I managed to get blood samples from 5 orangutans yesterday at a local waystation for orangs confiscated from people who keep them illegally as pets. I also got some very cute pics, though none with me with them which is sad. They were all young (generally pet orangs are picked up as babies by people who kill their mothers in the wild), inquisitive and playful. They groomed me, I reciprocated and then they were happy to offer me their blankets for tug of war and offer their fingers for me to poke and collect blood from. I only took a blood smear to look at under the microscope from one and it was positive for a low-level malaria infection, though I don't know enough about simian malarias to say for sure what species of malaria it was. W00t things falling into place and me feeling almost competent.
Today I also collected blood samples from 7 dogs for a dog genetics project. It's much easier and more fun to do when Cori is with me, as it is hard to coordinate with people who don't speak English (my Indonesia is still very, very rudimentary) and with Cori there, I don't have to concentrate on every single thing all the time. Plus she has the touch with dogs (hence her being labeled a witch in Namibia). But, despite the difficulties (including a blown fuse in the centrifuge setup and a low-speed moped crash on the back of the regional vet's moped) I managed to get nice (if sometimes smallish) DNA pellets from all 7 dogs in the end. Hopefully I'll get many more in the future; the people helping me want to take me around a few places further afield in the next couple weeks. Then comes the fun of trying to get export permits for the samples. At one house we sampled from, they had quite the animal managerie; cows/bulls, chickens, ducks, 2 macaques, peafowl and cats at the very least. It's always sad to see tied up monkeys, even non-endangered ones. I'll try to post a couple pics in the nearish future.
Next week I will probably be going to a zoo a few towns away for a couple days, going with the regional veterinarian and his team. I hope to get more monkey blood samples and cute monkey photos.
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1 comment:
Post the orang pictures!
We want to see 'em. Been reading the blog here Ryan - very interesting - although it IS basically a catalog of your injuries. Hit by a car, swiped by a truck, over-extended the knee, on your way to "Malaria Island." Not that parents or in-laws worry . . . .
TAKE GOOD CARE/
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