3 Months in the Jungle
Lupus, one of the males that we've followed in the last three months (Photo by Robert Rodriguez Suro).
I've been in the field now for three months (time flies!), and it's been a crazy ride so far. Right now, I'm on break in town, so I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of our experiences and achievements so far with all of you.
1. We've followed 5 different males, including one male that we found 1.5km south of the research site. He was our first 10-day follow outside of the research site, so it was a landmark achievement in our project. Hopefully, there will be many more to come.
2. Due to the drought situation in Borneo during the months of September through November, we had to find reliable sources of water to drink from while in the field. To do this, we mapped out a river all the way out of the rainforest, and inserted the data into our GPS. It was quite the adventure, and now we're much more prepared to follow orangutans in that area.
Check out a video clip of the action:
3. I gave 5 presentations in Jakarta during a National Geographic event. As a NatGeo Young Explorer working in Indonesia, I was invited to share my project with Indonesian college students at various universities, to promote the Young Explorer's Grant program throughout this wonderful and biodiverse country. Hopefully we inspired some future explorers to think of their own projects and apply for the grant program. Of course, I told them about experiment.com and what a great resource it is for funding research projects!
4. The data so far looks good. Even with such a small sample, you can already see some patterns. It won't be until we combine our data with the back-log of years of historical data that we will begin to uncover the true nature of male orangutan's home range. Here's to that!
5. I've been published twice in the National Geographic Explorer's Journal, including the "Borneo is Burning" post which got over 23K likes on facebook! Check them out here:
Borneo is Burning and Orangutans are in Danger
Chasing Orangutans into an Unknown Frontier
I don't get to update my Lab Notes as often as I would like, due to the poor internet accesibility at the field site. But you can always follow the project along my social media profiles, which get photo updates every weekday!
Follow the adventure here:
Facebook Page - Robert Rodriguez Suro
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