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My plan for coming to Thailand was simple: do my fieldwork and train for more triathlons. I figured with free time after the forest, endless good weather (meaning no Canadian snow), and hills as far as the eye could see, Khao Yai would be the best place for me to learn how to become a better athlete. There’s no place to swim here, but I could run and bike for hours on end. So when I arrived in January 2010, I put on my sneakers and I started to run. I’m not going to lie, running here sucks. It’s hard. It’s really, really hard. And after 1.5 years, it’s still not getting any easier. “Khao Yai” translates directly from Thai to English into “Big Mountain” and that’s exactly, quite literally, what this place is: a damn, big mountain. Even the “flat land” has hills; they just aren’t as steep as the “real hills”. :) But I made the commitment to myself to run, so I continue to put on my shoes and go. Not long after I started running was the Best Day Ever when I made my first Thai friend:...

Next week I’ll be heading to Bangkok to give a talk on my dissertation work at the International Symposium for Biodiversity and Ecology of Wildlife in Thailand at Chulalongkorn University. I’ll be in Bangkok for three days with the students and professors for the symposium, and then in the following days we will travel around the country to visit some field sites to see long-tailed macaques, stump-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques and gibbons. I’ve been in the house most of this month concentrating on compiling some data to present and putting the presentation together, so I’ve been working late into the night and sleeping in the mornings. My schedule is kinda wonky and I haven’t been spending much time with people around Khao Yai. For the past two nights, I actually had dreams that I was trying to talk to my friends around here, but other people kept interrupting me and causing distractions preventing me from communicating with my friends. This morning Jambee came over with a...

Just posted a few new pics at: www.facebook.com/jackieprimeproject . Album title: "Creatures that are not primates at Khao Yai" This one is my favourite.  Elephant

Look at that face, so precious. --- Comments are always welcome, please share your thoughts. *Note: Comments are moderated to avoid spam.

A year and a half ago, I posted a message about my adventures with heating up pork buns ( Why Did We Invent Cooking ?). That was back when sweet chili sauce was a necessity to fix all Jackie-made foodstuffs and when the answer to the question: What do you eat? Was: lots of cereal and fruit. In August 2010, I decided to go Primal (no pasta, no bread, no excess sugar, no cereal, no…rice? see Mark’s Daily Apple ). Not an easy task when you live in a country that appears to consider rice to be more important than water. “I am no longer eating rice,” I declared to my friends at the restaurant after the decision was made. They stared blankly at me then said: “but if you don’t eat rice, you can’t go to the bathroom.” Well that explains why so many people eat rice around here… I started frying up veggies and eggs at home and for eating in the forest, and continued going to the restaurant for my afternoon meal of Thai food (now minus the rice) with my friends. This lasted for about a ...

  --- Comments are always welcome, please share your thoughts. *Note: Comments are moderated to avoid spam.

After today’s events, no one can claim I have an irrational fear of toilet snakes!! Toilet Snake --- Comments are always welcome, please share your thoughts. *Note: Comments are moderated to avoid spam.

It's 4:15am. The sun will not rise for another hour to an hour and half. It's still pitch black outside and silent, even the cicadas are quiet. And at 4:00am, in the forest right next to my house, a gibbon began singing his morning male solo. Apparently he woke up early today and decided everyone else needed to know about it. I think I speak for everyone, including his partner, right now when I say: "You're great, but knock it off and GO BACK TO BED!" --- Comments are always welcome, please share your thoughts. *Note: Comments are moderated to avoid spam.

My time living year round in Khao Yai is coming to an end and I can't imagine what my life will be like living somewhere else. Everyday now I get emotional and nostalgic about my time here, wondering how I can ever go back to living outside of the jungle. Who will watch the sunrise every morning? Who will listen to the gibbons alarm call in the distance and wonder what they saw? Who will appreciate the newborn monkey babies? Who will photograph the centipedes, and the spiders, and the squirrels in the forest? Who will videotape the water monitors and the porcupines and the deer living under my house? What will I look at when I glance up from my desk out the window and see buildings instead of trees? It's sad. But I'm trying not to be miserable about it. Change happens. New people will come. Things move forward. I'll come back in a new role. That's the way of the world. I got to do something that few others will ever get to do. I got to see things and experi...

Met an entomologist today on my run; he’s been here for about a week, seen me running around the park everyday, and was wondering who I am and if I live here. (It’s unusual to see the same foreigner for more than a day around here, particularly one that doesn’t look lost or have a Thai guide with them.) We chatted for a bit. I told him I’m a gibbon researcher, I study hand manipulation skills and I have been living in the park for the past year and a half. He told me about his interests in bugs and birds, his desire to be able to do research here at Khao Yai, and that he had been here once before and wishes he could come more often because it’s so beautiful. He asked a few questions about gibbons and plants. Then said he wouldn’t keep me longer and let me get back to my run. But just before we parted ways he said with a smile, “All the good anthropologists are women, aren’t they?” I smiled, “Oh I don’t know, my professor is a male.” He replied, “Yeah, but all the good anthropology...

They do this: HUDDLE UP!  Gerdie with 3 of her offspring (the smallest infant is inside all the others). --- Comments are always welcome, please share your thoughts. *Note: Comments are moderated to avoid spam.

Are you looking at me?  Great Hornbill

Sitting at my desk today writing and reading when suddenly, with no rain or warning, a powerful crack of thunder boomed, jolting my seat, shaking the floorboards and windows, and making my heart beat a little bit faster and harder than it did before. Birds squawked and flew out of the forest over the house. Selena, the Sambar deer who lives under my house, started to trot across the yard heading for shelter. And as I looked up in the shock of it all at the forest canopy outside my window, I saw an adult male macaque jump up from his seat in a tree and hurriedly climb up the trunk to a higher branch. He ran out onto the branch, bounced up and down; grabbed the branch with both hands and shook vigorously; rattling and shaking the tree as he looked up and the thunder resonated throughout the sky. The thunder rumbled on for a few more seconds while the monkey shook his branch, until he sat down on the spot with the returning silence. It was actually a pretty cool moment…. Makes you...

Peaceful day just lounging around grooming. Enjoy!

Not only is he my favourite guy, he also happens to be extremely photogenic. See more photos at www.facebook.com/jackieprimeproject   Chikyu

About the Organization: The Jackie Prime Project is designed to promote compassionate knowledge of the natural world and our place within it. Our mission is to motivate people to take interest in the world, connect their lives and live with vitality by developing empathy and compassion for others through understanding that humanity is a part of nature. We promote natural ecological research efforts and conservation, with a particular focus on primate fieldwork, and facilitate understanding through shared knowledge. The primary objectives of the Jackie Prime Project are: A. Educate – to create awareness and spread knowledge about our environment and ecosystems, to highlight the value and intrigue of endangered plant and animal species, and to illustrate the similarities and differences of human cultures. B. Inform – to draw public attention to the anthropological, zoological, and environmental research efforts within the academic community by featuring subjects of...

Glenda had her baby sometime during the night or early morning before we contacted the troop around 7:00am. Take a look!

Many people access this blog through my anthropology student webpage at  http://mypage.siu.edu/primejm/ . But please note, as of yesterday my anthropology webpage has been updated with a new address ( http://www.jackieprime.org/jacqueline_m_prime_2.html ) Currently the old address will redirect users to the new address where you can access this blog under it's new name the "Jackie Prime Project: Under the Canopy" using the link in the bottom right corner (JPP: Under the Canopy). However, the old address will not be around forever - please update your bookmarks with the new address for my anthropology webpage http://www.jackieprime.org/jacqueline_m_prime_2.html . And keep checking out the blog for updates and follow me on twitter and facebook . Thanks everyone!

Learning Thai is not as simple as taking the English word, translating it into Thai, and putting the sentence back together. Oftentimes a sentence in Thai is actually the backwards version of the English sentence, and several words like pronouns, conjunctions and functional grammar words (is, be, are, etc.) are not used when speaking Thai. Sometimes I’ve noticed when I am speaking in Thai quickly incorrect words that sound similar to the correct English word somehow work their way into my Thai sentences, which really makes no sense at all. And many times, in casual conversations, I’ll be searching my brain for the Thai equivalent of a slang English word that just doesn’t exist. But learning another language is all good fun. And I have come to realize that, though when communicating with native English speakers I might appreciate the wit and timing of a well placed sarcastic remark or phrase; when speaking with Thai people, most of the time I am extremely appreciative that I can eve...

Hey Everyone, It's social media mania for the Jackie Prime Project these days! We're still a small organization but getting bigger everyday! And we need YOUR help. Please, spread the word! We've got new "Share It" buttons and a new "Jackie Prime Project Facebook Page" ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jackie-Prime-Project/128310613902170 ) to help keep you connected to Jackie, learn more about gibbons, and help stimulate interest in our planet and connect people with nature. Remember, the Jackie Prime Project ( http://www.jackieprime.org/ ) has three divisions (all of which you can link to through this blog at any time through the sidebar links): PRIME EARTH - It's life, as we know it. Be inspired to find your passion and your place in the world by following Jackie and her brother Jim as they chronicle their experiences in our Prime Earth Video Logbook. ( www.youtube.com/primejm ) UP IN THE TREES - Learn all about gibbons and siamangs and fi...

What is up with February?! Problems with work, problems with people, problems with monkeys, friends not talking, assistants not working, no internet access, monsoon rain in the middle of the dry season, no running, flat tires, rats are back!! ... Complete chaos everywhere.... I think it was about mid-week when the weekly mantra changed from "What do you want from me!!" to "Just don't give up..."

This morning I was standing in my living room wondering what to make for breakfast when this happened...

On Thursday 17th February 2011, @pstriathlon (Paulo Sousa) said: "Move forward into a place where you believe more in yourself, where you surprise yourself with what you can accomplish, where you do things you never did before."

Not surprisingly I recently received some anonymous feedback on my "What sexy is all about" post criticizing me for being weak and insecure for posting such drivel. As with most bad stuff, my natural reaction was to disregard and move on, so I deleted the comment without much consideration. But then after a while I started thinking: I have a strong tendency to just “look the other way” when bad stuff comes up and I have a whole elaborate internal avoidance system in place (as I think most people do in North American culture) to deal with all the negativity we are bombarded with on a daily basis in order to pretend bad stuff isn’t real, or at least, "it isn’t happening to me." Lately, however, I’ve been questioning this avoidance system; avoiding just doesn’t seem to be working for me anymore. Since the point of the original post was specifically to challenge myself not to look the other way about something that irritated me and find a better way to make sense of...

ha ha. This is why learning another language and living somewhere far away is fantastic: cause you get to see how people are people no matter where they live, no matter what their culture. Chaleam went on vacation for a long weekend to Pattaya with his family and some friends. Talking about the trip upon his return, I asked: "So was it fun? What did you do?" To which he replied: "It was alright, we ate a lot of seafood, we swam in the ocean a bit... we pretty much just people watched, then came home." Yup, I hear that.

Quite possibly the best book I have ever read, though Mindsight by Daniel Siegel ranks equally high, so I guess there are two best books I have ever read. Excerpts from my favourite chapters: That We Risk Growth Over Security & That We Accept at Last that Our Home Is Our Journey "Our moral, intellectual, and emotional development embodies a series of deaths, followed by enlargements of soul often painfully acquired.... Through analysis I learned that something in me had to die before the rest of me, the larger part, could live.... In choosing security over growth, we all outrage the soul, and the soul, outraged, manifests in symptoms-depression, anxiety disorders, envy and jealousy of others, dependencies, and so many more.... We all set off expecting the achievement of our goals to bring lasting satisfaction. It is not that the goals are unworthy, as such, but that they so often become tempting stopping places for the soul, places where we decline the invitation to trade ...

Today is my friend Bahn’s birthday. She works at the restaurant on the campsite near my house with my other friend Boom. I visit them almost everyday. Bahn has two daughters in high school but, similar to Jambee, Bahn’s kids live in other towns while they go to school. Bahn’s husband lives and works in Bangkok, so it’s just her here. Bahn moved to Khao Yai two years ago because her older brother found work for her in the park. When I met her, a year ago now, she didn’t know most people around Khao Yai and people didn’t know her when I spoke of her with others. “Oh, that’s the girl with the big face, right?” is how they would reference her. Four days every month, Bahn has vacation days and on those days she travels around to visit with her family. When Bahn first arrived at Khao Yai she lived with her brother’s family on the other side of the park, but it was too crowded with 6 people jammed into a one-room townhouse. All the houses in the park for the staff who live and work here are...

This morning my alarm went off at 4:50am. Then it went off again at 5:00am. At 5:05am I got out of bed, drank an energy shake, got dressed and listened to my neighbour yell at me to hurry up while I put in my contacts because at 5:30am we were racing . Last night when I asked what time we will leave, she said: "5:30am." I said, "Are we leaving at 5:30 or before then?" and she repeated "5:30am". But it was now 5:20am, and she was banging down my door to hurry up because we should've left already. Today is a day of celebration here in Khao Yai. I'm not 100% sure why, but I think it's an annual celebration marking the birthday(?) of the first park chief of Khao Yai... or something like that. Anyways, it’s an annual thing for everyone who works in the park/lives in the park. There is a 3k race in the morning and everyone joins in, then there is a scheduled da-gaw tournament all day (think of a cross between soccer and volleyball with a small wick...

"Muki was born in 2004 and came to [the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project] in 2006, after being bought off a beach photographer by a well meaning tourist. Whilst the intention was good, unfortunately this act only reinforces the wild animal trade, for the photographer will probably have bought another baby gibbon, poached from the wild, with the money." My Aunt and Uncle adopted Muki at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project in Phuket, Thailand, for one year. This was their Christmas present to me this year. You can adopt a gibbon too, just go to this website for more details: http://www.gibbonproject.org/content/adoption.htm Thanks Aunt Annette and Uncle John! :)

More video of the new baby. And, excitingly, I bet there will soon be more to come, because Jep's tummy is HUGE! New baby #2 coming any day now, woo hoo!!

One year ago today I landed in Bangkok, tired from a really long flight, worried about how I was going to get out of the airport with all my baggage/field equipment, feeling very aware of the fact that I was completely alone on the other side of the world, and about to take on my biggest adventure to date. Thailand was not my first field experience – that was way back in 2002, attending a field school in Belize watching howler monkeys. And I participated in a 2nd field school, later that same year, in Panama (again watching howlers). But Thailand was my first time actually doing real fieldwork, as a researcher, collecting real, usable data, not just learning skills as a student. And arriving here one year ago today, it was the farthest from home I’d ever been on my own; no family, no friends, no teachers, no other students around to help me out. One year ago today, I left home knowing I was parting with the safety and comfort of friends, family and the classroom to put my knowledge, ...

This video is not the greatest, but you'll get the idea. It's a new baby, it's super tiny and it doesn't really do anything just yet. But it is the cutest thing ever! Born last week, my field assistant saw it with the umbilical cord still attached! Hopefully in the weeks ahead I can get some footage of it moving around a little more as it grows up. Oh, SO ADORABLE! I love primate babies!