start to scream when they get hungry and/or bored. You can hear it all over the centre. There are 3 new baby langurs which is amazing as they are very hard to keep alive in captivity. They cannot process fruit and die when feed things like banana's which is usually their downfall when bought as pets by ignorant people. The babies are gorgeous and the oldest one, Pun (see left), has gone in with the adults. The birds are a different matter entirerly. I have discovered Im not much of a fan. Randy, the great hornbil, has a habit of attacking people who enter his enclosure (just for fun you understand but many volunteers dont take it that way). I go in 4 times a day and have so far been lucky but have witnessed his assult on many other volunteers helping me to clean up. It you dont what a great hornbil is imagine a bird about knee high with a beak 6 times bigger than its head.

           He doesnt look as scarey from underneath. If only he would stay up there.

I am enjoying the comforts of my own room but it is in the opposite direction to the other volunteer rooms and when its dark it can be a bit creepy walking home to bed. The first night I could swear I was being followed. Just as I was trying to convice myself that I was just being paranoid a screach came from behind me and Maggie (the food house cat) jumped on my feet, both confirming my paranoia and making me feel very silly at the same time.

Im Here

8 things to do in 8 hours in Doha airport;
1. Buy enough chocolate for 6 months
2. Search for a toilet you are actually willing to use (I eventually found one)
3. Spend a large amount of money on some awful mozzarella sticks and a bucket of pepsi
4. See how many of the wasabi peas you got on your last flight you can throw into the now empty bucket of pepsi (you may be wondering why I didn't just eat these but my teeth are not made of diamonds)
5. Read an entire Alexander McCall Smith book (its not hard)
6. Clean you iPod with a wet one (I'd forgotten the headphones were white)
7. Watch the sleep deprived zombified travellers wander aimlessly around the airport at 4am bumping into everything including each other without really noticing (actually quite entertaining)
8. Take a security stalker on an obstical course around duty free (I'm not sure why he targeted me but I was impressed by his dedication)

I am in Thailand at long last. It seems very strange returning to the sanctuary and its hasn't all hit me yet. I wonder if it will. The very long journey ended in me staying in backpackers heaven (khao san road) in Bangkok. This is not an easy place to deal with at the best of times and is a hase of lights, noise and clothes when jetlagged. My arrival in the remote and quiet centre is very blissful despite viewing the damage caused by last weeks flood. Thankfully none of the animals were harmed but the landscape has changed a bit with large areas being washed away. I have said hello to all my fury friends which is always good. I will have far more interesting and better written things to post when I have caught up on sleep hopefully.

Finally

So, after far too long planning my escape to South East Asia it is actually about to happen. For any one who doesnt already know, I am leaving the UK for 9 months to work with primates (many of which will be gibbons). I have already worked with our furrier cousins before and loved it so much I had to go back. I didnt bother with a blog last time (too much monkeying around), but have seen the error in my ways and will be keeping everyone updated this time. Hope you enjoy, and dont get borred with my load of old monkey talk.

And yes you're right, that is not a gibbon...