13 June 2010 Kinabalu Park Headquarters, Sabah, Malaysia

Hi gang!


What a week! I spent most of this week helping a colleague install pitfall traps. Pitfall traps are one means of sampling amphibians and reptiles, or other fossorial fauna (animals that live in the leaf litter or in the top layers of soil). Sam (my colleague) installed a series of 20 trap lines with three buckets in each line—imagine three buckets sunk into the ground in a relatively straight line, with a tarp suspended vertically between them that is buried slightly in the ground. The idea is that as animals move through the forest, some of them will run into the fence (the tarp) and move along it to try to get around it—then fall into one of the buckets. The traps (buckets) are checked every morning, and it’s a great way to see what is moving around on the forest floor. But it’s a lot of work to install! Sam had to walk up off the trail multiple times for each of the 20 sites, and when he found a good spot, Samantha (my field assistant) and I would follow his bush-whacked trail with our shovels to dig the holes for the buckets (about knee height and the same diameter across) and put up the fence. It would have been easy if it were just soil, but there are always roots to get through and sometimes rock…on top of that, we had to hike in with all of the equipment every day (buckets, huge rolls of tarp, string, and digging equipment), so the three of us are feeling quite strong, if not a bit bruised, blistered, and scratched up from all the rattan! We’re happy to have it all completed, and Sam can now start collecting his data.


The other thing I have been trying to work on this week is my Dusun. The official language of Sabah is Malay, but there are many local languages still widely spoken. Most people who live on and around Mt. Kinabalu speak Dusun—which in itself has several variants. For example, a friend of mine from Kota Belud said that the word for “delicious” is “ami” but another friend from close to Ranau has never heard that and instead uses the word “awasu.” I love the sound of Dusun—there are lots of g’s and k’s and ou’s and it’s really fun to speak. To say good morning, you say “osonong kosuobon” and how are you? is “okuro kuro habar nu?” Yesterday I learned how to say “what is your name?” which is “isai ngaran nu?”


There are a surprising number of ethnic groups in Sabah, all of which have their own language, traditional dress, and distinctive facial features. The Sabah Museum in Kota Kinabalu has a great display of the dress, traditions, locations, and home styles of the major groups, and I try to go every time I’m here to learn a bit more about them. I found out last time that in Kota Belud, which is not a large town, there are three endemic ethnic groups (Bajau, Dusun, and Inarun), as well as various Chinese immigrant groups. Many people thus also speak multiple languages (at a bare minimum, their own local language and Malay)--my friend from Kota Belud speaks eleven! The nice thing is that people here are genuinely happy and surprised when a white person (or “orang putih”) even attempts to speak Malay or Dusun—and they will always help you learn more and encourage you to continue, even if you make mistakes. I find it makes me want to try to learn and speak more every day, because people seem so appreciative. Plus it’s fun learning new languages—it’s sort of like a puzzle that you slowly put together until you’re able to get a pretty complete picture of what’s going on around you.


This week Samantha and I depart for a 9-day camping trip in which we will visit and survey three different elevations. It should be pretty interesting, given that it has been raining almost every day! So that should make the trail pretty slippery and challenging, and make it difficult to stay warm and dry! The things I do for these frogs…


I hope you are all well, and I look forward to getting your questions about Sabah and life in the field!