Updates for the summer

When schools out,
we ought to go out to play,
but, i guess it also depends on who your friends are.
where and what.

For almost the whole of May, June and July,
I have been given the privilege of mingling with field people,
doing COOL field work,
instead of my usual lazing and slacking.

As for my project,
after we got TRAINED and CERTIFIED,
I got to start tagging the frogs,

Initially, I was quite worried about the procedure and the chances of it screwing up,
I had lots of what ifs
and the frog blood which made me a little nervous.


And i am really grateful and thankful for Daniel, Anne and Yeatian for being so willing to help out during my frogging sessions,
because that was my biggest worry while Dr Bickford and Sam were away for the summer.

Also, on the night after my last paper ended, i caught some tadpoles with Shihui
and i became a proud mother of 15 tadpoles.
They were indeed my pride and joy and they really kept me going with their growth.
But it was with great pain and sorrow, i had to released them after i got some measurements because i couldnt continue going to the spider lab begging for flies after they became tiny little froglets, ready for the real world.

Also, Kae-ru which i captured and monitored for a few days, (its Japanese for frog)
He is a likely candidate of the many tadpoles from that area.

For the whole of May, June and July, either 3 or 4 of us, with occasional invited guest would go frogging or tadpoling.
every session is refreshing, despite the fatigue,
and when were are too foresfied, we forget the feeling of civilisation (private joke).

and how comfy the whole Bickford lab has become,
with Mark the squirrel, Abraham the duck, Basil the snake, Hugh the bear, Lewis the frog, Benedict the rat, and how the white board might even get its own name,

not forgetting Jen, our new post doc.


As for the coming semester,
i am looking forward to more frogging sessions,
while taking real Year 3 BIO modules.

i am eternally grateful for my UROPSes for giving me my semester doses of BIOLOGY in my BIO-poor Year 2 cores modules.
And of course Mr. Siva for introducing me to UROPS in my year 1 and Dr. Bickford for accepting me in my year 2,
apparently, one thinks i am "silly", another "weird".



Dateline: 23 October, 2009 --report to be submitted.


cant wait for the new semester to start to dread.
alicia

Ps: i will get some pix uploaded soon.

Of Anastacia and Brendon

Its been awhile since i posted stuff.

I have been having some childhood rekindling moments for the pass few months.

I caught 4 adult, 2 juvenile house geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus), and Senthil suggested i called the remaining 4 after the Ninja Turtles,
so, yeah. They were Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello. Never mind one of them was obviously a female, because she was the hot mama who laied 2 eggs, one was yolkless empty shell while teh other hatched. This leads to the story of our little Brendon (his Godma named him). Egg Brendon was laid on the 13thf March and emerged from his little egg shell on the 20th of April, 2009 (i need to double check his birth certificate on this).

He is this little sad kid, who has never seen the world. He is ever confined to his Watson's dental flost container, and has only tasted bread, and dried scrimps. I am sure he would be cursing me, if he ever learnts how to speak. I promise i will release him some time soon, when he is ready to spread his wings.

Next in line, are my (33 + 7) snails. Giant African snails (Achatina achatina). I saw tonnes of them on my way home one day, and decided to make them mine, with the help of a Subway plastic bag.

But, some strange looking rashes started to appear all over my body, and it made me so paranoid. I couldnt clean the container, because some make believe disillusional message flying around made me believe that the snail slime was the cause. I refused to believe it at first, but the itch was so unbearable, i let the 40 of the nameless hermaphrodites, go. with great despair and sadness.

Not to mention, i had to clean their PS, so often, or they will all drown in it.
They were kinda cool roomies, and i read some stuff on them. No doubt, they have potential. I thought i could find out some stuff out from them. They are amazing, really. The way they move, and i read somewhere, that their slime are used in the phaumaceutical, medical and the cosmetic field as well.

And the star of the day is our little Anastacia,
She was a tadpole when i first got hold of her.
With her little, white mole, right above her black pouty lips,
which seem to be nibbling, 24/7.
Then, she sprouted legs, within a week, she front limbs grew.
And before i realised it,
she was walking and climbing, and leaping all over the aquarium,
the Siti and Maria Aquaria Memorial.
And just now, when i checked on her, she was a little fatter looking than she was yesterday, when i took her for a pasport photo shoot.


Above all, this post is in rememberance of Siti and Maria, my Rana Casteibianas,who died, on a fateful date in March. and Shanti (a common spider),
who drowned in excess water, because she ate a nibble of Mars too many. My verdict was that she was thirsty after eating the Mars, and attempted to get a sip of water, and fell into a puddle of water droplet and couldnt save herself.
Shanti, we will always remember u.

I know this post seem almost like a psychiatry patient's narration.

But, to me, this is my world, my love, my life.

here you go,

Anastacia


Brendon


Snail crav/ze



alicia

small catch

Something i found from 'The Electric New Paper'

Read more..

To date, the smallest frog in the world is the Brazillian Gold frog @ flea frog (Scientific name: Brachycephalus didactylus)
About Brachycephalus didactylus


On the other end of the extreme scale.
Check this biggie out.

Read more about the world's largest frog.

Conraua goliath


However, no experts have commented on this discovery yet.

Discoveries are often made, at the most unexpected times and places,

Its indeed very encouraging to hear such stuff,


alicia

What's your story?

Kent Ridge Park
Date: 23rd February, 2009
Time: 2004 to 2104
Weather: Rained for about 2 hours in the afternoon, wet, and fairly windy, cloudy

Sam, Enoka, Daniel and Alicia

Stuff from Sam,
Use waterproof paper
Use the flash light, cos i was sillily using the beam lights for a whole 20 minutes, i think.
Get some one to help with the data recording

Stuff from Enoka
Take pictures, because they will come in handy in later, plus i wont have to come back to the site just to get photos taken

Stuff worth noting that night
It was the first time i went out without Dr, Bickford, i can remember the site, but i was almost clueless how to get there. I almost made history by getting lost, looking for my survey site. Phew, good thing we trusted Sam's instincts and directions (like Dr. Bickford told us, if we were clueless).

We saw a fair number of Polypedates leucomystax (common tree frogs), 9 of them in total, one of them, might have been a female, cos it was kinda huge, about 60mm. A Kaloula pulchra (banded bullfrog) and a few Bufo melanostictus (Asian toads).

And at the stream, i spotted 2 tadpoles, which went beneath the leaf litter, 3 seconds after i spotted it,

Plus, it was quite a choir, that night. The Poles choir.

And on the way back to Dr. Bickfords place, by the pond, we saw a Bufo melanostictus. He was a little poor creature which was most likely blind on his right eye. We were staring at that little friend, when we realised his right eye was a little queer looking. It looked as if it was a human eye, like eyes we would draw of cartoons, instead of that of a toad's.

I somewhat felt sad for it, therefore entitling this blog, "what's your story?"

'Cos i wish i could ask Jacob (the name i gave that toad)
"what is your story?"


alicia

Frog calls, leave a message after the beep; croak

Kent Ridge Park, Vigilante Drive Nature Trail

Time: 2002 to 2115
Weather: X rain, windy, cloudy, dry
Date: 19th February, 2009

Dr Bickford and Alicia

The question of the night was
"Where are all the females?"

It was a fairly dry night. It hasnt been raining for the pass few days, As far as i can remember, the last time it rained was Monday.
Dr Bickford and I went on the Vigilante Drive Nature trail, we walked along the concrete pathway, occasionally straying away to the unbeaten tracks,
The night was almost silent, from any frog calls,
When we passed the first stream, which was almost dry,
Dr Bickford heard a solo Polypedates leucomystax,.
It went on for about 4 more times, in intervals of about 1 minute each.

We decided to move on,
The crime scene that night was the second stream we came across, we heard more Polypedates leucomystax this time. They were calling, in turns.
We saw a total of 6 that night. It was initially a little tough to spot them, but became so fun, i wanted to ask the last frog i saw where were the rest.
I will reach enlightenment if i can "Think like a frog"

After this second frogging, i think i have a better, though still rough and blurry idea of the how the project should and might be like.

Interesting stuff worth noting for the night,
1. There were so many spiders, and their eyeshines were literally making the whole forest glow, i was wondering whether i had missed any lucky frogs which i might have thought was just another spider.
2. I should try to remain composed when i search for frogs, i remember being frantic and overly eager when i went frogging for Microhylas at Kent Ridge Park last year. Until i stayed put at one spot and start spotting, literally stop and spot.

back to the question of the night,
"where are all the females?"
Beats me, maybe they went to the ladies to touch up their make-up?
(This answer is Homo sapienly correct but anuranly not very accurate)


A Polyepedates leucomystax, a common tree frog
From http://thepursuitofanurans.blogspot.com/

alicia

What a catch, errie

Kent Ridge Park
Date: 7 February, 2009
Time Hour 2005 to 2105

Dr.Bickford, Sam, Lainie, Alicia

I had my first frogging for the project and it was splendid.
We saw a total of 36 individuals.
Most of them were Rana erythraeas (Common greenback), one Kaloula pulchra (Kaloula pulchra), which was hanging dearly to its dear life on a huge leaf, one Rana limnocharis, one Rana catesbeiana (American bullfrog-exotic species which is a threat to the native ones, it was a juvenile though), and 2 Polypedates leucomystax (common tree frog),

Shifting from a urban area (NUS Kent Ridge Campus) to Kent Ridge Park (a secondary forest),
it was almost a cultural shock for me,
the number of frogs i saw that night( that hour) was almost all i got for my whole project in Year 1,
And all i got a year ago was only Bufo melanostictus (Asian toads), Kaloula pulchra (banded bullfrogs) and 4 precious Polypedates leucomystax (Common treefrog)

Dr. Bickford told me some stuff, about the dos and donts for frogging,
1) The most important thing is the frogs' safety
2) Close in second comes the data (get an umbrella for the data recorder)
3) Try to put the frog/toad back as soon as we are done meddling with it, and at the spot we found it

and i think i sound sick but Rana erythraea perfume smells good.

Ok, i think UROPS was never a mistake.


Photo credits : http://gutt.sg.free.fr/

A Rana erythraea

Who can have monday blues when Sunday night was spent frogging?

alicia

What's with frogs?

My interest in frogs came about when i was a kid. My first memory of a frog was when my dad caught me a frog, most likely a Polypedates leucomystax. It was tiny and brownish, and changed colour occasionally. We kept our little friend in a "chai xim" glass bottle and hammered holes on the metal cover. I had to catch grasshoppers from across the road to feed it.
I also remember catching guppies and tadpoles at drains, to the horror of one of childhood friend's mum. She was in the opinion that that was not what 10 year old girls should do after school on late afternoons. I hope she is cool about this now, because we still hang out, but we do more normal stuff.

And of course, catching more tadpoles and guppies at puddles, after Bible school on Sunday afternoons, when others went to play Captain's ball and volley ball. I still remember vividly, one boy, asking me how long do they take for them to turn into frogs, pointing to my guppies, and I corrected him that those were actually guppies. That alec insisted that he was correct and i think i told him something like, " they will still be like this even after a very long time" He went on babbling and I guess, it went from a dialogue to a monologue.

As a cranky 13 year old, I remember flaring up at my little sister, for spilling my tadpoles on the floor. I had kept my jar of metamophosising tadpoles at a corner in the living room. Those were my treasured possesion, because they were turning into sub-adults, froglets. And i was super thrilled. Legs were sprouting and every day, I would eagerly check on those that were mature enough to be transfered to the froglet container, where I filled the water level to only about 5mm. I forgot what happened to them, but i am sure i was given a good scolding for flaring up at my sister because of those tadpoles.

I don't really remember details on most of those incidents, but those were indeed little moments, of my childhood, related to frogs.

As i was growing up, out of boredom, I rared frogs, which I bought from aquarium shops. I thought i was really doing them a huge favour because i was saving them from the gastric juice of hungry fishes of expensive taste fish breeders. And the toads which come along my home, just to say hi. I remember this particular toad, an Asian toad (Bufo melanostictus) which would bow, if anyone put his/her feet in front of it. It somewhat made me feel as if I really was in control of my little pet, and definitely my mum's old mixing bowl which was its pseudo habitat while it was my housemate.

I am seriously tempted to buy a Rana Casebianas or 2 from Sheng Siong, to accompany my other 2 tiny ones, my friends gave me for my birthday recently. But, i know they are rather ruthless and are known to eat their own breed. The mystery back home, on how our 6 American bullfrogs became 5, my dad told me when he took over raring them, and pampering them with crickets when I came back to school after the summer hols.

Now, in school, I get occasional thrills by bumping into toads, when i take walks near the field.


Maria + Siti



alicia