average day at work
June 18th, 2009
They are making me do all the work!
Jocelyn (left) and Brenna (right) pretending to work
A “new frog” (a species we haven’t 100% identified yet). It may appear to be a boring brown frog, but would you believe it does not have free-swimming tadpoles? We found a female full of eggs last night, and if it is indeed Ingerana liui, then she was on the lookout for a male who had dug a little hole in the mud for her to put her eggs in. The eggs then develop in the hole as the male guards them, and out of the eggs hatch tiny miniature frogs instead of tadpoles!
the forest
June 12th, 2009
There isn’t a lot of forest left in this part of China because it has been “converted” to rubber plantations. I’m fortunate to work in an area where there is a little left, and in it there are some good frogs. And also 10 inch long killer centipedes!
where i live and work
June 10th, 2009
These are the dorms, where they moved me after my apartment in town was broken into. Lots of scientists live here, from all over the world.
This is where I sleep
This is Menglun, the town across the river from the gardens where I eat every meal and go to buy things. It’s small, but not too small.
I walk across this bridge to go from the gardens to eat in Menglun. There is a cafeteria at the gardens, but it’s expensive and bad.
A view from the bridge…
The gardens
I climbed that mountain in the distance on Saturday, where I caught a bamboo viper.
These are the labs, one of many giant buildings the Chinese government has built inside the botanical gardens. I spend a lot of time on the roof, where I have a bunch of tadpoles in buckets to take care of.
On the roof, Jocelyn taking care of the tadpoles…
Tadpoles!
These are artificial breeding spots where we want frogs to breed. A lot of the time I’ll be walking around the gardens looking in them to see if there are eggs or tadpoles. So far we haven’t found anything.
Johny Worker Bushtit Whiskey
bird and flower market
June 4th, 2009
Contrary to what people call it, the bird and flower market in Kunming does not sell birds or flowers. Perhaps it used have birds and flowers. Now it is a partly-open air market full of tropical fish and spectacular (some of the best I have ever seen) aquariums. There was no algae in sight. No dead fish piled on the gravel below the ones for sale. Everything was clean and healthy. Even the plants were perfect – pruned so that the angle of their leaves balanced the shape of the driftwood they grew on.
On the walk home from the bird and flower market we stopped at the puppy and kitty market. Less incredible, more cute, slightly disturbing.
Hong Kong airport is what US filmmakers in the 1980’s envisioned 2009 to be like. The architecture is curved at grotesque angles, the floors move people around, hideous modern styles on everything and everyone, machines talk to you waiting for you to talk back. And people wear doctor’s masks in public to reduce the risk of getting infected by the swine flu. Or something. I feel like I should wear one since 80% of everyone here is. Perhaps there is some new ultra-infectious SARS going around that I don’t know about, maybe I missed the handout and free doctors masks on the plane ride in while asleep. Or is it just the new HK trend, to wear doctors masks in public? It does look kind of cool. This airport does strange things to you. I’ve had dreams that have taken place here, the ones where you feel sideways and nothing makes sense. I just didn’t realize it until I landed.
