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Practice video with the new camera...

Recently I reaquainted with an old friend of mine from highschool who asked me if I was dating anyone. I pleasantly reminded him about how difficult I am to get along with :) and he promptly replied... (of course, first by agreeing, but then qualifying it) with "You're a busy lady, so whenever you are ready to fit someone in then you will!!" Irrespective of whether or not this is true or this is just something polite to say to 'career-driven single women'. This has catapulted me into some reflexive thought about the people in my life (past, present, etc). The people that come, and go, and stay, and the ones (both successful and not) who basically work their way in despite my complete and total lack of effort or awareness... hmm, perhaps that last statement essentially covers everyone :) ... but most importantly, all the people that actually PUT UP with my "difficultness." My friends are awesome. I have the best friends . People that so ...

It's official!! At approximately 6:15ish this evening I legitimized my expertise - becoming a specialist of evolutionary adaptation theory, primate cognition methodology and hominoids. What does that mean exactly? Go ahead, ask me anything about the evolution of intelligence in apes.... it's all about the hands! :) Just another thing to check off my list of things to do: --Take the scariest, most uncomfortable exams of my life. CHECK

You are NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!... Ha, ha. Just kidding. I just did that to see if I could freak my Mom out. Sorry Mom :) Don't worry, there are no tigers here anymore... well maybe there is still one left, we aren't sure...and by "we" I mean the park staff along with myself :) These are pictures of the stuffed toy tiger we have at our place that was once used in a predator alarm call study on the gibbons. And seeing as it made me nearly jump out of my skin pretty much on every one of my nightly trips to the bathroom, I thought I'd give it a try on YOU... ha ha ha :) So my "business" trip to Thailand is coming to an end. I'm heading out this morning for the airport at 3:30am and my flight leaves at 6:50am. Not so much looking forward to the 27 hour trip home, or having to make another 24-27 hour trip back here in another 4 months or so, but as for THIS trip. I have had a BLAST! Being back in Thailand at Khao Yai and in the forest ha...

This video is of the infant in group R, he’s a little over two years old and almost completely independent from his mother now. The last time I was here, he was still in the weaning phase and she spent a lot of time carrying him. Now he’s flinging himself all over the canopy, exploring and practicing his locomotion. His older sister is VERY rambunctious and he is CLEARLY following her lead because the two of them get pretty feisty with their play bouts, wrestling and chasing each other around. In this video, Rarin was crossing over me quite close, so I got out the camera and then he got a bit nervous – you can see he keeps looking down at me, and looking up (at his parents), so I put the camera away to calm him down. But it’s a pretty cool shot, the quality is not the best, it’s a bit out of focus but next trip with the super camera for my research the videos will be AWESOME! Here’s another cool video. This is of Rarin’s mother, Brit, traveling from one feeding tree to another. G...

I forgot to mention in my last blog one of the coolest things we saw on our drive into Khao Yai on the first night back! So we were driving up the winding roads of the park and it was around 8:30 at night and dark out, when in the middle of the road crossing from one side of the forest to the other was: A BANDED KRAIT! Banded kraits are rare snakes here at Khao Yai, but they are one of the most deadly snakes in the entire world. They are very distinctive looking with black and white bands all along their bodies. Unfortunately because it was dark out, and because I was too freaked out to get out of the car, I just took a picture from inside the car and this picture is not good quality. But if you click on it and enlarge it, you can see the snake on the road. It was pretty exciting to see it. One thing that was super cool about it, was that when the car approached it on the road and we stopped for it, it started to move sideways to move away from the car. That was really neat! Then it ...