And it's a wrap...not quite! update #4
Well, what a ride! All of a sudden we have reached the end of our stay here at Agumbe Rainforest Research Station, and the time has come for the final update from yours truly - Steve, the Field Assistant.
Since the last blog update, we have continued full steam ahead on our mission to film as many glides as possible in the flight arena, following our daily routine of filming all morning. The fans mounted on each camera have been working an absolute treat, with not a single fan breaking on us, making the days of overheated GoPros a thing of the past – a huge relief!
After Pranav’s brief visit to NCBS in Bangalore, where he analysed the footage we had captured so far with his professor to ensure we were on the right track regarding the 3D tracking, we made one final change to the flight arena. We changed the position of the Yankee camera - the one that sits high on a pole next to the launch tree, to capture the take-off section of the glide from a side-on point of view. We wanted the camera to be closer to the tree, so with Shankar’s help we joined two of the stainless steel poles together at a right-angle and mounted the camera on one end (see picture below, Yankee - camera to the right). This enabled the camera to sit much closer to the launch tree, facing the landing tree and capturing a much closer and wider angle of the take-off from the side. The previous Yankee angle didn’t show the full glide, but the improved one did, which was another plus. After reviewing the footage we were all quite happy with the new Yankee angle and started work towards capturing as many glides with the new angle as possible.
Towards the end, after filming multiple glides from certain lizards, we started specifically looking for individuals we hadn’t filmed yet. Number 3, a male, was a main target of ours because he has a deformed patagium. One side of his patagium is missing a significant section, toward the tail, and we have been very curious to see how his gliding abilities compared to the other lizards. He is the only Draco we have caught that has a misshaped patagium. It’s an old injury; he could have been born with it, or it could have been torn in an altercation with another male some time ago. We see him gliding around the plantation on many occasions (usually avoiding our attempted captures) and he seems to be gliding perfectly fine, which made us very curious to 3D track his glide.
He is a very active lizard and proved to be quite tricky to catch, and then quite often when we would catch him, he would go quiet and refuse to glide for us in the arena. It took a long time and many attempts, but eventually our persistence paid off and we got some glides out of him towards the end of our filming period. We’re looking forward to seeing how his flight trajectory compares to other Dracos that we have filmed. No. 3 finally caught and filmed, see below.
Another elusive lizard we had tried to film with for quite some time is male no. 1; the very first Draco that was caught and marked. He is another highly active individual who seemed to love avoiding us, but we kept at it and eventually got some glides out of him, too. The alpha male, number 24, also started regularly joining our filming efforts on his own accord toward the end of the filming period. By the last week, instead of doing his usual routine of lurking around the edge of the arena and intimidating the males we were trying to film, he started consistently joining the party and actually gliding into the arena and landing on the launch tree (see video below, taken from the camera mounted on the take off tree). This was a nice surprise at first, as he is a very active Draco and would often glide to the landing tree for us, but after a while it actually became a hindrance. Because he is such a bully to any other male in his territory, quite often his presence would make the other males – and even the females – sit flat on the tree and refrain from moving, while he stormed around the place flicking forth his large dewlap. We had to start catching him from the launch tree and placing him in a box in the shade while we continued trying to film the other Dracos. This was quite amusing, when you take into account how elusive he was only weeks ago, and how excited we were when we first caught him. It’s funny how things change so quickly with field work!
Roughly once every 8 or 9 days, we would give the Dracos a break from filming for a day or two. We always kept in mind that they need undisturbed time to go about their natural behaviour, and we would always notice that after a break the Draco sightings would increase and we would see a lot more activity throughout the plantation. During these filming breaks, we would catch up on the ever-increasing data collection and conduct maintenance work for the arena, tripods, the Draco catcher, and anything else.
By the end of this field season, we have filmed a great deal of glides. We don’t know exactly how many just yet, because as our schedule got chaotic toward the end, there were still days we haven’t tallied glides for. But, we have successfully filmed well over 80 glides over the two month period – possibly even over 100. While we’re proud of these results, we do need to analyse the data before we get ahead of ourselves. You can never know how a study really went until it has been properly analysed. Stay tuned for updates – a few months down the track will be a very exciting time, as we start to see what results we have achieved.
From both Pranav and myself, we would like to extend a massive THANK YOU for your contribution to make this study a reality! We literally could not have done this without your generosity and faith in our cause. We attacked this study with our full energy and, although there have been a lot of challenges and bumps along the way, we are happy with what we have achieved. The staff here at ARRS have been absolutely incredible – especially Shankar, who has helped us tremendously. There have been multiple volunteers which have donated their time to lend a hand, and the local villagers have also been a huge help along the way. In the end this has been a group effort with folks from India, US, Australia and specially you bringing this study to life! (See below - a glimpse of the Draco family!)
These Dracos really are unbelievable animals! Over the past two months these tiny lizards have made us laugh, puzzled us, outsmarted us, cooperated with us, teased us, and left us in complete awe of their gliding abilities and cute nature. It will be very exciting to see what results we get from this study. Once again, thank you so much for being a part of this study and stay tuned for another update a bit down the line.
Much Draco love coming your way! :) Steve & Pranav
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