Yesterday afternoon our team of seven including WWF staff and officials from the Cambodian Fisheries Administration returned back to Kratie after the ten-day survey trip along the Mekong River. As I’ve only been in Kratie for a total of five days I’ll wait to write about the town once I’ve gotten to know it a little better. This likely will not take long as it’s quite small, but for now I wanted to describe my first day in Kratie and the subsequent survey trip.
As we were driving to Kratie from Phnom Penh (a slightly harrowing 4-5 hour drive), the WWF Landscape Manager received a phone call that an adult female dolphin had been found dead near the Kampong Cham province in Cambodia. Arrangements were quickly made to transport the dolphin to Kratie via taxi so that a necropsy could be conducted the next day. Conducting necropsies on these animals as soon as possible after death is critical in order to improve the understanding of causes of mortality and in general the understanding of the life history of these animals.
So for my first day “on the job” I arrived at the office to the WWF staff taking various measurements of the dolphin carcass. We then transported the animal to the lab where luckily I was only asked to write down the various samples collected rather than participate in the dissection given my minimal experience conducting necropsies. The team concluded the dolphin had likely been sick and died from old age, rather than being entangled in a gill-net which was good news.
Adult female carcass
Necropsy
The next day we departed from Kratie and began our trip up the river. Each day was fairly similar. We followed the main channel of the Mekong north, crisscrossing the river, all the while looking for dolphins. The WWF staff possesses extraordinary knowledge about which sections of the river the animals inhabit thus we typically knew when animals would be encountered. Once dolphins were located the staff (or I) would take photos of the animals. Because dolphins' fins often get marks or scars on them throughout their lifetime photos of their fins are used as identification tools. These surveys are very important because they allow WWF to obtain estimates of the population. Gerry Ryan, the WWF Research Technical Advisor in Kratie who has been my main point of contact over the past year, and his colleagues published the most recent population estimate in 2011 in the Ecosphere journal.
The one thing that struck me while watching these animals was their evasiveness and ability to disappear as soon as the boat approached. As I’m planning my research projects I believe this will be a significant challenge and we’ll see how I fare trying to interpret their behavior. I've included a terrible iphone quality video below, but hopefully can add better ones later.
Traveling on the river was an experience in and of itself. Its sheer size and power was pretty incredible. The river floods during the rainy season and inundates the surrounding forests creating this landscape where the trees are bent due to the power of the current and the root systems are incredibly dense. Although this is beyond nerdy, many of you all know I like Lord of the Rings, and these trees remind me a bit of the Ents in The Two Towers, slightly utopic and surreal.
For all but two of the nights we stayed with families in various homes along the river. Most of the homes are constructed of wood and are built on concrete pillars for when the river floods. We slept in hammocks like the one pictured, with nifty mosquito nets attached to them. Meals always consisted of rice. I asked one night how to say “eat dinner” in the Cambodian language, Khmer, and I was told that the word dinner isn’t really used, but instead to say “nham bai” or “eat rice”. In addition to the rice there was typically some kind of meat, veggies, and soup. This is clearly very general and I’ll be sure to write more about the different types of food I’ve been trying once I have a better understanding of what they’re called.
After arriving back in Kratie sufficiently tired and sunburned, but excited about finally seeing these animals and the river, I’ve started working on the methods for the research and trying to settle into my apartment and life in Kratie.