Friday, July 29, 2016

21-30.July.2016 (Day 46-56)

Why should we care? 




Data collection is complete!

It didn’t take as long as expected but I worked like a dog and managed to get it all done with a few days to spare.


Looking at my dragons-horde pile of samples is a little unbelievable…



There will be blood (errr, plasma)






I’ve always been terrible at those guessing games where you need to write down how many M&Ms, pennies, etc. are in a jar. You know, whoever is closest wins some silly gift.




Maybe you’re better at than me.



Any guesses?







I’m not exactly playing fair, because I didn’t even keep track.



I can tell you there’s around 837 little vials full of snake/toad plasma in the picture.
(120 cane toads, 24 children’s pythons, 60 water pythons, and another 15 water pythons bled on five different occasions, all in triplicate!)


I always make some extra vials for those ‘just in case’ situations, and it’s a darn good thing I do because I needed them plenty this time.



The basics run-down: I did four different tests on each animal (don’t let the words confuse you; they’re all very simple tests).


1) Osmolality- I ran samples through a machine that tells me how concentrated little particles are in water. If an animal is hydrated there would be a low number of particles, as it dehydrates the water goes bye-bye and the particle concentration (theoretically) goes up.


2/3) Lysis/Agglutination- I mix my animals plasma (toad/snake blood without the red blood cells, think of it as blood-water) with sheep red blood cells to see how well immune particles in the plasma can attach (agglutination) and kill (lysis) whole sheep cells.



Lysis/Agglutination




This is my best-friend, as 96-well plate. You guessed it; there are 96 little holes in each plate. This is a view from up on high of some of the action. In each row (left to right, A-H) is a different animal sample mixed with sheep red blood cells. In each column (up and down, 1-12) is a different ratio of animal plasma to sheep cells. At the top there is almost equal parts animal plasma to sheep cells, as it moves down there is the same amount of sheep cells but less and less animal plasma.

The wells that have a red dot in them don’t have much going on.

Look at row B, there is nothing but red dots. This animal isn’t very good at killing sheep cells. The animals in rows C and E are pretty darn good and the animals in rows A and D are somewhere in the middle.


4) Bacterial Killing Assay- this is the test that always intimidates people, but I’d like to think it’s the easiest to understand. Once again, I use my friend the 96-well plate and create the perfect combination of nutrients to grow E. coli overnight. And it grows really well.

Into some of the wells I’ll add the nutrient juice, the bacteria, and some of my animal plasma. Wait 12 hours. And then check to see how well the bacteria grew while soaking in animal plasma. There are a lot of errors that can occur in this test which is why I think people are scared of it. Contamination from bacteria floating all around the environment is the biggest risk (I am adding the perfect bacteria growing juice after all). As a backup I do everything x3. In case I made a mistake, there are always a few backups.

Bacterial Killing Assay




The top right corner is one of my controls, it has NO bacteria growing in it, it’s nice and clear (remember I do everything x3, so it’s the three wells in the top right corner). Just to the left of the ‘no growth’ control, is the ‘zany growth’ control. These wells don’t have any plasma, just bacteria and da’ juice. There are an out of control amount of E. coli in these wells.

The rest of the plate is full of my animals plasma mixed with bacteria. You can see that some of the animals in the middle did a really good job and the wells look clear. Others? Not so much.


Those are my main tests. Simple right?

With these (plus field date like size, mass, sex, etc.) I have all the basic info I need to start answering some of my questions.



Now I know:
1) How hydrated is the animal?
2) How does its immune system perform?



And I can start on data analysis to help the most interesting question:
3) How are these two factors (hydration and immune function) related?


But (there's always a but), the question I get the most still remains:


Why should we care?




The truth is, no one has any idea how hydration affects immune function (or vice versa).



Remember how I told you osmolality is the concentration of particles inside your plasma? 

Some diseases, like cholera, kill millions of people because they lose too much water. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of how you lose that water; suffice to say it exits quickly and violently. People basically die from dehydration.

There are also other diseases like diabetes that kill you from too many particles (blood sugar).

I simplify my experiments by telling people I work on hydration, but osmolality is really two parts. How much water and how many particles.  


This explanation has turned out to be much longer than I had planned. Time to bring it all home.

My experiments and my questions:

Water pythons- Held without water for 5 weeks, and bled throughout the process.

As these animals dehydrate, how does their immune system change? What about WPs living in the wild? Do they dehydrate through the dry season, and as they dehydrate does their immune system change just like it does in the lab?

Cane toads- Caught from four different sites (2 desert, 2 tropical) corresponding with their invasion history (from east to west).

Is there a difference in osmolality in toads from wet/dry habitats caught in the wild? How long will it take toads from the different sites to dehydrate? Are toads in the desert resistant to dehydrating? Similar to the WPs, as the toad dehydrate how does their immune system change? Will any of this information help explain how the heck these toads are racing across the Australian deserts?

Children's pythons- Caught in the wild throughout the dry season.

Does the dehydration experiments we do at ASU have any ecological relevance (ie how dehydrated do these animals get in the wild)?



At the end of the day I’m really only investigating a small piece of the puzzle. I have a million other questions that this data might help answer.

I should stress that this project is in no way finished. I have mountains of data to parse through and enough data analysis ahead of me that my head might explode. 

Hopefully it will help our understanding of some important unknowns though. 

It's time to start packing up and preparing for the long journey home. It's been too long and I'm bursting with excitement at the idea of being with wife and daughter again.




Wednesday, July 20, 2016

20.July.2016 (Day 45)

As good as it gets



Tonight was the last night I've scheduled for myself to go out looking for snakes. 

I’ve been working extra hard to get the last few and the colder weather isn’t helping much. 

It’s really come down to the wire.

At the start of my trip I would have shrugged away the thought of finding two water pythons and one children’s python in a night.

Child’s play.

With the recent change in climate in the top end, however, I’m anxiously optimistic at best.



If you believe in that sort of thing, a full, blood-red moon hung on the horizon. An omen of good or ill I really didn’t know.


Wierdos always come out during a full moon


(I guess exhibit A is yours truly, a nervous biologist frantically searching for pythons)





The night did not start out as planned.

The back roads had higher than usual traffic.




THE WORST. See you at dinner, cow!






It was another cold night, and the one animal I did see was sleepy like everything else around here these days.



Do not disturb






But the winds eventually changed a bit and I managed to find two water pythons while wandering around in the bush.



Okay, one more snake to go. Come on Brusch, get in the game and find this thang'.







I’m not a religious man, but you better believe I was praying to whatever god that a snake would find its way to me.







Be careful what you wish for.








I am now confident of two things:

1) Thoughts/wishes/prayers need to be very specific
2) I am truly cursed at finding the smallest example of animals









The smallest children’s python in existence





Curses! You’ve got to be kidding me! This little fella couldn’t have been more than 20cm (~8in). Don’t think for a minute that I didn’t seriously consider nabbing it up.





I probably could get blood out of it if I needed….

A snake is a snake, right…

I’m pretty sure they haven’t laid eggs this year yet, so it’s probably an adult…




These are the thoughts of desperation.




Luckily the combined voices of all my mentors superseded my frantic wish to grab it and I had to say goodbye. Comparing this animal to the other 23 (actual adults) I've caught would have been silly at best.





Ugh, one snake short. Not the end of the world.

 Time to pack it up and head home.

Start the car, drive back to the field station with my head low and my tail between my legs.





Without getting too deep into the subject, whatever power controls the universe has a weird sense of humor.




The most beautiful snake I’ve ever seen





Boom.



120/120 cane toads
75/75 water pythons
24/24 children’s pythons


I came, I snaked, I toad-ed.


[Mic drop]










Tuesday, July 19, 2016

18-19.July.2016 (Day 43-44)

Full moon, no stopping 



We have an excellent guard dog on the way to our house. Err guard bird. The barn owl I showed you earlier…


Barn owl (Tyto alba)






…is there every night. Screeching constantly, especially as you get closer to an old dead tree along the path that must be where it rests every night. It’s comforting to know that if anyone is walking around outside you’ll quickly know it; the screeching won’t end until you’ve gone back into one of the buildings.



I had always assumed they just didn’t like anyone else in their neighborhood.



Turns out the reason was far cuter,




Babies!



Spittin’ image of yer mum




Watching two fledglings clumsily walk around and learn to fly is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Judging from their size I’m not sure I’d classify them as ‘babies’ anymore, but watching them fumble over each other and start to flap their wings is totes adorbs




Last night a fellow middle pointian came out to help in the search and we managed to bag two more little buggas. In return I helped him scout out a field site  at a local national park called Litchfield.





This place



Is



Awesome!



How I just found out about it is beyond me. Because we went during the day to scope the scene it was tourist-ville, but there were still plenty of amazing sites.





Magnetic termite (Amitermes meridionalis)




All of their mounds are on a north-south alignment to minimize exposure to the sun. Each mound is full of arches, tunnels, chimneys, insulation, and nursery chambers for their young.


The drier parts of the park were full of them and it felt like going through a graveyard.



A walk among the tombstones






A little back-story about one of the reasons I was so excited to come out here.

Coming from Phoenix I get used to being in the pool at least once a day (what else are you going to do when the thermometer starts blowing its top?), but being in the NT, virtually every body of water is crowded with giant salties.

I was given a little reprieve on my trip to Cairns, but only enough to wet my appetite, not satiate my need to swim around and feel free in the water.


Enter: Litchfield



What we were looking for was smaller streams that feed into the river. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have time to take a quick dip in the local swimming hole.


From high above on the canyon walls I could tell this place was going to be legit.



Buleys Rockhole





And from the bottom, while a bit crowded, it was everything I could have hoped for from the local ‘rockhole’ (which must be Ozzie for watery paradise).


Swimmin’ hole





The water felt amazing. I would argue it was the perfect temperature.




Swimmin hole (Part II)




Even though the falls were flowing pretty good I doubt it was strong enough to bathe the combined filth of 5+ weeks of field work off me, but I sure gave it my best shot.

Nature’s filth-be-gone








You’ll have to admit, I’ve been pretty good above not over doing the selfies on the trip so far.




Those days are behind us.



As a millennial it’s in my blood to see something cool and immediately think ‘hmm, now how I going to capture this moment and include my face +/- a silly expression???’



Because I had a partner in crime today, the selfies did flow!



Shameless waterfall selfie #2,856






Idiot-grin selfie #14,976





Shameless waterfall and idiot-grin selfie #12






Of course it wouldn’t be a selfie extravaganza + me in the water (not the best swimmer admittedly) without a drowned-rat epic-fail picture






An ever graceful mer-man





Getting to some of the farther-out areas of Litchfield were, ummm, interesting to say the least.









Tonight I’m going for the last of my snakes. Only one more children’s python and five more water pythons. It’s a full moon and the NT is burning in the distance. Anything can happen.







Sunday, July 17, 2016

17.July.2016 (Day 42)

 Some things will never be tamed



If yesterday was cold, today was absolutely frigid. I was in the lab most of the day but any foray outdoors was quickly met with a scarf and jacket.


I’ve been told I’m rather lucky, in ‘normal’ years it gets this cold in early to mid-June (right about the time I showed up) and lasts for 30-45 days (before getting sweltering hot and muggy again). So I actually had pretty good weather for most of my time here, all things considering.

Another ‘plus’ was that this was an abnormally weak wet-season. For a biologists studying hydration in wild animals, it has really been a win-win.



All good things must come to end though.



Tonight was undoubtedly my worst snakin’ night yet. I still managed to find 2 more animals (getting closer!), but I can feel it in the air. Things are hunkering down and waiting it out. Animals are not moving.



I haven’t had a near-collision with a roo in over a week! Clearly something is off.



The animals that are out seem sad…





I’ll never let go Jack







Sleepy…




Two-lined dragon (Diporiphora bilineata)









Or generally nonplussed




Bynoe’s gecko (Heteronotia binoei)






The only animal that still seems to have a spark is one we tried to catch for the lab to show off to school groups that come through. He’s escaped half a dozen times already and is generally not very happy about his situation. I think we’ll let him go in the next few days.



Frilled dragon (Chlamydosaurus kingii)





I’m still not ready to give up though, not when I’m so close. Nine more snakes until data collection is complete. 



Nine more to go. 



As the great musical geniuses Europe (how dare you to even think otherwise) would say: It’s the final countdown.



Saturday, July 16, 2016

16.July.2016 (Day 41)


Winter is coming



The weather has changed since I returned from Cairns. The first few weeks I was here the days were hot and humid and the early night was about the same. Even though June/July are considered ‘winter’ in the top-end, it certainly didn’t feel very cold.

This last week, however, the climate is remarkably changed.


Not only are the days very mild, but by the time the sun goes down it’s officially jacket weather. I even found myself wearing the long-johns I had regretted packing the other night!


With a change in the weather also comes a change in the wildlife, especially the snakes I’ve been so desperately searching for. As ectotherms, both the water and children’s pythons show a drastic reduction in activity when the cold comes. When I first arrived there was a good chunk of time each night (~7p-10:30pm) when the snakes were out. The low was normally around 21C (70F).


These days I have from ~7:15-8pm before everything goes quiet and the temp at 10pm last night was 10C (50F) with a chilly wind blowing off the wetlands.


I’m admittedly getting anxious about my remaining time here, especially finding the remaining snakes I need.



As of this morning I’ve captured and sampled 120/120 cane toads; 68/75 water pythons; and 20/24 children’s pythons. I’m close, so close I can taste it.



Speaking of tasting it, funny/tragic/disgusting story –


Water pythons are very mellow on the aggressive-snake scale. I’ve encountered a few ‘biters’ but over 95% of them have been very apt to allow me to grab them (although they all get pretty aggressive when you stick their head in a tube and put a syringe in their heart).


They do have one defensive behavior, which I would argue is even better than being bitey.


They shoot excrement all over the place when they’re scared.


I’ve learned to keep their business-end concealed in a bag so their poo/pee doesn’t get all over the floor, lab, equipment, and my person. Today however I made a bit of an error.



The culprit



I think I was just so excited about this guy; he was almost 2 meters long and had a beautiful sheen to him. My excitement soon abated, however, when he gushed a potty fountain on:


My chest


Neck


Chin


And


Into my mouth…



What the (expletive), you (expletive), (expletive) what the (expletive) is wrong with you snake?!?


Ugh.



Because it’s petal to the metal, I’m afraid the blog might suffer some and the animal pictures might decrease. It’s all hands on deck and full speed ahead.



Friday, July 15, 2016

15.July.2016 (Day 40)

Bananas about Goannas



I can’t stress this enough, fire is as much a part of life in the NT as trees and dirt. If my pictures have somehow failed to do it justice I have to make it painfully clear: everything up here burns at one time or another.

No matter how hopeful I am for a ‘new and improved’ field site, I need to accept that, sooner more likely than later, it’s going to burn down.




There goes the neighborhood




A lot of the plants and wildlife and amazingly resilient. I doubt this landscapes has always burned down every year like it does now, but most things around here are remarkably adapted to avoiding fires and eventually returning (and thriving) in charred landscapes.



Eastern long-necked turtle (Chelodina longicollis)




Other individuals?



Not so much.



You’ve lost some weight





Many of the plants look like they do better after a blaze comes through. And the difference between NT fires and CA/AZ fires is that they happen so often. Most of the undergrowth doesn’t have time to stack up and turn into an 8 billion degree inferno that scorches half the city.


I’m guessing most of the animals just pack up shop and move out of the way.


Others choose the lazier method a hitchhike on unknowing biologists.


Jumping Spider (Salticus scenicus)




These little guys really seem to defy gravity, and all reason, when they’re hoping all over your pant leg. Walking around in fire-ey areas (yes, I made up a word, a place currently in the process of smoldering away) is a sure way to get you covered in these spiders. Every time they jump they’ll release what’s called a lifeline which is a single, almost invisible strand of ultra-durable silk. If the jump fails it can quickly pull itself back to its original position. They use their back legs (3rd and 4th pair) for jumping (plus avoiding panicky hand swats) and the front legs for pouncing on prey. Pretty sweet.




I went back to the same hole I found six water pythons last night to release my captures.



And bingo, two more males in the same area!



I don’t know if there are multiple females in the hidey-hole or the stank (pardon my vulgarity) of the female from last night just kept callin’ ‘em.


While looking for even more I could hear something shuffling about.


Another male per chance? Couldn’t be, too good to be true.


Even better.



This may not excite you the way it does me, but seeing this shape gets all my cylinders fired.




I was not about to reach my hand in there to pull this little lady out, hopefully you remember how large the male was (I only know it’s a female because I saw the big male courting her a few weeks ago, sorry no photos)




Floodplain goanna/Northern yellow spotted monitor (Varanus panoptes)





Luckily some gentle prodding got her turned around so I could get a good look at her face. Marvelous!


What big eyes you have




It’s so great to see a (presumably) mating pair in the area. They’ve taken such a hit since the cane toads rolled through and it would be a real shame to have such a magnificent creature gone from the area.


She looked in pretty good shape too.

Except she did have a tick on her neck…

And on her eye!!!

Gross




I’ve learned another very important lesson as well. ALWAYS look before you lay down to try to get close-ups of animals. You really never know what you’re going to being laying on.



Giant snappy ant (Odontomachus turneri)




I’m often confused on where common names come from.

No questions here.

Giant, check.
Ant, looks right.

I would only add outrageously ahead of snappy.



Lesson learned. I’m going to nurse my wounds.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

14.July.2016 (Day 39)

Tall drink of water





I have a riddle for you.


You have a room (four walls, a ceiling, and floor). There are windows, but they’re closed. There are no holes in any surface and no possible way in or out.


Riddle me this, riddle me that.



How does this happen? (windows were closed pre-picture)





If you’re staying the night, you should know I’m a cuddler





I’ve mentioned before the pros and cons of living at a field station (aka living with wildlife), but I am dumbfounded how this bird made it into my room. I talked to my housemates and they said my door was closed all day and no one went in to sabotage it with a wild bird. I really shouldn’t think about it too much or my head or explode. But seriously how did it get in there?


I don’t know who was more startled when I opened the door. I think we both saw each other at the same moment. I’m just glad there’s no recording of my hysteria. Bird flapping around the room wildly, me flailing my arms around madly try to…what? Catch it?


There’s more holes in window screen than the plot to Prometheus (too nerdy?), so after calming down I simply opened them up and away it went.


Whew. 

Crisis averted.



Ignoring mutant-ghost-birds that can fly through walls, the day was filled with water pythons.
Twenty-six snakes, of any variety, to bleed in a single day is a daunting task. I should also include that most of the snakes are over 1.5m (~5ft) and weigh around 2kg (4.5lbs).

Luckily I’ve learned that no amount of duct-tape will hold these beasts down and the best method to get a sample from them solo is to coax their head into a pvc pipe, sit on their midsection oh so gingerly, and restrain them long enough to get a few quick drops of blood.

That about sums up my day.


It was a biggie for my lab snakes though, after almost 5 weeks without it, the water pythons finally got access to their namesake.

Spa day





I hope I’m not giving the wrong impression, that I’m just depriving these poor animals of much needed water. Most of them could probably go another 3-4 weeks and still be okay!

So far in my dissertation I’ve examined how immune function in rattlesnakes and children’s pythons interacts with water-balance (FYI as they dehydrate they do better). But rattlesnakes live in a pretty hot and dry climate (it’s about 109F in Phoenix right now), and children’s pythons are normally found in the drier habitats around the top-end.

Using water pythons (an animal thought to spend a good portion of their lives in or immediately around water) to do a similar experiment will (hopefully) be able to tell me a lot about how far this dehydration = improved immune performance idea goes.


Fingers crossed.



There are many guardians of the night at my field site. Some are of the sluggishly slow I-refuse-to-move-no-matter-what-you-do variety.




You are the worst





And others are of the I’m-going-to-crawl-up-your-shirt-and-trick-you-into-thinking-I’m-a-giant-spider type.






Walking stick (Ctenomorpha chronus)





Even though I haven’t heard it yet, my favorite nighttime custodian has to be the barking boobook





Barking owl (Ninox connivens)



Their call has been described as a ‘shrill woman-like scream of great intensity’. The local people have a legend about a terrible swamp monster called the Bunyip that preys on women at night. The cries and shrieks coming from the swamps, rivers, and billabongs are said to be that of the fearsome Bunyip after it has captured a healthy meal…that or it’s just an adorable owl.








Wednesday, July 13, 2016

13.July.2016 (Day 38)

Homecoming




It feels good to be back in the NT, as spoiled as I was in Cairns, the top end feels about as close to Arizona as it gets over here. 


Real salt-of-the-earth type folks around here.


I was even given an extra special welcome present.




The new normal






The scars of fire are everywhere in the NT, but for every charred ecosystem there are just as many re-grown landscapes that are the epitome of the area I’ve been working in all summer.




NT car park






Because tomorrow I’ve got heaps of work to do (with the water pythons I still have slowly dehydrating in the lab) I told myself I wouldn’t get too many snakes at night…





But I just can’t help myself. I had to go say hello to some old friends.



Dumpy tree frog (Litoria caerulea)







And find a few some new/familiar friends.





Children’s python (Antaresia childreni)





Because I have 15 dehydrated water pythons to bleed in the morning, my goal was to only grab a few. After finding 5 pretty big ones I decided to head back to the station and call it a night.





Not so fast…








Water python mating ball






I can’t find any evidence of this behavior in water pythons, but I’ve heard some stories from Dr. Shine that he’s seen it before. This is called a mating ball and is fairly common in garter snakes and water snakes. It’s hard to tell from the photo but there are five males and one giaaaant female in this little hole (and another male that slunkered into the back out of reach).


I don’t know enough about it in these species, but I assume all these males were lured to the site by the females pheromones, and rather than fight amongst each other they’re just trying to get a piece of the action (so to speak) and pass on their genetic material.



Now I have 26 water pythons to bleed in a day, and a whole mess of data entry to finish. Enough blogging, back to work!