| 18 July 2007: Camera Traps |
| Today was camera trap day. The team here has 12 camera traps that they place in the field. The cameras are the best and easiest way to confirm the presence of carnivores. Basically there is a camera with a motion sensor. When an animal approaches, the sensor detects it and the camera takes a picture. The cameras are "baited" with either bobcat urine or bobcat gland-- both of these smell unbelievably bad-- that is placed on a little piece of plaster in front of the camera. We have seen pictures of birds, mice, rheas, skunk, armadillo, foxes, Geoffrey's Cats, Pampas Cats, and a puma that have been taken by camera traps at different times. The whole study area (3 large farms) has been placed on a 1km grid. At each 1km location, the team wants to set a camera trap. That way, they can get a good sample of which animals are found at certain locations. Obviously, with only 12 cameras, it will take a long time for a camera to be placed in each location. When a camera is set, it is left in the field for 10 days to 2 weeks. If all the film is used up in that time, the camera is moved to a new location. We divided into 3 teams today. One team stayed back at the farm to check the traps. The other 2 teams divided up to set camera traps up in new locations. I was working with Ariane and Kath. The adventure here is that the locations are chosen by a computer. We use GPS to find the location, but we have no idea what type of environment we are going to walk into. |
| Camera trap setting is an all day affair because of the 1km distance that we must walk between each location and the unknown environment factor. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out. It turns out that the locations were not too rough, but we did have to fight our way through some thick thorny woodlands. It was a beautiful day to be out! While working in the field today we saw a fox! I was hoping to see a puma because this is the section of the study area where puma tracks have been recorded... but no luck with that. We did find cat feces in a few locations-- great evidence that cats are around! Unfortunately we are not going to be in Argentina long enough to see pictures from the camera traps that we set. Claudia promised all the volunteers that she would email them to us so we can see our contribution to the project. I can't wait to see! |
| Kath & Ariane Setting A Camera Trap |
| Getting the camera ready |
| Camera trap day picnic! |
| Smelling the feces to see if it is fresh |
| Waiting for a ride at the end of camera trap day |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 19 July 2007: Our Day Off |
| On the morning of our day off, we had a chance to go horseback riding. MariaJose, Diego, and Jose led all six of us on a two-hour tour of Los Alamos. I was amazed at the diversity of the environments we went through: we went up and down dunes with a beautiful view from the top; we went through woodland, grassland, a marshy area, and straight through a spring-fed pond. I was a little nervous about the riding, because my horseback riding experience has been 2 guided trail rides on nice flat ground. Because of my inexperience, I was given a senior citizen horse, which I was ok with. (You'll notice that the pictures are all of the other team members backs... I was always behind them!) It was an awesome ride! I got a little scared at times because I felt out of control especially when the horse would break into a trot going down the dunes. I thought for sure I would fall off, but I survived the ride and had the sore butt and legs for 2 days to prove it! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Horseback Riding |
| This afternoon, Rachel, Jane, Alex, and I took a taxi to the nearest town of Medanos. We had a chance to email the outside world or make international phone calls. We also took this opportunity to buy LOTS of pasteries and cakes with dulce de leche. (Yummy!) I think that we were entertainment for the townspeople for the day. Very few people there speak English and between the four of us, we could just get by (Rachel was the best; I was absolutely no help at all.) We had people staring at us, small children following us around the supermarket, and several people approach us to figure out why 3 Americans and 1 Australian were in their town. It was really fun though! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |