Quick note--due to internet issues I can't get my pictures uploaded yet, which is part of the reason I've been delaying this post. But I'm doing it now anyway, and I'll try to add pictures later.
So....I need to get back into the habit of blogging. There have been quite a few things going on recently that are certainly worthy of writing about. My general day to day is pretty much the same. The main difference is in which colony I'm spending time on, and what weird quirks they happen to have.
This past week has been a colony named Gemsbok 10, which is one of colonies I was trained on and did my first solo observations in. The youngest member is the strangest juvenile I've gotten to know so far, he continuously calls to adults whenever he runs into them, and while it sounds like a submiss call, the frequency and his other actions make me think it might be something else. He also likes to initiate spars with adults, by biting them on the face until they get fed up enough to interact with him. Spars between adults aren't uncommon, but usually they stick to other animals that are of similar size and age. This little juvenile has no litter mates left, and so he tries to spar with everyone else.
The dominant male in this group is also quite interesting to watch. He has a strange way of sweeping sand that involves dragging his teeth along the pipe as he goes, making a very distinctive sound. He also bites any tail that he runs into, and he is so consistent that I can almost record a bite before it happens, because it always does. When we pulled out all the animals to freshen up their dye marks, we also noticed that nearly every adult has either a thickly scarred or actively wounded tail from all the tail biting in this colony.
Another interesting lab thing that happened recently was the creation of two new colonies. In order to increase the sample size for a specific experiment we split up a male and female pair that have never had offspring, and gave them both new partners in hopes that they'll make some babies. For new pairings, we take urine and blood samples leading up to the big day, and isolate the animals for at least 24 hours beforehand. The female from the original pairing and the other new female were both in colonies, and when we added the males to the colonies we then observed their interactions for the next hour. The pairing with the previously barren female went exceptionally, and they were both immediately in love.
The other pairing was possibly the most boring observation I have ever done though. They sniffed each other a couple times, but then the female went back to the nest for the last 45 minutes of the observation to sleep, while the male swept the sand out from the feeders. It could have gone much worse though, and they seem to be getting along well enough. I'm just not convinced that the male mole rat is much interesting in...making offspring. We'll start doing pregnancy checks in the nest couple months though and find out soon enough how successful the pairings were.
When we have new colonies, of course we have to come up with new names for them. Currently the rules are as follows: colonies in room 7 are named after national parks in Africa, and all the others are name after doctors (sort of). The original wild colonies that were brought to the lab have names relating to where they came from, but that's not as relevant. Of the two new colonies, we had one in room 7, and the other in room 1. The final decision on names was Who (Dr. Who) and Addo (national park in SA). If you're wondering, they don't have to be real doctors. We do have a colony named Dumbledore...but most of them are actual famous doctors.
Anyway, mole rat quirks aside, the other interesting news involves some new research that will be starting early next year. We have another research coming in to use the lab to look at genomics relating to social behavior in meerkats and molerats. To prepare for her work, we will be installing a new biosafety cabinent and some other new shiny equipment, and putting up walls in the office to make a separate room. Her work sounds extremely interesting and I'm excited to get to see what she's doing and learn more about lab techniques involving cell cultures. We are also expecting stainless steel countertops soon to cover all the surfaces in the lab, which to me is very exciting.
In more general news, this past weekend was Christmas 2 here in the kalahari! It was 6 months exactly from Christmas, so it is celebrated here as Christmas 2 since we're in the middle of winter here. We put up a tree (branch) and covered it in miscellaneous decorations that have made it here and been stored away for such occations. On Saturday everyone paired up and cooked something, resulting in a massive feast. Everyone on the reserve also went to a nearby sand dune to watch the sunset and all the volunteers had Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon off to celebrate.
