Earthwatch Australia Teach Live

Friday 7th May 2010

Only two individuals were captured during morning bats – Kerivoula pellucida and Kerivoula intermedia. They both look similar, so Ain showed us the visual differences.

Kerivoula intermedia – looks like a teeny ball of fluff, the snout is not pronounced, brown wings, quite small ears, and smaller in weight and FA length

Kerivoula pellucida – has a much longer snout that in pinky yellow, large-ish ears, almost translucent wings, and is a bit bigger

Friday was also our day off! After morning bats we headed into Mentakab, which is a town about an hour and a half from Krau Wildlife Reserve. On the way we saw a baby monkey on the road, which we think was hit by a vehicle, as it wasn’t keen to move. Zam, who was driving, stopped and moved it onto the side of the road. In Mentakab we stopped in at the supermarket to stock up on supplies and had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant.

From here we headed to the Elephant Conservation Park where we got up close and personal with elephants! One of the babies grabbed my hand with his trunk! He was so strong, yet gentle. We also got to feed them in two different ways – either giving it to them in their trunk or by placing the food in their mouth. We fed them an assortment of different fruits, and it was absolutely amazing! We rode on the elephants both on land and in the water, and once in the water, the elephant rolled over so we all got dunked! Whilst we were in the river we washed and played with some of the younger individuals.

On our way back to base, we went to the Kuala Krau Night market where the food was amazing! Most of it we don’t have in Australia, so taste testing some of it was a must! The fruit was the biggest hit, and we all bought some to bring back to base. Dinner was at a local Kuala Krau restaurant where we sat outside and watched the sun go down.

Thursday 6th May 2010

When we released the river bats at dusk last night we had to throw them into the air to prompt them to fly! It was scary doing so because I didn’t want to drop one. I didn’t. I did, however, get bitten by a Mops mops. It hurt a little, but nothing major and only a small amount of blood was drawn.

There were over 500 Lepidoptera from one site alone when we did the insect analysis. Ain said Lepidoptera seems to be the most prevalent food source for the bats at this time of year based on fecal analysis. It appears that the insect analysis confirms the fecal analysis, which is what is wanted.

I was at the mist net by the river last night and we caught 6 individuals – 5 Chaerephon johorensis and 1 Mops mops. When a bat is caught, you need to figure out which side of the net it came from, then you get the elbow of the bat free and then pull the bat very gently away from the net. Theoretically this works very well. Practice, however, is a little more of a challenge. The bats are incredibly hard to get out of the mist net for two reasons – 1. They twist themselves up in it more and more as they struggle, and 2. The mist net is extremely delicate. It was great fun though! A very good problem-solving task!

During morning bats this morning we caught 3 Kerivoula pellucida, 2 of which had pups. One mother was 4.57g and was carrying her pup which was 3.5g! I can’t imagine what carrying a baby that is almost the same size and weight as me would be like! The other mother was about the same weight, but the pup was much smaller at 2.75g. Tigga was saying that it’s thought the reason this species carries their young is because they don’t have a single roost and possibly roost in a different place every day.

Tonight I’m back in the rainforest. Hoping that with yesterday’s brief rain there will be a few more individuals tonight.

	Kerivoula intermedia
	Kerivoula pellucida
	Myself and Ryan getting a Chaerephon johorensis out of the mist net

Wednesday 5th May 2010

Yesterday we started building a flight cage for Julie so she can observe flight manoeuvrability. It will have a type of obstacle course inside so she can see how the bats use their wings to fly in different situations. The actual flight cage is approximately the size of G7 & G8! It’s not finished, but we’re continuing with it again today. I’m on insect analysis later today. The smell of dried insect leaves a lot to be desired! (It’s worse than D7 and D8 put together!)

Yesterday’s lecture was on identification of bat families, genus and species. It’s really hard! Luckily we have a book with a dichotomous key and a couple of photos to help us!

Last night I was in the rainforest checking harp traps with group “ridleyi”. We caught 6 bats and a combination of species. The river group, however, caught 12 individuals! These included a fruit bat (Cynopterus bracyotis), a naked bat (Cheiromeles torquatus), which is incredibly large and insectivorous, and a species called Mops mops, which are small insectivorous bats.

Species	Location caught	Weight	Forearm Length
Cynopterus bracyotis	River	30g	62mm
Cheiromeles torquatus	River	250g	83.6mm
Mops mops	River	25g	44mm
Hipposideros bicolor 142 kHz	Rainforest	9.25g	43.4mm
Kerivoula intermedia	Rainforest	3.25	28.4
Rhinolophus trifoliatus	Rainforest	11.75	50.1

You can see from this table that the bats caught over the river are significantly larger than the species caught in the rainforest. This is because the rainforest bats need to be able to navigate a much more dense habitat, and they fly much lower than the bats caught at the river site, which fly over the canopy.

I processed our first fruit bat and a couple of Mops mops and they are extremely strong for their size. It was quite hard to get a grip and then grab the wing to get a forearm length. The trick is trying to make sure they don’t escape! Mops mops are also noisy and like to make sure everyone knows they aren’t happy!

This morning we released the rainforest bats we kept over night and only got one more individual, a Kerivoula papillosa, which was a bit disappointing. It hasn’t rained here for quite some time, so the insect numbers are lower than if it had been raining, and therefore the bat numbers are also lower as they rely on the insect population for food. We also released Cynopterus bracyotis at the river site as fruit bats are much more susceptible to stress and are likely to suffer greatly if kept for an extended period of time. The insectivorous bats caught at the river site will be released tonight at dusk when the mist net is set up again.

It’s fantastic to be around a group of people who have the same passion for conservation and interest in animals as I do. I’m fascinated by all the different species they have here, including house geckos, moths, leaf insects, giant ants (approx. 5cm long) and giant millipedes (approx 15cm long and 2cm in diameter). Even the cats are different. They don’t have a long tail and the tails are very stiff. If I can I’ll post some photos, otherwise I’ll bring them back with me. We’re on a satellite connection here, so it’s somewhat expensive to be using the internet, especially to upload photos.

	Cheiromeles torquatus
	Cheiromeles torquatus
	Cynopterus bracyotis

Tuesday May 4th 2010

Let’s backtrack a bit….Kuala Lumpur is lovely and had a brief look around on Friday before getting picked up to come into the field on Saturday morning. I got the monorail to Berjaya Times Square which is a giant shopping centre – 10 floors and an indoor amusement park! Yes, I did indulge myself in some amusement park time!

Back to the field…. Same routine last night – trapping, processing females who are carrying a pup or lactating, bringing back the others to base for processing. We caught quite a few, which was great and I got to hold and release a Kerivoula pellucida, which are rather small even for a micro-bat! This morning we were back in the rainforest to release last night’s bats and to check the harp traps again. I released a Rhinolophus trifoliatus this morning. The bats are just great to hold and get a close up view of. The insect traps were checked again, however only trap A had insects. Ain (one of the researchers) thinks the light mechanism at trap B didn’t work properly last night, accounting for the lack of insects.

There are a couple of studies occurring at the moment. Ain is looking at the diet of micro-bats and is using both insect analysis and fecal analysis to do so. She is also studying the body condition and oestrous cycle of the female bats to see if she can determine early pregnancy. This will hopefully assist in the conservation of bats, especially in caves or segregated areas in which tourism can be stopped during the critical pregnancy and newborn stage. The hope is that if there is no disruption to the bats during this time, there is a better chance of survival. Julie is doing a study on the measurement of wing membrane thickness, so the bat’s wings are also photographed when we return with bats at night. She’s also trying to ascertain the pressure of a bite from a bat.

We’re working in pairs or groups of four, and rotate through the work. I’m in the group “trifoliatus” with Saveng who is from Cambodia and works with bats. He’s here to learn more about them and get more experience. He’s also part of the SEABCRU (South East Asia Bat Conservation Research Unit). There are two others from the SEABCRU – Zie and Jovic. Zie is from Indonesia and Jovic is from the Philippines. There are also the 3 other teachers and Caroline who’s from Earthwatch.

For the rest of today I’m working with group “ridleyi” and Julie to help her set up her traps by the river, listening to Dr. Tigga Kingston give us a lecture (it’s very informal), and then heading off for trapping. Tonight I’m working with Ain in the rainforest. The other group of four (groups “cervinus” and “intermedia”) will be doing insect analysis, lecture, and with Julie by the river.

I'm absolutely loving it! My glasses keep fogging up though which is extremely annoying!! There are quite a few insects flying around the place, which is interesting. Most of them I’ve never seen before! I’m one of the few people to not have been bitten by leeches!! Hopefully I can get through the two weeks without one. Fingers crossed. Have been eaten alive by mosquitoes though!

You can check the species of bats captured here.

Looking at wing membrane thickness	Me holding a Rhinolophus trifoliatus before releasing it.	Rhinolophus trifoliatus hanging onto my finger

Monday May 3rd 2010

Malaysia is great and it’s incredibly hot here. I’m not really sure of the temperatures, but the humidity and the temperature is very high. During the middle of the day no-one (even the cats) want to move!

Yesterday we started the serious work! During the afternoon we did insect analysis, which involves separating the insects into their Order level. It’s only done to Order as this is the lowest level that can be ascertained through fecal analysis. The insect analysis is essentially to confirm the fecal analyses. The main Orders that were identified yesterday included Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera, although Homoptera and Blattaria occurred in a smaller abundance. Once the insects are sorted into Order, they are weighed (as an Order) and then dried so a dry weight can be obtained as well as the wet weight.

We started trapping last night and got 3 females and 1 male. One of the females had a pup attached, which means it’s less than 2 weeks old. It was incredibly adorable! For the other females, one was lactating and the other had finished lactating. The mothers were processed in the field and released, and the other two were brought back to base for processing and to keep them overnight to collect fecal samples from the bags they’re kept in.

This morning we were back in the rainforest by 7.45am to collect the morning bats – those which were caught during the dawn peak activity. We had many more to process this morning as some of the traps were missed last night. As it was daylight, all bats were processed in the field before being released. Releasing the bats is great fun! Watching them fly is quite something! We collected similar species this morning, however we also got another couple.

When we process bats, we record the following information:

• Band ID #
• Recapture (or not)
• Date
• Time
• Harp Trap ID #
• Species
• Sex
• Age
• Reproductive Status (Lactating (L), Recently Post Lactating (RPL), Not Reproductive (NR))
• Forearm Length
• Weight
• Comments (which can include things like, nipples full of milk, full stomach etc)

The bats are very soft to touch and their wings and sort of like touching glad wrap. They are incredibly delicate little things, and ever so cute! You can see what species were caught, and keep track of what we are capturing in real time here.