RELATED TOPIC Aug-Nov 2004 Dec 2004-Mar 2005 Apr-Jun 2005
August 2005
NEW ARRIVAL
Dum
This month we received a baby Banded Langur ( Presbytis femo-ralis robisoni ), brought to us from the GRP. All the langur species are rare in the wild including the Dusky Langur ( Semnophitecus ob-scurus ) and Phayre's Langur ( S. phayrei ). Unfortunately, despite best efforts, the baby only lived 2 weeks once at WARED . We still do not know why he died but it was not due to the usual problems that beset captive langurs. Due to their complex digestive system adapted for a diet of leaves, many individual previously raised in sanctuaries have succumbed to gastrointestinal conditions. We called him Dum meaning black. The common name of this species in Thai is 'Kaang Dum' which can be translated as Black Langur . His story indicates that there are still some people who need money and will kill wild animals for illegal trade. This reinforces our drive to educate people about ecological problems as we don't want to continue seeing poor babies like Dum. Read more about Dum's story from www.gibbonproject.org/News.htm
MACAQUE UPDATE
REFURBISHINMENT OF CAGES Since our last cage refurbishment programme around 4 months ago, much of the equipment installed in the cages had fallen down and needed to be replaced. This month we decided to start by repairing C6, Beckham and Kamla's cage. Refurbishing this cage is quite simple and did not require the help of many staff. They seem to love the free-swinging ladder and the variety of rope sets we strung up. We also built them a new roof and fixed their sleeping basket to protect them from the hard rain and wind.
Beckham and Kamla exploring their cage.
NEW FORAGING ENRICHMENT TUBES We have made 10 PVC foraging enrichment tubes to replace the bamboo ones used previously that had become worn. In the long term we hope these new plastic tubes will be easier to clean and last longer in our tropical climate. We already tested them out on the day some visitors came to see how we run the project. (see the photo set below.)
OTHER ANIMAL UPDATES
ANIMAL RELEASE A Slow Loris ( Nycticebus coucang ) and an Elongate Tortoise ( Indotestudo elongata ) were released this month. Wang , one of the three Lorises kept up by the clinic, was brought to us from the GRP with a serious head injury. We cared for him for 4 months before transferring him to a temporary acclimatisation enclosure and then we released him on 20 th of this month. The tortoise was brought to us by a girl who had found it by the road and was worried it would be hurt. It was obviously wild and so we simply moved it to a spot further from the traffic.
Dutchmilk ( left ) and Yeak ( right ) in C5 trying out the new foraging tubes
Wang enjoying his freedom.
A tortoise released .
NEW SPECIES DISCOVERIES and REDISCOVERY This month, we found 2 species not seen before in the village. The first was a juvenile Monocellate Cobra ( Naja kaouthia ) only about 45 cm in length (adults are usually about 200 cm). This classical cobra occurs throughout Thailand except in the north. It usually has a distinct mark on the neck hood, variable in shape but often like monocle. As the coloration is so variable, many forms have been considered to represent different species, but recent research has shown that all non-spitting cobras in the region represent just the single, variable species. The s econd species we found was a Paradise Tree Snake ( Chrysopelea paradisi ). We found this rare, beautiful snake by accident as it had taken to lying on the sanctuary fence. This diurnal, arboreal snake inhabits forests of up to 1,500 m elevation in southern Thailand .
We have previously spotted Black Giant Squirrels ( Ratufa bicolor ) at the centre but this month we managed to get a picture. Our Thai staff found this squirrel lying on a branch obviously sleeping after an afternoon of feeding.
A juvenile Monocellate Cobra ( Naja kaouthia ) and Paradise Tree Snake ( Chrysopelea paradisi )
Paradise Tree Snake ( Chrysopelea paradisi ) and Black Giant Squirrel ( Ratufa bicolor )
A FAMILY OF COMMON PALM-CIVETS We spotted the family of Common Palm Civets ( Paradoxurus hemaphroditus ) again after the first sighting two months ago at the animal clinic. The babies seem healthy and still stay around their mum. They are all very acrobatic and growing fast. We are trying to monitor them alongside the other animals in our care.
An adult female Common Palm Civet ( Paradoxurus hemaphroditus ) and her baby
ENGLISH EDUCATION CAMP- During the first week of this month, our volunteers were invited to join the high school English camp by a teacher from Ranong town (~80Km form BTN). This camp was set up at the Thai Air Force Camp. The students enjoyed the language activities and our volunteers had a good time too. The idea was to give the students a chance to practice their English during conversations with foreigners, trying out simple sentences and perfecting their pronunciation.
TWO NEW BRIDGES A new concrete bridge was made to replace the wooden one which had rotted during the rainy season. Our Thai staff worked hard in the forest for a week to finish it. It seems strong and will be useful for volunteers and Thai staff. In addition we have also built a new bridge between cages 18 and 19 made from rope, tyres and steel cables.
New concrete bridges
A new trail to volunteer huts
NEW TRAIL TO VOLUNTEER HUTS The heavy rain this season affected every trail in centre. One of the most important is the trail from Education and Conservation Building to the volunteer huts and we were forced to cover it with rocks and pebbles to stop it getting so swampy and slippery.
GENERAL NEWS
A GROUP OF VISITORS including staff from Birdy Coffee Co.,ltd.? and their media team came to see how we organise everything and how they may be able to help the centre. We arranged two special programmes for them consisting of foraging enrichment and mangrove replanting. In the morning the enrichment program began with our staff Gi and Lai showing everyone the function of foraging enrichment. They then demonstrated how to prepare the tubes and the visitors attached them to the cages. Two designs of foraging enrichment tubes were used. Our animals love to try out those tubes in the hope of getting peanuts or dog biscuits but we also add some wood shavings to complicate the exercise and prolong it. After that we took the guests to our gibbon island before going on a tour of the mangroves. In the afternoon we showed them the damaged sustained by the mangrove area during the tsunami and we all made a start on replanting some trees with help from the villagers and children. Once everyone was tired out, we returned to WARED for a little party evening.
(Left) Gi - about demonstrating how to prepare an enrichment tube.
(Right)
Visitors trying on enrichment tubes.
(Left)Introducing our gibbons.
(Right)
Watching them! We really want to see how long they spent for the first success.
(Left) Dr.Tum - our acting director- was interviewed on Gibbon Island .
(Right) Children helping with the mangrove replanting.
GARBAGE PICKING As part of the Ecotourism club programme we have been organising monthly garbage collection days with the help of everyone in the village. The children seemed to enjoy the task and spending the time with their parents and everyone got biscuits and drinks at the end.
WIND DAMAGE Caused by hard rain and wind one night. The next morning we found many trees had fallen around the sanctuary site including those around the porcupine's and macaques' cages but there was no serious damage. Our staff cleared the trees away in one afternoon.
SPECIAL THANKS
SOMWANG'S DONOR In the 3 rd week of this month, we received a gift set from Somwong's adopter. We put the presents in his cage and took some photos for this newsletter to show his donor how his gifts have been received. Thank you!
GIFTS FROM OUR PREVIOUS VOLUNTEERS Emily Newman and Lucy Gratwick, who volunteered here this summer, have posted two parcels of gifts to the centre. They consisted of a guide book, two natural history DVD sets and a computer mouse mat featuring baby Kam-La. These gifts will be very useful for the education program.
Children and their parents picking up the garbage around the village
(Right) Gifts from previous volunteers (Left) Collapsed trees
Writen by: Gi -WARED staff
Proofed & Edited by: Emily Newman - WARED volunteer
Photos by: WARED staff
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JULY 2005
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MACAQUE UPDATE
NEW ARRIVALS
On the 4th July we took in a new female Pig-tailed macaque from our sister project on Phuket, the GRP. She had been brought to their centre after being reported running loose around a nearby town. She has a leather collar and has evidently been captive for some time. She was probably kept as a pet and/or trained to collect coconuts from the tall palm trees of the island. We have called her Megan and she is now living in cage 28 next door to Chompoo. She has settled quite well but is showing several abnormal behavioural characteristics. She spends a great deal of time pacing around her cage and bobs her head repetitively. We have added some more branches to try and improve her environment. On the 19th July we had a call from down the road where a male crab-eating macaque had broken into a house and was behaving aggressively. Our staff took along a small cage with a trap door and waited patiently with some food for bait until he could be caught. After a few false starts he came close enough to grab with a net and be taken back to the centre. He was obviously quite unafraid of people and would be a danger to the public if released. He must have been a pet at some point, much like Megan. Now, he has been assigned a cage in the forest and given a new name – Tim.
INJURED MACAQUE UPDATE
Last month we reported that one of our female Crab-eating macaques, Soi-ngoen, had been injured and was being treated up by the clinic. She had sustained several wounds to her right leg that appeared to be bites. Our volunteers cleaned her cuts daily and she received a course of antibiotic injections to guard against infection. Luckily she seems to be making a recovery and on the 8th July we reintroduced her into cage 14 back into the company of her partner, Hod. She is still limping, however, and we will be keeping a close eye on her for a while yet.
MONTHLY ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME
This month we kept the macaques active and entertained with the use of our foraging enrichment tubes. We fill them with peanuts and dog kibble and sometimes dry leaves. The macaques must use their ingenuity to extract the food; this is also key for wild individuals who often catch crustaceans by pulling them from holes in the sand. Foraging enrichment activities such as this are important for the mental well-being of our monkeys. They are intelligent creatures who get bored rapidly and we are always looking for new and feasible ideas to improve their environment. We only offer each type of activity once a month, however, to keep it from becoming too routine.
OTHER ANIMAL UPDATE
LORIS RELEASE
We still have three Slow Lorises living at our centre. Each has its own problems; one was shot and another is blind in one eye. We have been waiting for a good time to release them but there are various issues to consider. In a Muslim area such as this, lorises are considered to be curse animals and to find one near your house indicates a death in the family is imminent. This makes them unpopular so we have to ensure we let ours go a good distance away from any villages. They are also quite territorial and each will occupy a relatively large patch that will not overlap with that of another. We are now scouting for suitable sites to free the three we are caring for. Before they are released, they will each will have to spend some time in larger acclimatisation cages. We have constructed an enclosure outside one of the staff huts for this. It consists of a brick walled square around a tall tree. We have just released Wang into it and he is now enjoying the space and sleeping high up away from possible predators. We have been hiding food around the branches to encourage him to explore and he will be closely observed for some time to come.
Treating the injured kitten
DOMESTIC ANIMAL CARE: THE INJURED KITTEN
WARED is the nearest point at which the local people can obtain veterinary advice about their pets. We provide free treatment for any animals brought to us but our resources are quite limited. A kitten belonging to a family in the village was discovered weak and immobile with several small injuries around its neck suggesting an attack by another animal. Dr. Tum, the vet at the centre, examined her and identified several problems. She appeared to have lost the full use of her limbs which he thought was indicative of neurological damage but with each day she got a little stronger. Her daily nursing was delegated to two volunteers here.
REPTILE DISCOVERIES
A couple of new species have been found round the centre. We are continuing to build up our list of the creatures and plants discovered around this area. On 15th July we found a Dog-toothed Cat snake (Boiga cynodon) which is a mildly poisonous rear-fanged specimen. On 20th July a juvenile Bowring’s Supple Skink (Lygosoma bowringii) was spotted in a bush just next to the education centre. It has very short legs that cannot touch the floor unless it flexes its body.
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COMMUNITY
UNDP VISIT
WARED has worked in conjunction with the UNDP following the tsunami to monitor the progress of regeneration and development in Baan Thalaenork. We hosted a delegation from this organisation earlier this month. They came to see for themselves all the changes that have occurred and also to view several presentations by the individuals involved. Our centre was the meeting point that day with refreshments on hand for every visitor. The focus of the UNDP in this area is employment. They are monitoring the progress and recovery of the fishing and agricultural enterprises such as the shrimp farming and goat herds. One of the community workers at our centre, Peung, is employed under the umbrella of this organisation to co-ordinate the activities in Baan Thalaenork.
NEWS PLANT NURSERY
One of our community workers, Ood, is currently working towards the completion of a small plant nursery at our site to try and nurture seedlings of some of the mangrove trees destroyed by the tsunami. He is aiming to replant 500 of the lost trees and we will soon commence regular staff trips down to the beach-front forest to collect seeds. He is being ably assisted by some of the village children.
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE OFFICE AND EDUCATION CENTRE
As mentioned last month, we have finished the bulk of the hard construction work around the new office. We are now tidying up and adding all the furnishings and other bits and pieces including a couple of new sink stations. Our Thai staff have been making shelves and tables and we have lots of display boards and pictures to be re-hung.
GENERAL NEWS
BRAND NEW WEBSITE!
The old WARED website was often slow to load and not always available to our supporters in some parts of the world. This month should see the launch of the new site that Gi, our manager, has been working on. It will allow interested individuals to read the monthly updates we issue and also enable access to an archive of news from previous months. We have tried to include all the information that we can about the centre and our work. Importantly, it will also contain more detail about Baan Thalaenork and the tsunami relief efforts here. The village is integral to our work and this will be reflected on the website.
CELEBRATIONS
On 13th July we held a party at WARED to celebrate our renovations and the expansion of the scope of this centre. We have grown from an organisation dealing simply with the welfare of the local animals to one concerned with the development of the community as a whole. We have many ambitious plans for the future especially in relation to the sustainable management of the resources in this area and eco-tourism (see: 'Ecotourism Club of Baan Thalaenork' weblink). The party was also attended by the staff and volunteers from the GRP, our Bangkok office and many of the villagers who all enjoyed the fantastic food and drink prepared by a group of the local ladies. Our staff had decorated the centre with strings of fairy lights for the occasion and we had the use of a great karaoke machine with a giant screen. It was a lovely evening with everybody relaxed and having fun.
MANGROVE EXPLORATION
Towards the end of the month a group of staff and volunteers took a boat trip out into the mangrove forest along the coast adjacent to BTN. We wanted to assess the status of the areas damaged by the tsunami and also to collect the seed pods of some of the beach forest tree species for our replanting programme. The mangroves are criss-crossed by narrow canals that can be navigated only by small boat so we had to enlist the help of some of the fishermen in the village. Since the tsunami, the port has been relocated further inland and they must use the mangrove routes to access the open sea. For our volunteers it was a good chance to see a little more of the unique habitat offered by this region. Whilst walking along the beach, wild long-tailed macaques were sighted foraging just a short distance away, Brahminy kites flew overhead and
the tracks of short-clawed otters were found in the sand.
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