The last couple weeks have been fairly ordinary. We’ve been going out in the field as much as possible and trying to work around people’s schedules, holidays (Chinese New Year), and transitioning to a new office. Originally, our new office was supposed to be this beautiful new building with air conditioning just around the corner from the current office. I was thrilled seeing as how I live legitimately three minutes from the current office. However, the landlord sold it out from under us and now our new location is about a 15-minute bike ride away from my apartment. At first I considered riding my bike, but some of the roads are unpaved and at night the dogs are really dangerous. I’m in the process of deciding whether to buy a moto or hire a “motodop” (a hired driver) to take me to and from work. If I bought a moto I’d have the freedom to come and go as I please, however, for the short time I’m here it’s not really cost effective. Also, there are no traffic rules at all here so I’m sure I’d get myself in some sort of wreck. We’ll see how the motodop goes, but I may end up giving in and buy a moto.
The field days on the river have been challenging as this species of dolphins is incredibly shy and evasive. Oftentimes we will identify an animal we want to observe and then it seems to just magically disappear. Essentially it’s a bad game of cat and mouse, but I’m crossing my fingers at the end we can still collect some valuable information.
I’m hoping the events we witnessed just the other day will be valuable! I’m 99% certain we witnessed an attempted attack on a newborn calf (see photos below). The calf had been born approximately 4-5 days before (the benefit of these animals inhabiting a really small area is the tour boat drivers can keep tabs on the number of calves and when they’re born). San, one of the research team members, has instructed the tour boat drivers to call him if they see a newborn calf. The event with this newborn calf went something like this – we had just finished lunch and pulled up to a group of 8-10 animals (which included the calf). Before we had even started collecting data the group became increasingly active and several animals started leaping out of the water and then one specific adult lunged on top of where the calf was located. After this the group took off and began traveling so fast the boat could hardly keep up. The animals continued to travel in a sort of “herd” formation, all lined up together, and continued leaping out of the water. The event lasted for about 40 minutes and consisted of me frantically telling San to take photos while I desperately tried to fix my GoPro which has taken to overheating whenever we go outside. The photos we obtained from the event weren’t great, but I do know we witnessed was out of the ordinary behavior. We’ll keep looking out for events such as this one, but I think what we observed lends credibility to the hypothesis of infanticide as the cause of the high calf mortality. Or, on the other hand the animals were merely being highly social. Hopefully time will tell!
This week I’m off to Thailand to visit Maggie and am dying of anticipation – I cannot wait to tromp around Chiang Mai and the beautiful beaches with my favorite sister :)
Photo of the calf during the potential attack - it's a bit hard to tell, but I believe it's the calf after it's been flipped on its back
Photo of the calf the next day - you can see some tooth rake marks near its eye