Sulawesi Rhacophorus

[genevieve]

What an awesome experience to have. How does one go about getting involved in a survery such as this one?

Genevieve

[danscantle]

Genevieve-

I really lucked out. I decided to attend the University of Texas-Austin to study herpetology and got hooked up in a lab on campus. One of my advisor's PhD students (now at Berkeley) has ongoing research projects in South East Asia. He needed people to go on a expedition so he recruited some folks from my lab group. Fortunately, I was working with one of them on a project and he petitioned for me to be included. That was in 2004. The 2004 trip was delayed till Novemeber (middle of the semester) so I couldn't go. Luckily, they scheduled another trip and invited me again. I got the news right after my first class of the 2005 fall semester. I did what I should have done in 2004 - dropped all my classes and spent the semester catching herps.

[Brian]

Were you there with the Water Buffalo or whatever was being loaded on the ship?

I forget which year that was.

[genevieve]

Daniel,

Sounds like a fantastic experience. Some of my classmates have done veterinary work abroad and loved it, but I am a bit tied down (to say the least) with my collection, so doesn't look like its in the cards for me any time soon, unfortunately.

Genevieve

[danscantle]

Hey Brian- Yeah the buffalo happened this year. We had been sitting on this boat for 14 or so hours when we stopped to pick up more cargo. I and some others got off to get a drink and when we returned the ship was covered with a dozen or so more people, tons of cargo, motorcycles, and the crew was in the process of throwing a water buffalo on board. Pretty funny... except we spent another 10 hours on the boat.

[danscantle]

Genevieve-

I hear ya. I was fortunate to have a small collection and good friends when I left. Life is short, and if this type of stuff sounds appealing, you might want to reconsider things. I've wanted to do this kind of work since I was 6 and didn't know the word herpetologist existed.

[Brian]

I never got the full story. Was the thing just loose? Or was it restrained somehow.