I’ve left the field and spent some time on vacation around Cusco, Peru, before returning to the U.S. This was a short trip to southern Peru, but it was as productive as I could expect, and I believe it will prove beneficial later this year (see previous post, Andean Bears: Back to Peru). With the help of Pedro Centeno, a colleague from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, I left some camera traps for 10 days at the same sites we monitored last October through December (see post, Andean Bears: Ready for Their Closeup?)
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I recently returned from Dominica, where I continue to study the Lesser Antillean iguana. This is the third of a multi-year study of the iguana. My team has been working to garner critical natural history information that will be used to manage and conserve the species. Habitat destruction, hunting, introduction of exotic predators and competitors, and hybridization with common iguanas threaten Lesser Antillean iguanas with extinction across their range. Indeed, Lesser Antillean iguanas have already been extirpated from several islands. But help is on the way, thanks to local students!
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Whether it is in the koala barn at the San Diego Zoo or in the field in Australia, the fine details of the lives of koalas provide a steady stream of questions for keepers and researchers alike.

I have just returned from Brampton Island, which is a small island near our main research site, St. Bees Island (see post, Koalas: Floating Research Station). Both islands lie several miles off the coast of Queensland, and both are home to healthy populations of koalas. However, that’s where the similarities seem to end.
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Quincemil, District of Camanti, southeast Peru
I’ve returned to the cloud forest of southeast Peru, on the east slope of the Andes, between the cities of Cusco and Puerto Maldonado to continue my research on Andean bears. It’s good to be back. Things have changed in the area due to the construction of the interoceanic highway, but they haven’t changed as much yet as I imagined they would have, or as they will. I’ve encountered many familiar faces, but other people have moved on, looking for opportunities elsewhere. (Read previous post, Andean Bear Collaboration.)
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It’s been a worrying few days for koala researchers: first we find out that koala numbers in southern Queensland in Australia are crashing faster than anyone could have predicted, and then our conference gets washed out by major floods in northern New South Wales (NSW).
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It has been three straight days with temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius)! Let me tell you, that’s hot, really hot, so hot my thermometer doesn’t go any higher. Our field station has no air conditioner and the fans work infrequently as we only have electricity a few hours a day, and sometimes we go several days with none. A regular supply of electricity is a mere fantasy, like a child’s wish of candy raining from the sky.
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If you’ve read my previous posts (see Andean Bear Country), and writings by other people studying Andean bears, you’ll undoubtedly have noticed that we almost never see the bears themselves. However, the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society (SBC) and its director, Robyn Appleton, didn’t read the rulebook. They’ve discovered a study site in the dry forest where the bears are much more visible than at any other site described to date. In fact, Robyn and her field team have identified over 30 individual bears by their facial markings!
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Rick is sharing his adventures in Africa with staff from our conservation partner, Elephants Without Borders. Read his previous post, Botswana: Chobe River.

May 9, 2009 (Saturday)

Yesterday, Friday, we did our last bit of filming and said our goodbyes to Chobe National Park. After we got the shots we needed, Shea Johnson, the San Diego Zoo’s videographer, and I had a great time just watching several herds of elephants come down to the river from the surrounding area. I’d have to say one of my favorite things to watch was the littlest babies rolling and playing in the mud. It was also very interesting to watch the mothers, aunts, and older siblings stand protectively around and over the youngsters while they played.
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One panda sits peacefully munching her bamboo, gracefully stripping leaves from the stem, rolling it into a wad, and holding it in her paw to eat. Another rolls around, head over heels, playing with his new enrichment item. A new panda mother comforts her squawking cub, secure in her new den. Such is the life of a panda.

Scenes like this have played out for years in Wolong until, a year ago, everything suddenly came crashing down, quite literally. The earthquake that struck Sichuan last year, causing so much devastation and loss of life, also struck at the heart of China’s giant panda breeding program at Wolong. Most of the breeding center there now sits empty, its panda and human inhabitants now relocated to Bi Feng Xia, some several hours away. Today, the same scenes witnessed a year ago in Wolong now play out in Bi Feng Xia.
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When I returned to China for the 2009 breeding season, I was overcome with joy as I saw my Chinese friends in person. After the earthquake on May 12, 2008, I found some way to communicate with all of them, but there is nothing like being face to face. Forgetting that I was in China, I went up to each of them and gave them a huge hug. The looks on their faces were priceless! They don’t traditionally hug as a greeting, so to have a tall blonde woman hug you in public was shocking to most of them. Afterward they all just chuckled a little bit and changed the subject.
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