Porcupines and more porcupines

2 Feb 2015

We have an old porcupine which we had from a baby and brought here from Rovieng.  He has been penned up with the two remaining deer and we would see him (or her) daily when we feed them. Then we didn’t see him for a few days and a porcupine showed up in the camera trap one night, about a kilometre from the pen. Ben was thinking that just maybe our Porky had escaped since villagers have not seen any porcupines in the area for a while. We weren’t sure. Then one night Soon after, Ben was feeding the deer in the pen and who should be there but Porky and running off into the grass was another porcupine, rattling his pines as he trotted away. We had just read a story on CNN about a lone porcupine in the zoo in Israel. Every night, they found porcupine droppings outside the porcupine enclosure and they were baffled.  When they put a camera trap up, they discovered that there was another porcupine who would come to visit the one in the cage—every night. How sweet. They couldn’t work out where he came from as they zoo is in the middle of town. But apparently, porcupines like friends, and ours now has a friend.  We put our camera trap up and didn’t get a shot with the two porcupines together, but separate shots of two, we think, different individuals. Not totally sure, but they seem to have different “hairstyles.”

Postscript

We have been typing up while offline and waiting for our connection to improve.  Hence these postscripts! Ben was in the garden last night.  While there one of these guys goes scurrying off into the bushes, turning around and rattling his spines. He wasn’t acting very scared. Soon another goes rattling off. One of them must have been our captive one (escaped into the garden).  However two minutes later while walking by the cage, there sits our Porky. Now, who is who? That makes three individuals. And the cage must be compromised.  And worse, the garden fence also useless!

On the Trail

January 26, 2015

By Ben

Our efforts at protecting the immediate area, around our house here, at Phnom Tnout are finally starting to pay off.  Currently we have about 1 sq km. that I would consider 95 percent protected with an additional 5-10 sq. km. being 75 percent protected.  Basically the further one goes from our central hub here the less secure animals are but it’s way better of a situation than last year.

A couple days ago I took an excursion up the mountain to check on a marsh that animals use for drinking.  The number of animals I encountered on my two hour hike, was the most of any walk I’ve taken here to date.  Within a few hundred meters of the house I had already seen silver langurs.  A little further I ran into two peacocks and could hear a third one calling nearby.  I walked under a big tree that had upwards of fifty hornbills feeding on ripe fruit.  A little further the dogs chased a mouse deer although I didn’t get much of a look at it.  Finally I got to the marsh and was surprised to see four woolly necked storks (there is normally only two).  There was also a little pig playing in the mud with the dog immediately chased away.  As I stood near the shoreline of the marsh inspecting the multitude of animal tracks, I saw a very big boar with nasty looking tusks sticking his head out of the brush not far from me. I held perfectly still and he didn’t immediately realize what I was.  When Sippy (the dog) saw him she tore across the grass to have a go at him.  Her enthusiasm was short lived though when he charged out of the brush straight at her.  With tail tucked tight she made a bee line back to me.  Luckily the   pig wasn’t too upset as he soon stopped and tried again to work out what I was.  Finally he must have got wind of me because he turned and high tailed back to the forest’s edge.  Anyway, it was the best look I’ve had of a wild pig in a long time—especially one that big!  On the way back home I saw several Siamese fireback pheasants including a nice rooster who was right in the trail in front of me.  I also passed another troop of langurs who were not too worried about my presence.  I came home feeling optimistic about the prospect of being able to lead tourists in the forest and actually see animals in their natural habitat.

Postscript, Sharyn

2 February

A couple of days later Ben was out checking one of the camera traps. It had been placed at a water hole and we had previously got shots of sambar deer and banteng there.  It was about six in the evening and just on dusk. He had removed the camera trap to take it to another location and on walking away noticed a noise from behind in the water hole.  A female sambar deer called out and in the distance this crashing sound came – right towards Ben.  It was the doe’s baby who was coming to his momma. Ben didn’t move and he just ran right up to his mum, right past Ben.

My Eight Peacocks

By Amelie, Age 10

To start with, the peafowls are not really mine, they are my Dad’s. When I try to chase them out of the house, Dad tells me to stop. Since they chase me too, why can’t I chase them back? I am just trying to protect my territory, the house. I don’t appreciate peacocks! It was really me who started the chasing, not for fun, but chasing them out of my room, which I now share with my sister. Unfortunately peafowl are very curious birds and are particularly interested in shiny things. If they find their way into my usually messy bedroom, I will find them pecking my stuff and occasionally swallowing an extra small object believing it to something to eat. Our peacocks show unusual braveness. Often I see them all staring at our gigantic python, since he is not able to reach them.

The peacocks I know also have a lot of perseverance when they attack. I learned this one time when my sister and I were taking the scraps to Faline, our tame deer. We were hurrying because of Little-Pea, who had been chasing us and it was Mom who had saved us initially from destruction. Rounding the bend, we suddenly heard …… “Caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw-caw” (You can make the sound if you say it very fast). Of course I looked up and Little-Pea (or Sir Pea, his most recent title) was flying right for me looking as if his intention was to follow me to the ends of the earth which might have happened had Mikey, our three legged puppy, not been there, for he excitedly chased my Dad’s  attacking peahen away. 

Green peafowls are beautiful birds and unlike their blue cousins, the females are much like the males, just without any long tail. Recently, a wild male peacock moved in after chasing our smaller male away. Because he has just been introduced to people who don’t kill animals, he is very timid. He has become tamer but still flees when any one approaches. He is a gorgeous bird with a huge train of long green feathers that can spread to form a massive fan having eyes on the ends of the lengthy tail feathers, and on his head sits a proud top-knot of long, thin feathers. He is a very persistent courter. If I go to change the water nearby and he is displaying his feathers, he will shy away. But when I reach the house, he will be back there again, trying hard to draw the attention of the females with his fan. Peafowl, in general look sort of like enormous green chickens with an extra long tail and neck. After watching the peacocks trotting off to try to spot the eagle just after it dived at some chickens, I decided to call them knights. Providing Little-Pea the title, “Sir Pea,” and to Lolly and the peahen I gave the identities of, “Sir Lolly” and “Lady-Queen” (she didn’t have a name before). Actually Sir Lolly and Sir Pea are both females but we still refer to them as males since we had the idea they were males until Lolly laid an egg and Sir Pea did not develop any male features! We couldn’t stop calling them both “he” because we had called them “he” for such a long time. The four young identical peafowl, who I call “the four squires” (knight in training) will share the title until I can tell them apart. Green peafowl are such beautiful birds.    

There are many problems about peacocks in the house. Since peacocks are relatives of chickens, they poo regularly (about ever two minutes.). Some times it is horrid black poo, which Dad says is because they have eaten chicken feed. It can also be dry poo which easier to pick up, however this is Dad’s job and not mine, luckily. Inside the house I sometimes find three peahens at one time! You can imagine how much poo that would make. They are also very nosy, or should I say beaky. Pulling spoons out of the dish drainer, removing pegs out of the peg basket and also pecking our food: that’s what they do! There are many other annoying things that they do such as pooing on my trampoline, sleeping in the shower and chasing me out of my own house! It would be fine if they would stay where they are supposed to. I would be satisfied. Impolitely invading my territory, they insist on flying upstairs into my house! They come into the house because Dad let them believe they’re people, and they still believe that right now, although I’ve tried to make it clear to them that they’re not!  HUMPH! This is one of the biggest problems I have to cope with: peacocks in the house! 

Editor’s Comments (the Mum!)         

Anyone reading this far may have a few questions about how we can possibly live with seven or eight peacocks in the house. I think Amelie wrote a pretty good piece here however many of the problems she mentioned may have been stretched little! I will endeavour to explain the situation as it stands! And provide some history as to how we ended up with eight peacocks. We were given our first baby peacocks by a monk who had been breeding peacocks at his temple in Siem Reap province. We raised another few from chicks which villagers had stolen from wild nests (tsk! tsk!) It is just something they do and a very big educational challenge for us, trying to stop people from raiding nests, or gathering any wildlife which they come across on their hunting and gathering expeditions. Villagers are very much still in hunter-gatherer mode here (and where we were in Rovieng, before), looking for protein to supplement their usual diet of fermented fish paste, salt and rice.  Well, the babies raised from chicks are incredibly tame and behave more like puppies than fowls. Our first pair from the monk grew up and had eggs which we hatched under chickens (peafowl aren’t the best at setting). We had some challenges and in the first year ended up with only one baby chick who has grown up to be “Little Pea I.” This last year (2014) we were a bit more successful and the four babies are now juveniles. Because we were pretty busy this year, we didn’t “baby” this batch too much and they weren’t so tame. However when they were little, one was left out in a rainstorm and when Ben nursed him back to health, he did become pretty tame, coming into the house when we were there (while we were staying in our temporary house).  He, Little Pea II (we have original names here) also saw fit to invite this three siblings in with him. They spent a lot of time in the house and we spent a lot of time shooing them out. Being babies, they did “poo” rather a lot and it was a very trying period for us all!! However, the situation improved dramatically on moving to our final home, and these juveniles (or Squires as Amelie calls them) have not tried to come in the house at all and spend their time bugging around in the grass. The other two tame females, and the original female from the monk were locked in a chicken pen for the first two months. When the wild male chased away our male , we released the females so that they could have eggs and these two, Lolly and Little Pea do occasionally come in the house but are quickly shown the door (or window). Hence the black poo situation is pretty much rectified.

Giant Black Squirrel

This little guy here is not so little.  He is resident just outside the office here and regularly visits the trees nearby.  These shots were taken by sitting at our school desk as he came down to investigate the something - bugs or leaves in the tree just outside our window.  He seems to be not too wary of us - which is good for now but hopefully won't cause him grief later.  He makes this amazing shooting sound when alarmed which our visiting Australian friends likened to the laser guns from Star Wars.  Due to interruptions like this.. our school day becomes very fragmented as I must get out the camera so regularly.  Ahhh, we can learn from our books later - this life is more fun.

The Mundane

I need to give an update on the latrine project progress but will wait for Ben to give me some finer details. The boys left the village last week and our life has gone back to normal...as normal as is normal for us. Our workers at the forest had left a few days earlier to go work on their rice and so we were able to have some down time for a few days - just us.

The rains were still falling. The creek was up, and so when Ben travelled back from the village he walked in. So, no truck...just our trusty little Honda MD to get around on.

We had a couple of days of little projects.. putting conduit on the wires at the office, putting more gravel on the path. Then we started working on the floor boards at our house. As he was straightening some boards, Ben took a step back onto a board that was not placed properly. It flipped and he found himself going down. Catching himself on the floor joists (is that the right term?) He managed to slam his ribs against the wood. Without an xray he is pretty certain he broke a couple of ribs. Hopefully this is our "accident of the year."

So now Ben is now up and about... moto-ed out to the village yesterday to make a trip to Rovieng to pick up more stuff and importantly, two workers: our old guard, Ung; and Reth, another good guy. Ben still can't or rather shouldn't be doing much..lifting and stuff like that! Fun!

The girls have been dragging their dogs out on morning walks lately. Yesterday they went up the road to a sandy bit and built a virtual city in the sand complete with gardens and fairgrounds and houses and barns. Quite elaborate.

I have noticed that being outside has amazing effects on how well they play together, and just how whiney they are. Jarrah is the master or rather mistress of the whine. When I can somehow convince her to go outside she forgets her troubles and finds something else to focus her energies on. It is incredible the transformation that takes place. A good thing we have lots of outside and lots of nature here.

One other exciting item to mention: Amelie was finishing up her schoolwork late-ish about 6 just before dark and just out the window she noticed a troop of mavaques settling in for the night. She saw babies and adults. By the time Jarrah and i got there, we only saw a couple: one shuffling down a tree; and another staring at us. Quite exciting to see the wildlife becoming less afraid and moving in closer to us.

That is life at present for us.

posted from Bloggeroid

Connections

I've finally got a fancy phone. One that can email and do all that stuff so hopefully now we can communicate with the outside a little better. Our house has not too bad reception so when we get to move there life will be simple. Right now i am sitting at the house waiting for clothes to be washed by our washing machine. I wish I knew how to wash each days clothes, each day, as they do here but i don't, or rather i am too lazy. So now i sit with some spare minutes attempting to type a post here with this tiny keyboard.

We have visitors at the moment. Alex who came to help out in December and January came back with two friends. They, along with our other family and friends helped raise funds to do a small water and sanitation project. About four thousand plus dollars was raised altogether and the guys are helping to install latrines and rainwater tanks. They put up two and a half on Thursday and Friday. If it wasn't for the rain it would have been three.

The rain is also causing outher complications as the village is deviod of people. This year has been a really dry year. It is just the beginning of the rice growing season and people have been waiting and waiting for enough rain to plough their fields. Then they start the rice seedlings and they normally let them grow for about 20 to 30 days before transplanting. They should be finished transplanting by now but some are still ploughing and growing the seedlings.

So unfortunately we don't have all the households who want latrines lined up ready to go. The people do want them but most are just a tad busy at the moment. Having the guys there and with the attention a bunch of foreigners usually draw, is helping to promote the things in a positive way. More updates on the latrines later. And thanks to all the family and friends who donated money to this little cause. There were about three latrines put in earlier and they look great... clean and nice with all the things you need to keep them that way. So your help is much appreciated and we could not have done anything without your help.

We went for a walk yesterday. The girls, David and I went only to the temple and back. David has bung knees so wisely didn't choose to go on the "Ben hike" with the other guys who kept going, after the temple. We came back and on the way spotted a cute baby green viper on the trail. Further along there was a troop of languars heading down the valley. These guys have been hanging around lately. I saw them near the house site and heard them in the trees just before their bedtime. They have a distinct piglike grunt. A couple of weeks earlier we saw another troop of them and in amongst them was sitting a male gibbon. I didn't think he was anything but a black bit of vine but zooming in could make out what he was and he was staring right at us so casually. I believe his picture is in my previous posting where i didn't have time to write anything.

The other guys hike was just a bit longer, at 20 km through a rainstorm and over and around the mountain. Typical Ben hike and they came back sore wet and hungry! Fun!

So that is a short update from us here in the forest. We are still living out of our boxes in a mess. We still have a forest and hoe toilet but we are getting by and really looking forward to moving into our house someday... walls and floor... walls and floor to go!

posted from Bloggeroid

Three Weeks in March

I started a post about two weeks ago while the girls and I were at the forest.  It was our third week straight being in the forest (with weekend trips home).  However I didn't finish the post and now it is old.  So I shall rewrite what I wrote, to sound a little bit more current.

By our third week, the place was becoming more and more liveable.  Having the house to stay in made a huge difference.  Not having to sleep in the hut where you crawl up onto your bed where the roof is about 1 to 1.5m above your head is so nice! Having a place to sit and draw and play and do some schoolwork helped too.

 

I bought four red plastic chairs for $5.50 each  which are really nice since they are light and easy to move around.  We don't only have stump ends to sit on anymore!  Then Ben made the table and a bench for upstairs which I think is beautiful. 

And a shelf.  I’m always excited when I get a new shelf and this one is particularly exciting.  It is holding batteries which are attached to three solar panels that bring light and power to the place!  We don't have to haul the batteries out every day to charge anymore.

The workers cleared under the house and next to the house.. oops, I should be saying Office, since it is the Community Forest  Office.. but yes, cleared next to the Office, for the kitchen, wash area and toilet block.  That is also very exciting.  Then they dug a septic tank and poured the concrete pad for the toilet/kitchen/wash area block.  They also poured half the pad under the building.

All four of us went home on the second weekend of mine and the girls three week stint at the forest – for three nights, and came back on the Monday morning.  Our workers who were guarding told us they had seen the Silver Languars (the leaf monkeys) two times at the garden.  So my first morning out there we all troop off to go looking for monkeys.  Naturally we don't see any.  The previous week I had seen my first monkey run across the road in front of our car.  He was just a Macaque so not too exciting, but still the first monkey that I saw.  So I went walking further and further to look for these monkeys (after ditching the girls at the house site where there is water to play under).  The monkeys weren't where they were supposed to be.  I kept walking up the trail and heard gibbons hooting, so kept following the sounds hoping to find someone up there.  And I finally got to the spot where I knew for sure that the gibbons were on the other mountain.  So I went back not wanting to cross country to the other mountain!  And stopping to take little pictures of flora, since no fauna would come out to greet me.  

Like this.

And this.

When I was taking the latter picture, I heard a scuffling sound and looked to my left and about 20 feet away, was this little guy.

He was busy getting bugs from the tree and didn't notice me for a long time.  Then when he saw me he stared and stared.  When I moved, he realised he should probably not be there and quickly scurried off.  I wasn't sure what he was.  Thought he was probably a civit cat but then I posted some pictures on the Natural Cambodia Facebook page and someone quickly identified him as a juvenile Yellow Throated Marten.  So finally, I see something I haven’t seen before. 

Here are some pictures of the place as it is developing:

View of The Building walking up from the creek

The Bathing Spot or The Waterhole - slowly drying up!

The Office

Toilet Block in Construction

So, finally I got to see a mammal or two.  We heard peacocks daily.  The girls enjoyed themselves playing in the non-stop water and are becoming little jungle people.  We will soon have a toilet.  And I think I can be content moving out there finally.  I returned home after the third week.  And frantically started packing stuff.  I had planned for an 18 day trip to Phnom Penh and Ben was threatening to move (literally move) our house during this time.  So I packed up all my breakables and whatever I could in boxes ready to haul.  Still lots more to do - we'll see what happens next!!

Wildlife

I wanted to add a bit about the wildlife that we didn’t see this last week.  We heard peacocks, gibbons (not too far away) and lots of other unidentified birds (sorry birders).  Ben actually saw macaques and the peacocks but we did not.  I just don’t have any luck with seeing wildlife – they run away whenever we are around.  I didn’t go out looking too hard as I had bunged my toe and didn’t feel like walking too far.  Ben was enjoying having the peacocks around and then today he called me to tell me they had just messed up his seedling bed.  They like to take dust baths in the nice fine dirt.  Ahhh.. we will need to learn to live with our wildlife.  He asked me to buy a fish net to put over the garden.  Also evidence of Banteng tracks really close although we need to verify that with our broken camera trap – they could be just cows.

Silver Languar Sounds

I have this video of the Languars chirping at Ben.  You can't see them but you can hear their grunting - they are mad at him I think.  Close your eyes and listen as there is nothing to see except leaves and shakey footage.  They must have been just above in the next layer of the trees... but they are there!  The bark at the end there is actually a dog.

Gibbons this Time

We can finally add gibbons to the list of sighted animals.  While we have heard them hooting (a very distinctive hoot), we haven't been able to spot them till today.

While out on patrol (he calls it patrolling but really he is just hiking), Ben heard a pair not too far away - heading in that direction, he then heard another pair hooting from the other direction.  Soon he was in the midst of them and less than 10 metres away, they came pretty low to the ground and were just really mad at him for invading their territory.  He saw a mother, father and two youngsters up higher swinging.  He was able to watch them for about 20 minutes.  Then he decided to hoot back - that scared them off right away.  He then walked for about 200 metres and right in front of him a little above eye level in the trail was another female - not sure if she was part of the family or from another group.

Also today, he saw another group of languars and more hornbills who were flushed out of their fruit tree.  Not a bad wildlife day.  It will be interesting to see what protection can do for these animals.  If we can keep the place safe enough from hunters and poachers, the wildlife which is obviously there, should start to feel safer and be more willing to come out.  It is really quite a balancing act because we want them safe and to feel safe but maintaining their wariness of humans is also not a bad thing for their own good if we cannot keep the place safe.  It would be ideal if they realised that a certain area was safe and they worked out where the boundaries were.  We really need to get some development and training going on in the village to educate about the impact of hunting and also find other livelihoods for them that can directly come out of their non-hunting. We need some development activities which impact them directly which is also contingent on their non-hunting.

No cameras today either.  I have his little compact here in Phnom Penh trying to get cleaned up - it is foggy and we were guessing that there was mould build up inside but no repair shop wants to attempt to open it up since it is not broken.  I did manage to find a guy who has repaired camera traps before - I hope he can fix ours - both will not power on.  It will be fun to see what what we can catch in these traps.

This wasn't taken by us but this is a female gibbon contemplating something... see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pileated_Gibbon_(Hylobates_pileatus).jpg for credit

The Hornbill Tree

The other day Ben was out hiking and he came across a wild fig tree loaded with fruit and birds.  On closer inspection he was able to make out that the tree was loaded with figs and he thought about 30 or so Pied Hornbills feasting.  After watching for a while, something spooked them and they all took off.  He then estimated that there were about 100 or so of the Pieds.  He also was able to identify a pair of Great Hornbills.  A really exciting spotting - these are huge birds-according to wikipaedia about 1 metre long, 1.5 metre wingspan and weighing 2-4 kgs.  They have the best personalities, if ever you get to meet a tame one - friendly and comical.  I imagine they are awesome to see flying.  Naturally, Ben didn't have the camera.

The same day he came across more troops of languars and some giant black squirrels.  Wild pigs have also been scuffling around the building site and digging up the garden attempt.  In general he has noticed that the languars are coming closer and closer to the building site - which is good meaning they are feeling more secure.  Lets hope we can protect them. He just told me today that he wants to fence in about 500 ha - the core of the core area to keep out hunters and their dogs.

They also have been trailing more banteng (the wild cows) in the last few days, but not sighted them.  They were very very close yesterday and found some big tracks - telling me they were from a wild bull. Of course I asked him how he knew it was a bull.  He asked me back why I always question him!?  He thinks I don't trust his tracking skills!  Anyway, the answer was that the bulls are significantly larger than the females.  Valid answer I suppose.

Ben's been out there for the last ten days.  He's had helpers from the local village and has been making trails and patrolling.  He gets a range of personalities helping him.  He has worked out that the older, ex-Khmer Rouge soldier men are much tougher and know how to work hard.  This one guy who is on the Community Forest Committee has been helping a lot and has stayed out a lot longer than the others, saying he feels bad leaving Ben out there on his own.  Some other guys are less active - one spending a lot of time during the day "conserving energy." Others are a bit free spirited.  Actually, mostly they are all very free spirited.  They are happy for a couple of days work then need to go and do their other jobs.  The soya bean harvest is starting and it is proving more difficult to get helpers from the local village.  And then soon after that they will start harvesting the rice which means everyone will be busy with that.  We will eventually need to be hiring people on a permanent basis which will be an interesting task.

So this week, they have a finished trail to the temple on the mountain (both terms, temple and mountain are used freely here - temple being a pretty small construction and mountain being about 300 m elevation, maybe).  But a trail to this place is progress.

Here are some pictures of the temple and cave taken in 2012 when we bush-bashed our way through.

Loggers and Logos

It has been quiet on here lately.  Ben has had a frustrating time with the weather.  We went to Phnom Penh in September for a supposed few days however it was raining and raining, making return to the forest difficult to say the least.  In the last posting he had roofed the building, and then left it for about 10 days.  They hadn’t been able to build a lock-up-able shed yet and was having fun trying to remotely manage guarding responsibilities.  After that first stretch away, he did return and quickly (half a day!) was able to put together a little shed that now has a padlock on it to store tools etc.  Alleviating the need for a 24/7 guard.  Deep breath of relief. 

Patrolling the site has been fun and frustrating also.  He has been struggling with the ever present loggers.  This time, there has been demand from purchasers for rosewood – these middlemen have permission from unidentified powers to transport the wood and also to protect the logger and so there was quite a bit of activity going on for a while – and from the local villagers which is sad.  There seems to be a little more will from the authorities to curb this activity as of this week and they just caught a couple of ox-carts of wood and sent it to the Wat.

Last month, they had a little bonfire per compliments of the Forestry Administration who came to supervise.  These particular items belonged to loggers from Siem Reap or Kompong Thom.

One of the nights when Ben was sleeping out there, they heard a hard at work.  He and his workers quickly got up and went out in the direction of the sound.  They managed to creep up on the logger and caught his attention with a picture (below)

He managed to escape with his chainsaw leaving his backpack of other equipment which they confiscated.  After which, Ben and his team looked around them and found they were in the dark without a compass and without the GPS.  No sky to speak of due to pouring rain.  Ben had his thongs on.  One of his workers was carrying Ben’s boots intending to wear them himself (Ben didn’t want to get them muddy so he himself didn’t wear them).  They tromped back to their worksite – finally finding a road they knew and following it in the wrong direction for a bit before turning around the right way.  Ben has learned to take his GPS on night time raids.

Here was another find – a tree that they are so desperate to down that they are digging up the roots.  It is a Tnong (a type of rosewood) that is full of holes but they want it so bad they are digging the roots.  Ben told them not to cut it down and it is still there – for the present.

And finally here is a picture of the jumping caterpillar who I was referring to in a previous post.  It hatched or transformed I should say into a moth.  There has been all sorts of gossip going around about these guys.  I head a story in Rovieng that they are living in Umbrella trees and that if they fall on you, you die.  And so the Umbrella trees should not be played under, if not cut down.  Amazing the stories that go around. 

On the business front, we found someone to design a logo for us.  Here are the options that she came up with for the first draft.  We have chosen the name beTreed – meaning get treed – i.e. as in like a racoon stuck up a tree with dogs chasing it.  But a slightly more positive connotation – get up in the trees.  Stay in a treehouse.  Fly through the trees on ziplines etc.  That is the idea.  We like the first design.  Stay tuned in for the website although it may be a little while!  But I hope not too long.

Progress and Pictures

Last Sunday, the girls and I returned home from Phnom Penh and Ben also returned home from the forest.  He had been out there for 16 days straight.  He had just run out of food so was looking forward to eating – anything.

He brought with him some pictures he had taken. Unfortunately he had forgotten to take our small camera and the only camera he had was the one on the GPS.  One we haven’t used before.  We had upgraded the GPS to include the camera one, wondering why we needed it.  Well it has proven its worth.  We have a picture of the banteng that he saw – albeit very small (there is no zoon on the GPS!). And, also shots he took of the latest building progress.  Enjoy.  I have a recording of a languar (or leaf monkey) barking at Ben – need a better internet connection before I can post that).

Can you see the brown spot in the middle of the page?  That is the Banteng.

Here he is, zoomed in, but somewhat pixelated – same shot.

Here is the building #1 on August 27.  It is starting to look like a building.

And here, from September 1, is the building with three-quarters of the roof on!  Exciting.  Now just a floor and we can use it (walls are superfluous – we have never liked walls!)

Finally, here below is the future site of our house.  The forest is a Deciduous Dry Forest so not as muggy and oppressing as a Tropical Rainforest.  Beautiful in wet season – a little bit leafless in dry season but still a thousand times better the concrete jungles that Phnom Penh is becoming.

WWF Report on the Status of the Banteng and more

This is for me mostly - to keep as a reference... But

Here is a link to a summary of the report of from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature about the banteng that they conducted in 2011.

And here is a video showing a Cambodian news report of the Banteng Status in Cambodia.  And another, this time a long report from CTN (Cambodian Television Network) with a more detailed analysis of the situation for the Banteng.  Finally a photo essay showing some of the challenges that Wildlife Conservation Society is facing in the North East as they protect the forest there.

Did you know that July 31 was World Ranger Day?  I didn't know that there was a World Ranger Day but there is.  So there you are!

Spotted - Three Banteng

Report on the Banteng
By Amelie Davis

Daddy was in the forest today looking for snares.  He saw three banteng bulls (Bos burmanicus).  Two of them ran into the forest, the third bull stayed but as they went towards it, it then trotted away.

A banteng is a type of wild cow.  They are like domestic cows except they are wild.  A banteng can weigh 400 to 900 kilograms.  The banteng legs always have white socks which reach the knee.  They also have a white rear end.

In the world, they estimate that the number of banteng is 5,000 to 8,000.  In Cambodia from 1960 to 1990 the population reduced by 90 percent.  The banteng has been classified as endangered since 1996 on the IUCN Redlist.  In 2011, World Wildlife Fund said that there were 2,700 to 5,000 banteng estimated in Cambodia.

The baneng are suffering from loss of habitat that land concessions have been taken for rubber plantations, and other agriculture.  Banteng are also suffering from hunting in their dryland forest home.

We hope that people will stop hunting banteng inside this new community forest and it will hopefully be protected from agricultural land concessions which are destroying the banteng's habitat.

Jumping Caterpillars

It has been a long time since we made any installments on this blog.  Ben went to Nepal so all work stopped out at the Forest.  It was a very unfortunate time to go as it was a lovely dry July and the rice farmers did not have enough rain to start planting.  Naturally as soon as he returned, the rains started and all his potential helpers were no longer available.  So instead he got to stay home with us which we all enjoyed.  Last week he went to the mountain and camped for two nights.  The river and mud hole outside the village were too much of an obstacle to traverse with a loaded pickup so he parked that in the village and hiked out.

With no tools and only one man he couldn’t do much work so he traipsed around the forest and had a fun time.  The forest is beautiful this time of year, everything so green and pretty.  I want him to write about it but who knows if he’ll get to it but he spotted two troops (??) of leaf monkeys – silver langurs.  He was able to watch them in the trees for quite a time.  The male and leader was most alarmed and annoyed.  Making loud grunting sounds.  They were way up in the trees and photo attempts were not successful.  He does have a recording of the males agitated scolding.  He also came across a herd (now that is the wrong word) of wild pigs.  They were running away luckily and there must not have been a very angry one there otherwise Ben would have had to run up a tree. 

Well, finally the weather cleared up properly and on Monday, he was able to actually drive the pickup out there loaded with all sorts of equipment and materials.  Today I believe he got another post up on the building.  The most interesting thing however was the spotting of these giant caterpillars.   He has about five workers out there with him.  He noticed them jumping away in fright at something.  On investigation, they had found a large caterpillar, about seven inches long the fatness of a thumb (maybe Ben’s thumb which is pretty large as thumbs go).  The workers were terrified of them.  Ben was told that they jump on you and that they can jump about a metre!   But when they tried to make them jump, they refused to perform.  They are the furry kind that usually sting so it wouldn’t be nice to have one jump on you out of the blue!  Being so big as a caterpillar, they must turn into a pretty big butterfly!  They found about three of four of them and they eat leaves from the Chleat tree so maybe he can keep them till they become chrysalises and see what they grow into.  They might just escape in the meantime. 

And that is the story of the jumping caterpillars.

The Hunt for the White Winged Duck

A few weeks ago a birder friend of ours came to the “Game Reserve.”  The primary purpose was to look for endangered bird species.  We had heard reports from villagers that there are a number of White Winged Ducks living on the creek and wanted to verify this.  According to websites I’ve looked at, there is a worldwide total of only 700-800 in the world or which about one third are in Cambodia.  The first day we saw lots of different birds but no ducks.  On day two we decided to go further afield and our efforts were rewarded when we finally came across a pair of ducks roosting along the creek.  We had kind of given up looking and were returning on a section of the creek that we had detoured earlier when they flushed.  If we had been paying attention it would have had a nice photo.  Instead I have a McManus photo of where they were once sitting:

Elated to know that there are some endangered species on the Game Reserve.  Now I need to find the bird list of what we saw on that trip.

Here are some other shots from the hike:

New fields

Lisa and a log

Fig tree