13.June.2016 (Day 8)

Shock and awe

The landscape of northern Australia (or the ‘Top End’ as any ozzie calls it) is spectacular. The field site I’m at is a perfect example of a rich river flood plain.

Harrison Dam Conservation Area

Every wet season the Adelaide river swells an unbelievable amount. That, coupled with the fact that Australia is the flattest continent on the planet, means massive amounts of water spill out on the plains. Early in the 20^th century they tried to grow rice here, which didn’t work, and then raise water buffalos (where mozzarella cheese comes from), which also didn’t work.

The ‘dam’, is really just a big mound of dirt, when the water fills up the area in the wet season (spilling over the dam) it never recedes fully in the dry season. What we’re left with is an amazing marshland right next to plains, which is the perfect spot to find all manner of creatures.

Marshlands to the right, Harrison dam on the left side

Wide open spaces, Harrison dam on far right and left

Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t help but be awe struck by all the cool birds out here too.

Australian white ibis (Threskiornis moluccus)

Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia)

Black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus)

Blood-stained cockatoo (Cacatua sanguine)

I should note that these are also known as Corella, but blood-stained has a certain air of viciousness that rolls off the tongue.

Rainbow bee-eater (Merops ornatus)

There are too many birds here to ever ID and I have half a million more photos or strange feathered beasts that I’ll probably never getting around to identifying.

One positive ID I can make – gorgeous sunsets

Sun setting over Harrison dam

Once the sun goes down it turns into a whole new world. Fortunately for me, that’s when my work begins and all my favorite critters emerge. Not to mention the night sky is incredible!

Stars over Harrison dam

Sundown is probably one of the most dangerous times up here.

And not for the type of animal you might think.

Let me backtrack a little.

When I was figuring out what type of vehicle to use for field work, I had the chance to speak with an Ozzie with a real thick, crocodile dundee/Steve Erwin accent. It took me a few minutes to realize he wasn’t messing with me over the phone.

Eventually he asked: “I ‘spect you’ll want a rhubarb?”

Why I would want rhubarb with a field vehicle was beyond all reason. Maybe this was some type of co-op program where I needed to deliver vegetables? Was he just being friendly and offering me an Australian normalcy? Maybe eating rhubarb was the ozzie equivalent of sitting down for coffee and a chat?

Long story short, I finally broke down what he was saying – Roo bar (pronounced Rue-Baaa, ozzies hate an R sound in most situations)

As in Kangaroo Bar on the front of the vehicle. 

At my first sun-down I quickly learned why it is such a necessity.

In the daytime they look pretty cute.

Agile wallaby (Macropus agilis)

But at night when the headlights shine they act like deer that jump 6’ in the air and come blurring out of nowhere!

Danger: Wallaby flight path

I haven’t been able to figure out why there is a kangaroo, wallaby, wallaroo, etc. Everyone here calls them “Roo’s” and tries not to splatter them on the highway.

I captured two more water pythons last night, so I’m 1/5 of the way to my goal! Tonight I’m heading down the road to wrangle up some cane toads and get started on that experiment.

Wupps, I almost forgot, how can I not post an adorable frog photo!?!

Australian green tree frog (Litoria caerulea)

These frogs are just too cute and they always look like they’re smiling. I haven’t seen them hop anywhere, they just kind of lazily saunter and look at you with those big beautiful eyes (I think I’m in love). 

It’s also called the Dumpy tree frog.

I’m going to campaign to re-name them Totes-adorbs

Dumpy is all smiles

12.June.2016 (Day 7)

Animal exploits.

My first night of field work was such a blast! It’s pretty wild to be in a place where every animal, plant, noise, and weird slime is a brand new experience.

I fully embrace the motto of my alma mater Cal Poly SLO: “learn by doing”

Lesson #1- Don’t forget to put on bug spray/wear a mosquito net. To say it was hard to see through the bugs would be an understatement. During the day the flies can be a bit bothersome, but at night when you have the brightest light in the sky attached to your forehead, every invertebrate creature that fly’s, jumps, or crawls wants to land on and around your face.

I’m pretty sure I have mosquito bites on my eyelids!

Winged demons aside, I had an awesome night and it was a great taste of the work to come.

Eastern long-necked turtle (Chelodina longicollis)

These look like a mix between a turtle and a snake. They bend their heads into their shells sideways instead of pulling it straight back. It also has another common name: “stinker”. I got the chance to learn firsthand where that comes from. It has glands that secrete an odor (very musky - mixed with dirty socks) when you harass it (or stop to take pictures).

Keelback snake (Tropidonophis mairii)

These snakes are really pretty and I’ve been told I’ll see quite a few before the summer is over. They’re really important because they’re one of the only native snakes in Australia that can eat cane toads (smaller juvenile toads at least). I never would have picked this guy up if I hadn’t of been with Greg, they kinda resemble a taipan which is one of the deadliest snakes on the planet…

Needless to say, if I see another one, I’ll probably take pictures of it on the ground.

I also found and captured my first study specimens. My main research project is on cane toads. But I’m also doing smaller projects on two snake species.

Children’s python (Antaresia childreni)

I work with these animals back at ASU and I’m so glad I finally got the chance to see one in the wild. I normally work with females during their reproductive cycle, so finding this little guy in the wild was a little surprising. I’m used to them being big chunky girls; this little fella was a 100 gram weakling.

Cheer up bud, I feel your pain.

I also caught a water python. I’ll be storing them at the field station and monitoring how their immune performances changes as they dehydrate. They’re constrictors, meaning they kill prey (mostly birds) by coiling around them tightly. 

Water python (Liasus fuscus)

These animals can get up to 6 ft and are really mellow (most pythons are) although one of my captures must have thought my belly looked tasty.

badge of honor/mark of shame

I also found what I thought was a headless bird!

The headless birdsman

Turns out the little lady was just sleeping…and not very happy to be interrupted.

What night out in the bush would be complete without one last terrifying sight before bedtime?

Did I mention yet that the spiders here…are…HUUUUGGGEEE!!!!

Huntsman (Heterpoda sp.)

While large, fast moving, and generally terrifying, I’ve read that these spiders have pretty painless bites.

You better believe I shook out my sleeping bag extra vigorously last night.…

The next day was spent with more set-up and preparations for my experiments. There are three major parts to my time out here.

1) Cane toad research exploring how hydration and immune performance interact at four different sites across northern Australia.

2)Water python experiment which is near identical to what I do in Arizona with western diamond-backed rattlesnakes. Basically I monitor them as they dehydrate and see how different measures of immune performance change (or don’t)

3) Children’s python work, which is an animal I use at ASU but I wanted to take this chance to sample them from their native habitat to quantify their natural water balance and immune performance.

Besides a lot of set-up work, I did find the time to go for a short hike out at the field site.

And it paid

off

BIG!

Floodplain goanna/Northern yellow spotted monitor (Varanus panoptes)

This was an incredible animal, easily over 4 ft. long, when I got close to take a picture it made this deep guttural noise. I took notice and definitely didn’t get too close. This is one of the species that has seen about 90% population drops since the cane toad invasion came through the northern territory. They are veracious predators and will eat anything they can overpower, including fish, birds, mammals, and other monitors. They use their massive, forked tongues to smell/taste and are known as the ‘bottomless pit’ in captivity for their ability to eat an almost unlimited amount of food.

I can relate bud.

Floodplain goanna sniffing about

9-11.June.2016 (Day 4-6)

You say G’day and I say hello.

It has been a whirlwind couple of days and I’m happy to report I’ve successfully made it to my semi-final destination in Darwin, Australia!

We spent our final day in Canberra playing tourist some more. Visiting aboriginal art museums and seeing Parliament to learn how it works (or doesn’t, according to our snarky guide).

Ceremonial mask worn by Torres Strait Islanders

It was sad to say goodbye to all my new friends in Canberra, but it was time to get to work! I got on my last few planes rides for the next few months.

A hop, skip, and a jump to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Fortunately for me, Australians are out-of-control friendly and my co-host-research-advisor picked me up from the airport at 1am and let me crash on his couch for the night.

Side note: most of the NT, Darwin included, are 30 minutes behind Canberra time (meaning 14.5 hrs ahead of Phoenix time). I’ve asked several people the reason for the weird time-zone, “Downe-know” [I don’t really know the answer to your question] is the favorite response

Darwin is a much different climate from Canberra, and a heck of a lot different from Arizona.

Thick palm trees and mangrove swamps are the norm in Darwin

My gracious host, Dr. Keith Christian, is original from Texas but has been in Australia for 25+ years and is an environmental physiologist working out of Charles Darwin University. Luckily for me he’s allowing me to use his lab space for all my immune tests. 

I was originally planning on doing it at the field station after I heard they had a special hood that makes a very sterile environment.

I changed my mind when someone from the station emailed me: “I checked the hood for you and it’s working great. You might want to wipe it down a bit before using it though; I just chased a few bats out of the vent that looked like they’d been living in there for a few months.”

Field work is not the best place to seek a sterile environment.

Keith and I took an early morning walk and I was blown away by the view one block from his house.

Darwin, Australia

After cleaning and packing up we headed to the university so I could pick up some keys and get acquainted with the lab area. We also went to ‘tea time’, which is exactly what it sounds like. Luckily for me, I found someone who drinks coffee and recognized my plight.

How I love thee Starbucks.

After tea and biscuits (cookies), we drove out to the field station.

Middle-point ecological research center, about 1.25hr from Darwin

The field station used to be where the park rangers lived and worked. The University of Sydney bought the buildings ~10 years ago and now it’s used to house all sorts of scientists conducting field work, mostly on cane toads these days.

I came to the perfect place to find my study species, it wasn’t more than 5 minutes before I spotted the first little bugga’ of the trip!

Cane Toad (Rhinella marina)

These things are huuuge, adults can be up to 4 pounds! One of the reasons they’re so particularly nasty is that there aren’t any native predators here in Australia. Local carnivores try to gobble them up and normally die from toxic secretions that come from their parotoid gland (the big bulges just behind their eyes)

One of the only cons to working out in such a beautiful, and remote, location is the spotty services. aka the internet was ‘broken’ when I got to the station. Luckily they say the power is ‘generally reliable’.

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, don’t worry. I wasn’t eaten by a salt-water crocodile, just living in some parallel universe where wi-fi doesn’t exist (I shudder at the thought).

 I tried my best to keep my eyes open, but after finding my way to where I’ll set up my cot all summer. I was done for.

My home for the next 7 weeks

Most of today were spent getting accustomed to the surroundings. This place is a cane toad research Mecca. Every room, walkway, and office has some type of cane toad research taking place.

Raising cane toad tadpoles with mosquito larva predators for an experiment

Tadpole juveniles for another, long-term experiment

Adult cane toads being housed outdoors

The lab space I’ll be using here is all set-up, my bags are finally unpacked for the summer, and tonight I’m so excited to start field work (and report back on all the awesome animals I see).

8.June.2016 (Day 3)

The Bush.

This morning (after getting up at sparrows fart) we all loaded up onto a bus (coach) to go hiking (into the bush). Lost translations aside, I’m glad we finally had the chance to go out and see some of the beautiful Australian countryside.

We started by going up Mt. Ainslie for a brief history of Australian geology. Spoiler alert: not much has happened in the last 120 million years, resulting in some pretty unique/bizarre plants and animals. 

The view was (à la Larry David) pretty, pretty good

Canberra, Australia

Group shot!

Next we moved to a sacred aboriginal site where they still harvest ochre to use as for artwork, body paint, etc.

Ochre is a natural pigment. This spot is where natives harvested red ocrhe from oxidized iron in the soil.

 Our guide had an incredible amount of knowledge about the aboriginal history (they’ve been on the continent for 60,000 years!) and is himself a member of the ‘Stolen Generation’ and never knew his birth parents (it was a program by the Aussie government to remove aboriginal babies and adopt them out to white families…fortunately it was ended in the 1970’s)

Learning about ochre harvesting by the Aborigines 

The native culture is incredibly diverse and there were over 750 distinct groups lumped together as ‘aborigines’. Most were matriarchal societies that lived off the rich landscape and have an amazing spiritual and cultural record.

We eventually made it to a national park with the hopes of seeing some local animals.

It ended up paying off big time. I was able to see some of my Australian-bucket-list animals. Sooo kewl!

Emu (Dromaius novahollandiae)

Emu’s are awesome. Period. These flightless birds can get over 6’ tall and can sprint over 30mph (which this one showed me after I got too close for comfort). Females are the fighters, and apparently it isn’t uncommon to see two gals fighting over males with their 6 inch toe claws! After females lay their eggs, males do the incubation. Father of the year.

Even though every Australian has promised I’ll get sick of them by the end of my trip, I was pretty pumped to finally see a ‘roo (only squares call them kangaroos).

These animals are incredible. Most Australians treat them like 100 lb squirrels (aka try not to hit one with your car).

Grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)

I literally took over 100 pictures of these cuties.

Even scratching their butts is adorable

Some of their behavior I won't try to explain…

Come on guys, keep it G-rated please, this is a family blog

Another awesome marsupial we encountered was a wallaby, which is just another word for kangaroo. 

Red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus)

The only member of this group I had ever seen in the wild are possums which are frankly, pretty gross. Marsupials give birth to pretty underdeveloped young (about the size of a pea) that crawl into their mothers pouch and continue to develop.

And of course.

The greatest/cutest/most awesomely cranky looking marsupial of them all.

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)

I’ll admit they’re not the most intelligent looking animals on the planet. Koala’s have one of the smallest brain to body weight ratios of any mammal. They sleep for 20 hours a day and eat for most of the 4 that they’re awake. Because eucalyptus leaves are fairly toxic it’s not surprising that they looked so stoned all the time.

They don’t have many natural predators, but apparently Chlamydia is decimating natural populations. Apparenlty koala prophylactics are out of the question.

Tomorrow we tour the parliament and then head off to our final destinations to start our research projects. I’m incredibly exiting/exhausted and can’t wait to give my next report from Darwin, Australia! 

7.June.2016 (Day 2)

Introductions.

Australians are a stubborn bunch. They refuse to admit that the language spoken here is, in fact, not English. I can’t get on a bus, it’s a coach. No downtown, just a civic. 

Aside from a few noun switches, there is also the odd case of verbiage. Today for example, before taking a walk in the park, our guide asked me ‘How are you going?’ (pronounced: howie-ya goin) to which I replied ‘walking?’… Apparently she was in no way concerned with my mode of transport, but rather how I was doing today.

Communication breakdown.

My easiest favorite was after dinner “Right then, make sure ‘n get brekkie quick, we’ll be up ‘round sparrows fart”

I wish I were creative enough to make that up.

Translation: “Please make sure that you eat breakfast quickly because we’ll be leaving the hotel very early in the morning.”

(sigh)

I’ve also thought about starting a letter writing campaign to the peoples of Australia. It would read something like this-

To whom it may concern,

          I write to inform you that the driver’s seat is in fact on the left side of the vehicle and not on the right. Additionally, please cease and desist driving on the wrong side of the road. Crossing the street as an American pedestrian I continually look the wrong way before crossing and have already had several close calls.

Yours respectively,  

A yank down under (undah?)

You're all in danger, you're driving on the wrong side of the road!

Today was mostly introductions, lectures, and warm welcomes. There are about 25 PhD students as part of the program with a wide range of interests. The physics of breastfeeding, quantum mechanics in nuclear reactors, ecosystems of artificial shorelines, seismology of Australia and Chile, etc, etc. Unfortunately I’m the only immunologist of the group so I get the same blank stares if I go too deep into my research. Luckily I can always revert to “I work with reptiles and amphibians” which undoubtedly results in ‘Kewl!”

Canberra is a beautiful city and I’ve finally been able to wear a jacket and pants for the first time in months.

Canberra (pronounced CAN-bURr-AH)

Not as much exploring today as I would have liked, but tomorrow we’ll get the chance to drive into the bush (I think that means out of the city) and there’s a  chance we’ll get to see a koala (they told us we have ‘Buckley’s chance’ which means…fair???)

I can also report that the Australian government has spared no expense on our accommodations. Especially compared to the 3’ x 8’ closet I was stuffed into last night. I’m going to enjoy this nice bed while I can before I sleep on a cot for the next 8 weeks.

I also realize it’s been two days and I haven’t even posted a single shameless selfie. The nerve. And I call myself a millennial! 

What you don't know is that I have a pair of thermals on too

6.June.2016 (Day 1)

How low can I go?

Traveling between three different continents in less than a week is a blessing and a curse. Eventually the delirium will fade (please forgive any typos or made-up, non-sensical words) and it will sink in that I’ll be spending the next eight weeks on the other side of the equator. On the flip-side, I’m rollin’ in frequent flyer miles!

For the uninitiated, a quick re-cap of recent ridiculousness (since 1st June):

Flying, Salvador to Sao Paulo- 910mi (including a bird flying into the engine during take-off forcing an emergency landing)

Sao Paulo to Los Angeles- 6,156mi

Driving, LA to San Diego, San Diego to Phoenix – 464mi

Flying, Phoenix to LAX – 370mi

LAX to Melbourne – 7,918mi

Melbourne to Canberra – 290mi

I’ve gone, both figuratively and literally, over half a world away. And now I’m farther south than I’ve ever gone, about to embark on a 2 month research experience throughout northern Australia on a fellowship (EAPSI, you should apply!). Before I take (yet another) flight to Darwin, I’m spending a few days in the Aussie capitol for a little orientation

When I left Phoenix, summer felt like it was in full swing (it was 116F the day I left). By the time I finally got off the plane here, it was 40F and fall is in full effect.

I had grandiose dreams of exploring Canberra all day, but exhaustion caught up to me and I didn’t make it much farther than the park.

I felt quite a few scowls while enthusiastically photographing their version of pigeons.

Umm I’m sorry, I don’t care how common they are, I’ll never get tired of cockatoos flying everywhere. 

Sulpher crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) Why do the prettiest birds make the most terrible shrieks?

Galah/Rose-brested cockatoo (Eolophus roseicapilla)