Jungle Orientation

Our first foray into the Sumatran rainforest consisted of a crash course in jungle fieldwork with our supervisors, Mandy and Ross. Their knowledge and experience has proved invaluable as myself and Rosanna try to get our heads around the forest and our methods. It turned out to be a pretty productive few days, as well as a great adventure!

There is an elephant patrol camp (complete with real live elephants) located just outside the Gunung Leuser National Park, with a patch of forest which is not covered by the park area. We used this area to try out the methods which we have been talking about in theory for so many months. The camp itself does not have very good access by road, so the last part of our journey was actually made by boat. Personally, I think this was a pretty awesome way to enter the forest, as you can sit back and really enjoy the view. We were all playing ‘spot the wildlife’ and spent the journey shouting out any animals we could see. ‘GOAT!’ was the most common find, but we also caught a monitor lizard basking on the river bank, and a couple of macaques up in the trees. The end of our journey was signalled by the sight of an elephant’s bum, and we disembarked along with all of our gear and went to check out our five-star lodgings (we had real mattresses and everything!).

  On our first full day we were up bright and early at 5.30am. Our first order of business was to practise measuring transects. As it turns out, walking 500m in a straight line through dense rainforest is much easier said than done! We found ourselves having to clamber through bushes, ant’s nests and around large tree trunks. By the time we were done, we were all incredibly sweaty and covered in insect bites. I looked down at my boot to find my sock soaked in blood, and a leech happily munching on my foot (the first of what I’m sure will be many). This is the glamourous reality of fieldwork! Next up, we practice measuring some trees. This prompted a very long discussion about the best way to count branches (it’s more complicated than you might think!), but eventually we come to an agreement, and by our fifth tree we’re whizzing through the data collection.

 

 

The following morning, we head out at 5am to have a listen out for Gibbons, Siamangs and Thomas Langurs. The langurs were already awake and calling as we entered the forest, almost as if they were saying hello! Male Thomas langurs will call in the morning as a way of reinforcing their territorial boundaries and to assert their dominance over other groups. The gibbons seem to be a little lazier, and we don’t hear anything from them for a couple of hours. Eventually, though, at about 7.30am we can hear a pair calling to each other in the distance. When gibbons sing, the female will start off, going into her great call, after this, the male will answer, and the pair will continue in this way for several minutes. This duet strengthens the pair’s bond and highlights their territory to other animals.  As we listen, we also hear a fainter echo to the female’s great call. This is known as a double great call, and the fainter echo is actually a young female, who is learning to call by copying her mother. I’m really looking forward to our vocal surveys now. I can’t think if a better way to spend our mornings than waking up to the sound of gibbon song.

 

One morning, as we return from our listening session, we find an elephant grazing on the grass right outside our camp, along with one of the national park staff. She was being taken down to the river for her bath, and had just stopped for a snack. Her trainer was very keen for us to take photos! At one point, her face was just inches from mine, and I found myself captivated by her beautiful eyes. I have to admit that meeting one of them up close was pretty magical.

 

The real highlight of the trip, however, would have to be our first orang-utan sighting! Whilst we were wandering around in the forest, we stumbled upon some of the Sikundur staff, who were following a couple of orang-utans nearby. They asked us if we would want to go and have a look, to which our reply was obviously yes! It took us a while, but after a mad dash through the forest (best get used to this!) and a bit of searching in the canopy, we were all staring up at a young male feeding right above us. He also seemed to enjoy watching us, and we could frequently see him peering down at us through the canopy. I got leeched again while we watched him, but it was totally worth it.

 

We had a lot of fun during our first few days in the jungle, but unfortunately it all ended too soon, and it was time to return to Medan. Next time we head to the forest we’ll be on our way to the Sikundur research station, and we won’t be returning for several months!

 

 

Adventures in Yogyakarta

Our first few weeks in Indonesia have consisted mostly of a grand tour around the office buildings of Jakarta and Medan. Not terribly exciting I’m afraid. Fortunately, we have been able to sneak in a few cheeky adventures along the way!

Whilst we were waiting for some forms to process in the home affairs office in Jakarta, we decided to have a couple days in Yogyakarta. Yogja is just a short one hour flight from Jakarta, but there is an enormous difference between the two cities. For one thing, Yogja is nowhere near as enormous as the gargantuan Jakarta; it is also a much more popular destination for backpackers, as well as being a big student city, meaning that you don’t feel like the odd one out quite as much. There are many sights to see there,  the most impressive being the Prambanan temple and surrounding complex. As you approach the complex, you’re hit by the sight of the temples rising up out of the surrounding gardens, and it really is striking. Prambanan is Indonesia’s largest Hindu temple, and the carvings throughout tell the story of the Ramayana, one of the Hindu epics telling the story of Rama and Sita. This story is also told through the Ramayana ballet at Prambanan, which I’ll talk about a bit later. The temple itself is rampacked with tourists and locals alike, although most of the locals appear to be much more interested in the tourists than anything else! We were approached by several groups of giggling school kids wanting to take our photos and practice English with us. As soon as we said yes to one group, we were suddenly surrounded and being pulled into photos with whole families, all vying to get their picture taken next to us! They were all very sweet, but after a while it becomes a bit relentless, and your face starts to ache from all the smiling! Eventually we managed to escape the main temple, and find some peace and quiet in the surrounding grounds.

 

Prambanan is the largest and most famous of the temples in the complex, but there are in fact several more within the same park. Among these is Candi Sewu, which is, in my opinion, more impressive than Prambanan. Perhaps this is because the enormous crowds don’t seem to make it this far out of the main temple, so it feels a bit more authentic. Here, you get more a of an ‘ancient temple vibe’ and you feel more like Lara Croft, running around and exploring deserted ruins, rather than a goofy tourist taking beaming selfies (not that there weren’t plenty of those as well!). We actually spent most of our day in this area, rather than in the main temple.

 

We also made friends with our taxi driver. As he drove us out to Prambanan he offered to wait for us, we declined, but as we exited the complex we found him waving and grinning happily at us. Although we all felt guilty having made him wait, he didn’t seem to mind. We’ve since learned that most taxi drivers here are happy to just nap in their car and wait for you, something very different from England! We asked him for a restaurant recommendation and he drove us up into the mountains to a beautiful resort. We all enjoyed a delicious Nasi Goreng with an incredible panoramic view of the temples emerging from the mist and the volcanoes in the background. Afterwards, we went back to Prambanan to watch the Ramayana ballet, which tells of the kidnapping of Sita by the evil king Ravana and her rescue by her husband Rama. It’s quite an enthralling performance, despite being nearly three hours long!

The next day we went to visit the Sultan’s Kraton. Although the Sultan’s don’t really have powers in Indonesia anymore, the Sultan in Yogja is of special significance due to the role of the previous Sultan in Indonesia’s fight for independence. We were given a tour of the palace and grounds and learned a fair amount about the history and culture of Indonesia. The influence of Chinese culture is quite apparent here, as well as the influence of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, all of which have been the main religion at one point or another. Fun fact: the previous sultan was a big Boy Scouts enthusiast and set up the Scouts in Indonesia!

Our next stop was a shopping trip to Malioboro. Here, we visited the Yogyakarta Batik Art Group, where you can learn all about the art of Batik and pick up some authentic artwork! I’d never appreciated just how much work goes into creating some of the pieces. The more intricate patterns, especially those which contain many colours can take days to create, and it’s all done by hand! We then wondered along the markets which line the main street of Malioboro. Here, you are constantly haled by stall owners peddling their wares, as well as locals wanting to practice their English. It was quite an experience!

Our brief interlude ended all too quickly, and we were jetting back to Jakarta before we knew it. Our final piece of paperwork was ready for collection when we returned and we had finished our rounds of Jakarta. Next step: Medan, North Sumatra and then the forest!!

My Family and Other Primates



My name’s Helen and I’m undertaking an MRes (Masters by Research) in Applied Sciences at Bournemouth University. I’ve basically been a massive animal geek my whole life and I’ve been offered a pretty unique opportunity to contribute to an exciting new research project investigating how the 3-dimensional structure of the rainforest influences primate behaviour and ecology in Sumatra. It’s a collaboration between several NGOs (including YEL-SOCP, Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme) and universities, involving a series of projects which will be brought together to provide valuable insight into the ways in which primate communities interact with their physical environment. This is an area which hasn’t been particularly well studied to date, making this a super exciting project to be working on, as we get to try out some fairly new methods. I’ll be going out to the Sikundur research station in the Gunung Leuser National Park for 8 months with two other research students: Rosanna is a fellow MRes student from Bournemouth working with white-handed gibbons, and John is a PhD student from Liverpool John Moores University, who is looking at orang-utans.

My research focusses on the Thomas langur monkey, Presbytis thomasi. These guys hang around in single male-multi female groups of 10-20 individuals, and like to stick to the taller trees in the forest canopy. Logging is particularly problematic for this species, because they prefer the tallest emergent trees for sleeping, as this provides them protection from ground predators, such as leopards and tigers. Langurs also like to rotate their sleeping trees to avoid a build-up of parasites, so a reduction in these emergent trees, e.g. from selective logging, is likely to result in an increase in predation and parasite load. At the moment, these monkeys aren’t used to people and so we can’t collect detailed data on their behaviour, but hopefully after 8 months of me pestering them, they will be a bit more used to mad humans wandering around in their forest! 



Monkeyin’ around: Thomas langurs are easy to distinguish thanks to their unique hair-do.
Photo credit: www.arkive.org





I’ll be looking at how the forest structure determines Thomas langur monkey distribution in the forest surrounding the Sikundur field site. One thing I’m really excited to try out is using vocalizations to determine group number. This is a method that’s been used frequently for gibbons, but has yet to be applied to langur monkeys. While they don’t have the distinctive songs that gibbons do, male Thomas langurs do use vocalizations to establish their territories, or as alarm calls. As spotting them in the forest may prove difficult, listening for groups could well be a more effective way of measuring their population.

 

This project should also give other aspiring researchers like me the opportunity to gain valuable field experience in this incredible environment. My project supervisor Mandy is already lining up more students to come out to Sikundur to work on their own projects, and by collaborating with local NGOs and universities we can also involve and engage with local communities, which I firmly believe is key to good conservation. Mostly, though, I’m looking forward to seeing how all of the results come together and seeing lots of cool wildlife, of course!

My previous field experience has actually been mainly with marine animals, so this project will be a completely new experience for me! In the UK I’ve worked in an aquarium and become very familiar with a variety of marine life, including sharks, rays, jellyfish, clownfish, coconut crabs and Japanese spider crabs, cephalopods (including a very naughty common octopus who earned the imaginative nickname ‘Squirty’ due to his habit of spraying unsuspecting passers-by with water) and my favourites, the seahorses and sea dragons. I’ve also spent this past summer working with the North Cyprus Marine Turtle Conservation Project monitoring nesting beaches of green and loggerhead sea turtles. I’ll never forget watching a turtle make her way back into the sea whilst the sun rises over the dramatic Cyprus coastline, or the slightly delirious 3am radio banter amongst the volunteers as we attempt to keep each other awake throughout the night, or the feeling of elation as you uncover a ‘hatchling explosion’ during a nest excavation. If anyone is interested in volunteering in marine conservation, I’d definitely recommend checking the project out at http://www.cyprusturtles.org/volunteering.php. They usually take volunteers for 6-8 week placements throughout the nesting season (May-October), and it’s a great opportunity to get up close and personal with these amazing animals, as well as have a tonne of fun and make some lifelong friends along the way.

So far, it's all been a bit mad. With a scheduled departure of January 2nd, we've all had a crazy holiday period with a whirlwind of family and friends wanting to say Bon Voyage! My poor parents have been running around trying to find ways to help, especially my Mum, who's taken to preparing Indonesian meals to prep me! As excited as I am to be heading off on this adventure, I will miss everyone, especially all the silly cats that like to come over, much to our own resident diva's chagrin. There's also Alfie, a Jack Russell/Poodle cross puppy, who's due to arrive at our house at the end of January, I am GUTTED that I won't be there to welcome him! It will all be totally worth it in the end, as I get to spend eight months in the heart of the Sumatran jungle, along with orang-utans, gibbons, langur monkeys, tigers, leopards, rhinos, elephants and much, much more. How many people can say that?!

 Currently, we’re still in Medan going through the motions to obtain our visas and research permits. It’s been a bit of a culture shock, involving mad driving, millions of motorbikes and a seemingly endless city. In a couple weeks’ time we’ll be on our way to the field station at Sikundur and our comfortable hotel room will be a distant memory. I can’t wait to get out into the forest and get stuck in to the research. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is going to be the experience of a lifetime!