Wow this has been a busy couple days. We arrived on Tiwai on
May 3rd at night. The journey from Freetown was blessedly without
any real hitches, and it was so amazingly wonderful to have a vehicle rather
than to try to hunt a taxi or podapoda down to transport our very important and
expensive equipment. We arrived on evening (I don’t know if I have told you
this before, but no matter what time I leave Freetown, and what mode of
transportation I take, I seem to arrive on Tiwai Island the same exact time
every time).
So the next
morning it was up and early to start opening traps. We brought everybody
together, our field assistants and trap checkers alike, and set out into the
forest. After a lot of discussion in Mende (the workers, not us) we finally got
the 1st trap assembled to everybody’s satisfaction. The next we were
sad to see was filled with water – too close to the river and water table. We
had to decide, and we decided it was too big of a risk and we decided not to
use it. We constructed a total of 6 traps, and then it was time for training.
Everybody got their own jobs, and we used a wooden chair as the “hippo”. Going
through the motions of the capture was both hilarious and helpful. Dr. Michele
Miller, the veterinarian helping us, explained all the safety concerns and any
other questions the guys had.
Today we
continued the trap digging, but made 16 and most of them were up on the north
side of the island on the river’s edge. We split into 2 teams, so I was with 5
other men and I had a grand old time getting dirty in the forest. Tomorrow we
are hoping for that hippo. And I’m pretty darn exhausted so off to bed with me!
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