Pharaoh's Ant

This past week I received a small sample of ants in need of identification. They were tiny enough that when I attempted to mount them on paper points, the tip of a needle I was holding flicked one into oblivion, and half an hour on my hands and knees were to no avail. Despite this loss, I identified them as a tramp ant species, possibly originating in Egypt (but no one is certain) known as Pharaoh's ant (Monomorium pharaonis).

They were collected from an apartment building in the Vancouver area, where apparently a great number of apartments (hundreds) have been hosting them. Despite their minute size (total length barely 2 mm), they can either weakly sting or bite (technically the 'sting' is non-functional). That they can do one of these I can personally attest too as the mattress I was sleeping on in Borneo was infested with the little darlings. They were just big enough that you could feel them walking over you at night (many of them), and when you rolled over on them, they let you know they found that disagreeable.

Despite the fact that this species is tropical to sub-tropical, it has spread to higher latitudes, living in buildings with central heat. This species has colonies with multiple queens (something we myrmecologists call polygynous) and if the colony is stressed (e.g., someone tries to poison or otherwise harass and attempt to remove them), the colony fragments into many smaller colonies, each with one or more queens. Thus, if just one apartment tenant tries to deal with them, they quickly fragment and spread throughout the building. Having said that, they are likely to do that anyway.

Pharaoh's ant is now found throughout the world. When I checked on "The Authority," that is, the person who first described them, I found it was Linnaeus (a Swede) in 1758. They have been travelling for quite awhile.

Photo Credits: Me

Carnivorous Robots....Really

Technology is advancing in so many directions all at once that I am beginning to suspect we will see some truly startling advances once someone begins to put differing lines together.

The You Tube video above arises from the work of James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau in the UK. Their work is a fusion of art and science that challenges how we use and view the common desiderata of life. In the video above, we have a clock that powers itself from captured flies. A microbial (i.e., bacterial) fuel cell converts the digested bodies of flies into electrical power that runs the clock and fly catching apparatus. Apparently 8 flies will run this for about 12 days.

The Microbial Fuel Cell is a very simple but fascinating device. One could IMAGINE that it might work, but actually getting one to work is quite remarkable. It uses electrons released/transfered by bacteria as they metabolize food. Along with acids (protons) that diffuse over to the cathode, a functional fuel cell is created.

A Microbial Fuel Cell (Logan et al. 2006).

Now if they could only put this together with an ant robot (Click Here), we might have something truly terrifying.

Sources:

You Tube Video Header From: http://www.auger-loizeau.com/index.php?id=13

Microbial Fuel Cell diagram. Logan, B. E., B. Hamelers, R. Rozendal, U. Schröder, J. Keller, S. Freguia, P. Aelterman, W. Verstraete, and K. Rabaey. 2006. Microbial fuel cells: Methodology and technology. Environ. Sci. Technol. 40:5181-5192.

Uncle Milton Passes Away but not Before the Ant-Farm goes into Space

"That's something I'd never do. I'd never step on an ant. Put three of my kids through college."

That quote from Milton Levine, co-creator with his brother-in-law, of the class ant-farm, was taken from an interview with NPR radio. Milton died last week, at the age of 97, in California.

Milton came up with the idea for the ant-farm after watching some pavement ants one day. he brought the classic ant-farm to the market in 1956 and, over the years, has sold over 20 million.

You can still buy the classic Uncle Milton Ant-Farm, as shown above, at a number of on-line retailers. In recent years, however, another design has become more popular. These are an illuminated farm in which the soil/sand has been replaced with a florescent gel. The gel apparently, isn't just a digging medium, but contains some food and water for the ants. I'll have to buy one and try it out.

An ant-farm has even gone into space. A project designed by high school students from Syracuse, New York, sent 17 harvester ants into space on the shuttle Columbia in 2003. The purpose was to study how they tunnel in a micro-gravity environment. While their data was downloaded each day during the project, the ants would never return alive. They were lost when the Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on Feb 1, 2003.

I've always wondered why the choice of ants for these farms was almost always harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex spp.). Apparently their large size reduced the number of escapees, a characteristic some parents probably valued greatly. The problem with this species, however, is their painful sting. It is much worse than the southern fire ant (Solenopsis invicta).

Last night, I happened to catch the replay of an interview on CBC Radio from 1997, with the Canadian distributor for Uncle Milton ant-farms. He didn't seem as particular about the ant species and was offering 0.5 - 0.75 cents per ant to prospective ant-ranglers (I think his ad for ant-ranglers prompted the interview). Seems when people buy these farms they like them to come with ants. I don't know if the job still stands but it could be a fairly lucrative way to spend the summer.

Photo Credit: NPR Radio

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133249612/Uncle-Milton-Ant-Farm-Co-Inventor-Dies-At-97

Croatian Basketball Ants...Oh...and Brad Pitt

Today I received a very interesting ticket to a basketball game held recently in Zagreb, Croatia. It came from a good friend of mine, Glen Chilton (now living in Townsville, Australia), with whom I chased termites in New Orleans a few years back. Glen was in Croatia to chase a particular and peculiar small freshwater fish known as a Dace, previously described as extinct. The purpose of the chase was for a book he is working on. The basketball game was another matter entirely, and Glen thought that it mattered in a particular way to me.

At first glance, as Glen noticed in his letter, the team mascot looks like a bee. Yes, but look at what it is standing upon. In fact, it isn't a bee, but rather an ant. Why would a basketball team choose ants as their team mascot?

I'm thinking they know Greek mythology.

According to Ovid's Metamorphosis, the Island of Aegina was devastated by a plague (caused by Zeus's wife Hera in some accounts) that resulted in the death of all but the family of King Aeacus. The King pleaded to Zeus to help his kingdom. Zeus, in fickle Greek god fashion, answers the call by transforming the ants nesting in an oak tree, just outside the palace window, into an army of young soldiers. We don't learn where the women of the island might have come from but apparently whoever first created this story was unaware that the ants in question would have almost certainly all have been female. In any event, these became know as the Myrmidons, a self-sacrificing, aggressive and ruthless army that would come to be led by Achilles of Illiad fame.

And who played Achilles in the 2004 movie Troy? Brad Pitt! Brad was the leader of the ant army, and descendant of the ants himself.

So why would a basketball team have ants as their mascot? Well, who wouldn`t want to associate a team with the most competitive, aggressive team players on the planet, ants! It was common in England in the 1800s to call gangs of thugs Myrmidons, so it is nice to see ants rehabilitated into a more normative team activity.

Photo credits:

Scanned copy of ticket-Me

Movie Poster from Wikipedia (Troy (film))

Nature vs Nurture

Trust is the central theme in the comedy movie series that started with Meet the Parents. In the sequel, Meet the Fockers, Jack the father-in-law steals a DNA sample from Greg to secretly test for a suspected hidden paternity.

But what if you could test for much more?

Garcia and others (2010) have recently published a study in which they found that the incidence in which one partner in a relationship cheats on the other, more than doubles when the cheating partner has a particular copy of a gene encoding for the dopamine receptor DRD4 (specifically having a form of the gene in which there are more than 7 repeats of a particular sequence in one section of the gene). And were are not talking about guppies here, were are talking about people.

Table 1. Percentage who report an extra-relationship sexual experience by DRD4 genotype (7R+ vs 7R-) (from Garcia and others. 2010).

This dopamine receptor has been turning up in all sorts of interesting behavioral studies. One other form has been associated with political liberalism as an adult, and yet another with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Intriguing is the well established relationship between dopamine and two hormones (oxytocin and vasopressin). Oxytocin has long been called the "cuddle hormone" because seems to be involved in romantic love, while vasopressin has been labelled as the 'divorce gene,' because a particular receptor type has been linked to problems with pair-bonding (i.e., monogamy).

Perhaps the take home message here is that the old 'O GOD' (i.e., one gene, one disorder) idea is dead, as most biologists have known for a long time. Yes, human behavior is strongly influenced by genes, but it is an interaction of many genes that matter. Research is just beginning to untangle this and any interest in predicting behavior based on what is known now would be less reliable than the already completely unreliable lie detector.

Still, I wonder how the report of the DRD4 infidelity paper will be received. Will there be yet another sequel to Meet the Parents in which Jack has Greg tested for his DRD4 receptor sub-type. I did a quick search to see if any genetics companies were offering a test for DRD4. It seems not yet, but I'll bet it won't be long.

Reference

Garcia JR, et al. 2010. Associations between dopamine D4 receptor gene variation and both infidelity and sexual promiscuity. PLoS ONE 5(11): e14162.

What`s in a Word?

This figure shows how frequently the word "Science" turns up in publications between the year 1500 and 2008. It is expressed as a frequency so it isn't an increase in the total number of books published that causes a change in the trendline.

Google has come up with either the best time waster ever, or a fantastic tool to follow trends historically. Google calls it the Ngram, it is an online tool that allows you to search for the use of single or multiple words or phrases, published in everything scanned by Google Books. The site can be found at:

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/

It is very interesting to see how certain words or phrases compete for dominance over time. Consider the use of the terms Greenhouse Effect (red), Global Warming (blue) and Climate Change (green) between the years 1960 and 2008. Clearly the term Climate Change has won the battle, a reflection of the political effort to neuter the impact of this huge issue.

I think this tool offers an incredible number of opportunities for research regardless of your field of interest. Consider for example the changes in the frequency with which the word "Poverty" turns up in publications (1500-2008). What might be behind these changes?

Borneo 14: Hong Kong

Hong Kong makes Vancouver seem rural. Central Hong Kong, on Hong Kong Island is an incredibly busy place. The video above was taken early in the morning before things really started to get busy.

Still, Hong Kong is a mix of the new and the old.

What surprised me, in a city renowned for selling the latest in electronics, was the widespread use of bamboo, even as scaffolding material. Alfred Wallace noted the myriad of applications for bamboo when travelling through the Malay Archipelago back in the 1850s. He wrote of it frequently. I doubt he would be surprised to find it still in use over 150 years later in a much more technologically advanced world.

The scaffolding running twenty or so stories up, shown above, is entirely bamboo.

Bamboo stacked for additional scaffolding.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 13: The islands of KK

Just offshore from Kota Kinabalu (KK), Borneo, are a number of small islands you can reach by about a 10-20 minute boat ride. I headed out to Palau Mamutik after returning to KK from Danum this week.

Depending on the conditions on the South China Sea when you leave KK the ride itself can be an adventure. The only speed is full throttle (twin 100 HP engines), regardless of the wave conditions. When I left KK, the sea was running with a pretty heavy cross-sea. I thought the boat was going to shatter into pieces from the incredible and endless pounding. It was the wildest ride I`ve ever taken.

Once you are on the islands the pace changes. The islands are great for snorkeling for just lounging around. I wouldn`t call the snorkeling fantastic, but it is worth the day. Moorish Idols, Pufferfish, Sargent Majors, Parrotfish are common. The coral, however, isn`t in great shape. On some islands just to the northeast, dynamite fishing has completely destroyed the reefs and ended any hope of drawing tourists to the area.

When taking the boat back to KK we came across a mid-sized ship that I thought was sinking. The stern was completely underwater and the bow was at sea level with every wave washing over the deck. Seaman stood on crates to stay out of the sea, and the only thing out of the water was the pilot house. I was thinking we would be rescuing the crew, but I came to understand, from the limited English of our boat captain that all was okay. This ship was taking fresh water out to the islands. It does this once a week and they fill it completely with fresh water, hence the the complete lack of freeboard. Insane.

Borneo 12: Danum

A few random shots from the Danum Conservation Area.

Afternoon rain. As the heat builds up in the morning, the dense humidity is pumped up into the air and often falls as a torrential downpour in the afternoon. This is the dry season.

A giant cicada. This arrived at our night light trap on the first evening. A perfectly healthy and incredibly loud cicada. It sounds like a honking Canada Goose, and is just as loud.

A King Cobra. Interestingly this particular cobra was found in the women's showers awhile ago. Both King and Black Cobras are found at Danum, although both are uncommon. One local field worker noted that he was chased by a Black Cobra last year while working in the same location that we were collecting. These cobras are spitters. They spit into your eyes and as you stagger from being blinded they bite. It is generally considered fatal, although I see in the local papers today that someone is recovering after a King Cobra bite. He was only in a coma for two months.

A Red Leaf Monkey leaps from branch to branch. Watching these monkeys make huge leaps, often falling a fair distance before catching a branch on the next tree, was endlessly fascinating. These monkeys and gibbons were regulars at the field station.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 11: Oil Palm

Look at the list of ingredients on pretty much any processed food product in your home. Usually, close to the beginning is palm oil. There is an enormous global demand for palm oil, leading to the replacement of tropical forests by a single crop, Oil Palm. Flying into any city in Southeast Asia you will see vast areas of Oil Palm. The view above was taken flying into Lahad Datu, but the view is identical coming into Kuala Lumpur.

Huge areas in Borneo have already been cleared for Oil Palm plantations and the greatest threat to maintaining unlogged tropical forest is their continuing expansion. New areas around the Danum Conservation Area are already slated for conversion to Oil Palm. The economics of Oil Palm are so lucrative that it is fast becoming the only product in Southeast Asia. In Borneo, even cocoa (chocolate) is disappearing to Oil Palm.

If the global demand for palm oil crashes, although this is hard to imagine, or a pest runs rampant through these monocultures, the economy of Southeast Asia would be devastated. Still, for those of us from the west, we have little moral high ground. The replacement of huge areas in Canadian forests by Lodgepole Pine is little different, except that in British Columbia we have already seen what happens when a pest (mountain pine beetle) hits a monoculture. While this has devastated the economy of interior logging communities in British Columbia, we at least are part of a much more diversified economy at the national level. This isn't true for Southeast Asia.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 10: Fruit in the Forest

When Alfred Russell Wallace wrote about the jungles of Borneo in The Malay Archipelago, a journal of his travels in the area in the 1850s, he specifically mused on the absence of flowers. He noted that one of the most common misconceptions, by those who have not visited the jungle, was the belief that jungles are a tangle of flowers. This belief probably arises from seeing cultivated tropical plants in greenhouses.

Flowering usually occurs in mass events once every several years (and it is possible Wallace never witnessed this), probably as an adaptation to overwhelm seed predators. The last in Borneo (lowland dipterocarp rainforest) was in 1996, that is, until this year. It is still a mystery as to what triggers the event. One hypothesis is that it is related to the formation of huge bees nests on the trunks of the dipterocarp trees.

As a consequence of this years mass flowering, the jungle is filled with an abundance of fruit. One negative consequence is that many animals do not need to travel much to find food. Negative, I suppose, in the context of someone hoping to see Orang-utans. I didn't.

The fruit stands of Borneo are filled. One of the best is Rambutan (as seen above (tree) and below, the actual fruit).

You can split open the outer case of Rambutan with your thumbs. Inside is a white soft pulp that is incredibly sweet. The seed in the center (brighter white mass in the center above) you spit out. Rambutan is a fantastic treat and is selling right now for 2 Ringets (0.65 $CAN) a kilo.

Another and more enigmatic fruit is Durian. This fruit was noted by the earliest Europeans exploring the area hundreds of years ago.

Durian is most noted for the awful stench given off by the fruit (hotels and taxis will absolutely bar you from bringing this fruit inside). It is truly nauseating, especially in the heat. Inside the case, you also find a white pulp that many consider delicious, despite the odour. Having said that, not everyone is a fan. We tried fresh Durian at the field station and about half of the myrmecologists (ant biologists) loved it, and the other half hated it. I fell into the latter category. To me, it tastes like it smells.

It was clearly a favorite in the forest with the various primates. Below you can see opened Durian in the forest floor. Probably opened by Red Leaf Monkeys or Orang-utans.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 9: A work day at Danum

The work day always begins at 8 am, whether it is a lab day or a field day. When working in the field we usually headed out to the same area and then all scatter off the trails and into the jungle proper. Typically we could collect until noon then head back to the Field Centre for lunch. Within 30 minutes of work most of us are completely soaked through with sweat.

It took awhile to get the right search image for ants in a tropical rainforest. While some are huge (e.g., Camponotus gigas (see below)), most are tiny, and are especially common in the leaf litter. Using litter extractors (mini-Winklers) yields an endless variety of ants. Interestingly, many of these ants are trap-jaw ants. For a picture of one common trapjaw ant (genus Strumigenys) in the leaf litter, click here. Still, ants could be found on the vines, leaves, tree trunks, and in woody debris. In the latter case you had to watch for scorpions when pulling apart the wood. No one was an expert on scorpions, but one of the first we encountered was recognized by a student from India as definitely something you did not want to touch.

The largest ant, possibly the largest in the world if you settle on one definition of 'large' was Camponotus gigas.

Shown above is a minor of Camponotus gigas which differs from the majors in two ways. First, the ant above is much smaller than a major, second, the minors are docile and not inclined to bite. The majors are aggressive and live to charge and bite. If your first encounter with this species is a minor, you have a surprise coming when you meet your first major. One student had a major clamped onto the skin between his thumb and forefinger which easily sliced through the skin.

After a morning of collecting it was back to the lab for the afternoon. We would begin to sort, pin and identify what we had collected. A morning in the field was easily 1-2 days of work in the lab.

Five 0'clock marked Happy Hour, which was mandatory for everyone. If you have been told you can't buy booze in Malaysia, you have been misinformed. This was followed by a lecture at 6 pm (always a fantastic presentation by some of the best biologists in the world). Supper was at 7 and then it was back to the lab for the rest of the night. I usually packed it in around 9:30- 10 pm but some students worked till the power was cut off at midnight.

Photo Credits: Me, except for the photo of me, taken by Phil Barden (American Museum of Natural History)

Borneo 8: Danum Field Centre

Every morning at the Danum Field Centre looks like this. A heavy humid mist hangs over the forest. The morning temperature may only be in the low twenties but a 10 minute walk to the lab or kitchen will quickly leave you with a soaking sweat if you even slightly exceed a slow walk. Watching people walk here is a little like watching someone summit Mt. Everest, there is that slow plodding pace that no one exceeds.

One fact that many people may find interesting is the near complete absence of mosquitoes. In the 10 days that I spent at the field centre, I saw 3, really! Even when you are off trail in the jungle, sweating buckets in the mid-day heat and humidity, you will not be bothered by mosquitoes. This is great because there is the risk of malaria in the area (or dengue, or Japanese encephalitis, or....). Unfortunately, the lack of mosquitoes is balanced by the abundance of leeches.

There are two types of leeches here. The large ones, as seen above that quickly get under you clothes (5 minutes into the forest and you are pulling one of these out of someones armpit), and some tiny ones that can push through the eyelets for your boot laces, and latch onto your feet. For these, you wear leech socks, something generally not available at Mountain Equipment Coop. Fortunately, leeches do not vector any diseases so they are really just an annoyance. Having said that, they get absolutely everywhere. One day at lunch I watched a leech fall out of one woman's sleeve while she was scooping rice onto her plate.

Borneo 7: Danum

When our van blew out a tire on the way into Danum, one of the first things I noticed, after the amazing rainforest scenery was the abundance of Mimosa plants along the roadside. I've seen Mimosa plants before, but to see them growing in the wild is quite different. When touched, the plant quickly droops the leaflets and the stem to pull the plant away from whatever is bothering it.

The Mimosa plant is just the beginning though. Here are a couple of photos taken this past week.

A Scarabid Beetle
Lantern Bugs (Probably genus Pyrops)

A Curved Spiny Backed Spider (probably Gasteracatha arcuata). Yes, it could be sharper but taking pictures in the jungle is a real challenge. There is very little light. When hunting ants in the leaf litter or in a rotten log, you need a headlamp, even at noon.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 6: Travel to Danum

I've been offline for awhile in the Danum Conservation Area. Reports of broadband access at Danum are somewhat overstated. Most days you can get slow access to e-mail (for awhile) but actually blogging is somewhat more difficult and, if even possible, would tie up computer access for others. Here I'll try to provide a bit of a catch-up on the last two weeks.

We left Kota Kinabalu on August 16th, flying across Borneo into Lahad Datu, a flight mercifully short, at a bit less than an hour (I say this in the context of a 13 hr flight to Hong Kong). Lahad Datu is the launching point for anyone going into the Danum Conservation Area. The Lonely Planet Guide has pretty much only one thing to say about Lahad Datu, and that is, don't linger.

I'm not sure if this is fair, but we spent very little time here. There has been some trouble with the Abu Sayyaf Islamic separatist group on some of the islands just offshore from Lahad (foreigners kidnapped with a much less than satisfactory outcome), and last year they robbed the bank in Lahad itself (I'm told the walls are still pock marked with bullet holes but we did not pass by the bank ourselves). I did speak with a young French tourist later who had spent a couple of days in Lahad. His thoughts certainly wouldn't help the Lonely Planet to change there thoughts here. Still, if you knew someone who really knew their way around the town, you'd probably find a lot to appreciate.

Lahad Datu, however, really is the jumping off point for one of the last great areas on our planet. A 2.5 hr bone jarring van ride will take you from Lahad Datu to the Danum Conservation Area. About an hour out of Danum we blew a tire on our van (no surprise), and when we got out of the van, I was able to get my first photo of genuine lowland tropical rainforest (jungle). A spectacular experience.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 5: Kota Kinabalu

I arrived in Borneo about noon yesterday. The hub for access to Malaysian Borneo is Kota Kinabalu (KK), situated on the north coast. Last night I finally got a chance to meet many of the other specialists in ant biology and ecology around town and in the hotel. I'm not sure how many countries are represented in total but they are from everywhere (US, China, Kirghistan, Finland, Australia, France, Iran etc.). In a couple of hours we will all fly out for Lahad Datu and then drive in trucks into the Danum Conservation Area.

If I had written this post earlier yesterday I would have been pretty negative about KK. It is much more rural and economically disadvantaged as compared to Kuala Lumpur. Granted, the city was bombed out of existence twice during the second world war, but still, most buildings are in poor condition. It is extremely humid and hot here(I pulled out my camera a few minutes ago and the lens immediately fogged over, I wiped it off and it fogged over again before I could take a picture) and a walk past the markets, which are everywhere, brings the smell of fish and meat that are sitting out in the sun. Occasionally you also get the extremely nauseating smell of Durian, a fruit found in Borneo that is reported to have an incredibly great taste (I tried some in Kuala Lumpur but it wasn't fresh and the taste pretty much went with the smell). You are not allowed to take it into taxis or into hotels.

Last night I had a better look at KK (despite a driving tropical rain), travelling through the city with some biologists that were familiar with what the city had to offer. At a restaurant we ate in last night, we were able to watch the cooks making noodles. From a square block of dough, they can make perhaps 50 or so meter long noodles with about 6 flicks of their hands. Quite a skill. Granted, I have no idea what half of the things I've been eating actually are, but so far it has been great. You simply don't eat anything not cooked or that you cannot peel.

The photo above is looking north into the South China Sea. There are some islands just offshore that are obvious in the picture, but what you probably cannot see is that along the shore is a massive floating city of boats. In the photo below you see a typical market.

Borneo 4: Ramadan

Ramadan began this week. Ramadan begins when the first crescent moon of the 9th month of the Islamic calendar is seen. Being seen is critical and the general location to determine if the crescent moon is seen is Egypt. However, last week smog was so heavy in Egypt (and I doubt it was much better in Kuala Lumpur) that the moon actually could not be seen, at least by Islamic astronomers. Well, they declared Ramadan anyway.

I happened to come across the Malaysian National Islamic Mosque this afternoon, while walking through the city after a visit to the city Bird Park. Non-Muslims were allowed in after 5:30 and since it was 5:35 that sounded like an invitation.

The Mosque official that I spoke to was certainly friendly and happy to talk about Ramadan and the Mosque. During Ramadan, Muslims do not eat between sunrise and sunset (this has already caused a change in the restaurant hours in my hotel), and food is laid out for sunset (7:20 pm here) as seen above. By tradition here this starts with dates and a dessert and is then followed by a full meal. All can join, non-Muslims included, so during Ramadan, I suppose one could eat quite well for nothing. I was invited to join the feast but wasn't planning on being in the area that late.

Photo Credit: Me. Photos taken in the Malaysian National Mosque

Borneo 3: Kuala Lumpur and the Batu Caves

The Batu Caves are a Hindu shrine (to Lord Muragan, worshiped by the Tamil Hindus) just north of Kuala Lumpur (or given that you don't leave any sense of the city at all, they are basically in Kuala Lumpur). It is probably the most popular tourist attraction in the city and is certainly worth the effort. A very long series of stairs leads up to the main cavern where a series of smaller shrines are scattered everywhere.

Sharing the climb with you are many many crab-eating Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) (see below) that have learned to live off of tourists. They are pretty harmless but do 'get in your face' and I did see one hiss and bare its teeth for some unknown indiscretion on the part of one visitor. I also saw one quickly raid a souvenir bag that another tourist had placed BEHIND his feet. They aren't stupid.

One thing that surprised me was the lack of any literature on the significance of the shrine. There were plenty of touristy shops selling all sorts of kitsch (Hindus may have invented bling) but no information.

Photo Credit: me.

Borneo 2: Travel

I passed through the airport in Hong Kong, a common hub for travel through SouthEast Asia, yesterday. I only had a two hour layover but will spend a day here at the end of the month on my trip back.

Basically 100% humidity with temps of 30 C. The clouds look like completely soaked cotton, and passing through them on the plane gives the plane a pretty good kick. Pretty though, as they form huge towers in the rising heat.

Another 3.5 hours of flying past Hong Kong gets you to Kuala Lumpur (assuming you survive the choking insecticide spray they completely douse the airplane cabin with prior to landing), where I will be spending the day. Kuala Lumpur is a modern city in almost all respects, although the reason I haven't posted anything until now was because the hotel internet was down.

The first thing one notices about Kuala Lumpur are the endless oil palm plantations. The airport is about 60-70 km out of Kuala Lumpur so a taxi ride from the airport takes about an hour. That will set you back about $20 CAN and you get the great experience of driving at 140 km/hr in a taxi weaving in and out of traffic. Driving is a pretty aggressive game here (making Vancouver look pretty tame), and while cars mostly use the lanes (my taxi driver decided to straddle a couple for about 10 minutes), countless small motorcycles run along the dotted lane markers somehow avoiding collisions with cars that change lanes without using signals.

Picture Credit: Me. Hong Kong airport. Victoria Peak is in the background.

Borneo 1: The Ant Course

Tonight I'm catching the very red eye flight out of Vancouver to Hong Kong at 2:45 am to begin my connections for The Ant Course in Borneo.

The Ant Course is run by Brian Fisher with the California Academy of Sciences. Each year Brian brings together those involved in ant research across the globe. The main goal is to make sure everyone is completely up-to-date in ant identification skills and also to make connections within the research community. For anyone working on ants, The Ant Course is the World Cup of all things ant.

This year the course is in Borneo at the Danum Conservation Area (west of Lahad Datu) combining this fantastic meeting with the most biodiverse area on the planet. Over 60 people applied this year, from 25 countries. I was one of the lucky 30 to be accepted.

The Danum Conservation Area holds the largest continuous lowland rainforest (jungle) left in Southeast Asia. While it is technically possible to an individual traveler to obtain permits to enter the area, this is generally considered impossible, and is open only to researchers. It is one of the last areas on Earth to still have wild orang utans (Mias), as well as 9 other primates and an incredible number of other plants (World's largest flower, 270+ species of tree in a single hectare (100 metres by 100 metres)) and animals (Pygmy Elephant, Sumatran Rhino, Clouded Leopard, Sun Bear etc.). A great many species have not been described, and just recently, a new species of bird was discovered. I expect a large number of the ant species we encounter will be new to science.

Tonight I'll be bouncing through Hong Kong and on to a one and a half day layover in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). As I travel into Borneo (the northern Malaysian portion) I will try to blog as much as possible, although once in the Danum Conservation Area, internet access is limited.