BLOG - July 4, 2006

We awoke on our first day to the calls of the Blue Hyacinth Macaws and Howler monkeys calling to our cabins. After a tasty 7 a.m. breakfast of chocolate cake, corn bread, and fruit, we set out on our first day's work. We split up our group, boys with Liz Queen of Peccaries and girls with Jeff the Jolly Bird-Watcher. The girls embarked on a water chemistry excursion while the boys searched for the much anticipated Peccaries, NOT A PIG!
The girls were accompanied by researcher Don Eaton and went to their first site on a fresh water baia on a local cattle ranch. Traveling was done in and on the back of a very old pickup truck. Upon arriving on the farm, the girls participated in a traditional tea drinking ceremony of Terere (with an accent on the last "e"). Reactions of the tea ranged from icy and refreshing, to wicked good. Then the drive continued to the actual site which is a permanent, year round site. This is where the fun started. All five girls mucked into the smushy swamp where it was uncertain what you were stepping on. The mud slurped after each step and we all ended up waist deep in brown, murky, thick goo.
The girls broke into teams of "probe girl" and the "instrument reader." One team read pH levels, raw conductivity, specific conductivity, and salinity. The other read dissolved oxygen and temperature. The oxygen level was lower when there were many plants using the oxygen. Because the teams were in fresh water baias, the salinity was zero and the water was not alkaline. To get these readings, the probe girl held a microphone-looking probe about and inch under the water. A recorder recorded all the information.
This routine was continued at two other sites. At the third site, the girls encountered the treacherous camens (a scary looking critter in the alligator family) that filled the baia. Our fearless leader Jeff, followed after a caiman that flew off a bank and into the water. The probe girls pressed on through waist deep water and showed those caimans what they were made of- no matter whose teeth were sharper.
The boys were accompanied by researchers Duka, Alexine, The Master (whose name we can't spell...) and the Apprentice (Anderson). Travel for this group was also on the back of a pickup truck, with much more comfortable seats. (Although, it was much easier to get hit in the head by passing branches!) The group encountered Peccary tracks, and used tracking devices and GPS's and a method of triangulation to locate possible Peccaries. Luke was the master tracker finding no less than 3 animals with the radio collars, and although they aren't necessarily headed for full time laboratory careers all members of the boy’s team worked throughout the day to advance the important study of the peccary, an important index species used to help determine the health of the Pantanal ecosystem. The group also disassembled old traps, some up to 3 years old, and reassembled them in better places, and baited one existing trap. A new method of analysis - camera traps, were also set up by the crew. These cameras can take 300 infrared pictures of animals in the area. Much of the work was done in the dark forests and without the infamous stench of the Peccaries. The boys were very impressed with the Master and the Apprentice's ability to yield machetes in trudging through the forests.
Peccaries are being studied to better develop a profile of the species habits. The head researcher is interested in the size of different species of Peccaries' home ranges. The two types of Peccaries being studied are White-lipped Peccaries and Collared Peccaries. The group became well versed in the differences of North American pigs and Peccaries as Peccaries are often mistakenly related to pigs because of physical similarities. TEAM 9

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