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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