Monday, May 14, 2012

Studying Bornean pygmy elephant in Sabah


Steamy swamps, crocodiles, snakes and giant bees with a hell of sting - PhD student Megan English has battled them all as she studied pygmy elephants.

Recently back in this country after a 15-month stint tracking the animals on Borneo, the Victoria University researcher is now hunkering down for the year or so it will take her to write up her work.

She had always wanted to work with elephants and the project, funded by Zoos Victoria in Australia, was "a dream fulfilled", despite the physical challenges, she said.

"Think mosquitoes, tiger leeches, crocodiles, snakes, thorny jungle, torrential rain, and being waist deep in swamp water or mud," she said.

One of her most painful experiences was being stung by giant bees about 20 times in the face and head, leaving her unable to move for a day or two.

"They are these huge red and black stripy bees. They are about the size of your thumb, and when they sting you they make a popping sort of noise."

They could also be hard to avoid as their nests were in the ground and difficult to see, English said.

Tracking the elephants for up to eight hours a day through the steamy forest could be draining, but she got used to it. It also helped that she had spent much of her childhood in Asia, but some people who visited her during her stay did not find it so easy.

Mosquitoes were everywhere and up to 20 leeches would attach themselves to her each day, but they were not the greatest problem.

"You have to watch out for the bigger things - the snakes and crocodiles," English said.

A large amount of area was swamp where pythons were plentiful, and because there was a river and tributaries through the area crocodiles were "all over the place".

"You develop another sense in a way, after a while. You're always very, very alert, looking around all the time," she said.

"You smell animals a lot before you see them."

While she never felt her life was in immediate danger, "we did spend a lot of time quickly jumping up trees".

She had been tracking a population of about 300 Bornean pygmy elephants in south eastern Sabah, Malaysia.

"Oil palm plantations extend as far as the eye can see and the elephants, and other wildlife such as orang-utans, have been confined to forest fragments that are bordered by villages, roads and plantations.

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