SIXTH LESSON: SMALL MAMMALS INVENTORY – TOUGH ONE

We prepare the live-wire cage trap and it is 150 of it to be set up in the secondary forest and the plantation. Everyone is working hard to finish set up the traps in two days because we need to have 7 trap nights for that trappings.

The traps will be set up 25m apart so at every station i will take the GPS point so it will be easy for mapping that point in the map.

This is not the small mammals that we trap using the cage traps. It is a primate, the Western Tarsier Tarsius bancanus. Actually, one of my workers caught it by hand when we check the traps. This was my first time see this animal alive in the wild and i feel very excited. When i hold it, it grab my finger tightly and it didn't bite me (i am just lucky that it doesn't bite me).

After we took photo of it, we released it back into the forest where we caught it.

This trip is my first trip of my own project. My study is to do comparison of small mammals assemblages in different types of habitat e.g plantation, conservation area (large secondary forest) and remnant forest (secondary forest that left for buffer zone). During this first trip i was struggle very hard with help from GP-CON staff, workers and actually i am working together with one student from NZ. He is doing another study where he is looking at the movements of the small mammals accross the plantation landscape. What can i say about this experienced was, it really teach me to become more serious in work out a scientific research in the field. Why i say it so? Because at some point where i get very tired and stressed, i was thinking of quit doing it. It was the craziest thing that has come into my mind during this trip. How come someone that feeling very blessed because have a chance to work on her dream job ever thinking of quiting this job? However i feel very lucky because i have so many people around me that support what i am doing and what i have been through.

The results of this trip is also very impressive andi really didn't imagine that i can make it very well. Hmm..it's not because i am the only one doing it but because our team work during the trip. I have this one boy as my worker. He is really good. He doesn't mind to help me prepare the specimen until almost 2 am in the mroning. He doesn't complaint and just be there and help me. Without his help i think i maybe get sick because of loads of works to be done.

As a conclusion, the first experienced will never forgot because it will become the trigger to move on and improving it.