Last Hurrah!

Finally at our last campsite! It is funny; we are at a spring, the only water for miles around. Everyone is bathing from a pot of water, including Scooby and Sadie! Scooby is on bed rest for the next few days until his muscles get better. Looks like Sadie is on her own for a little while. Sadie is doing fantastic! She is working with Vong and Oudom and is covering lots of ground. Not too many scats, but definitely some wildlife, as always. The crew has seen cobras, muntjacs, wild pigs, monkeys, hornbills and scorpions. It has been an adventure here in Phnom Prick.

Scooby pulls a hamstring

Finished surveys for our cell! Scooby and Sadie have done excellent work. We worked alternate days giving each dog time to train on tiger scat. The dogs worked a blind trail problem with Vong and Oudom as their handlers while Jen and Liz took some training videos to show future handlers.  Everyone did great and it was a refresher for the dogs. Go figure after training, Scooby was resting in his hammock and flipped! Usually a normal occurrence but this time he landed odd and strained a leg muscle. Guess he is out of business for awhile.

Last camping trip

Wow! We are heading on our last camping trip for the study.  It’s incredible to believe that we are finally on the last few cells.  We set-up camp and are settled in, these back roads are definitely hard to drive. We are at the only waterhole around; the dry season is taking its toll on our water resources. Unfortunately, just around the corner of the river was an illegal camp that had set a civet trap.  Thanks to WWF rangers, the trap was safely disarmed. After we all settled down for the night, a wild elephant trumpeted his disappointment we were camping at his waterhole. Yikes! At least he didn’t want to say hello too.

Unexplored territory

Change of plan. (Again.) We decided to make our 3 day camping trip a 6 day trek! We headed out to Bramath on the O’Pley river, hoping to complete 7 transects by the time we make it back to Chhouk.  Jen, Liz, Sadie and Max headed out with the elephant while Vong, Heath, Oudom and Scooby set out on their own.  Of course, Liz and Jen lost the elephant halfway through the hike but did run into 3 men (resin collectors). After a brief exchange of words (with the little Khmer Liz speaks) we got out of there with only a few nerves rattled.  The boys made it to camp long before the ladies and had camp already set-up, including boiled water for some instant coffee and milo! The crew even managed to call Tom (WWF) via a Vietnamese SIM card. This is becoming quite an adventure.

The teams set-out again for Chhouk, this time going 3 different directions after a day of rest. (Our elephant and mahout had to go all the way back to Chhouk to get more food and then come back to O’Pley – they definitely must think we are crazy Americans!) Jen, Vong and Max took the road to better get Max on the wild scent. Heath, Oudom, a ranger and Scooby headed out into the woods and Liz, a ranger and Sadie hiked a riverbed.  Leave it to Sadie May to find a boa! At least this time it was only part of a dead one, she definitely makes life interesting.  All 3 teams met-up on the road and took an afternoon snooze while we waited for the truck. Definitely a successful and fun trek.

Vong packing up camp

Off the beaten track

Heath arrived with Max, our back-up dog, a couple days ago! We headed out into Mondulkiri for some intense dog and handler training, and to find more tiger scat. After a full few days of training, we changed our plans and all headed out on a hike north of Trapeang Chhouk.  While we all knew it was going to be a long day, we had NO idea what we were getting into.  Lets just say, 15 kilometers, 38 degrees Celsius, walking through a burned area (no shade), ran out of water, AND lost our elephant (with our supplies and a couple of rangers!). Whoa, right?! Luckily, just before sunset, the elephant and rangers arrived at the waterhole Heath and Oudom had found and we all ate a very late dinner in the dark.  The next day was spent sleeping in and taking a much needed rest for the dogs.

Hiking in ash

Jen and Max covered in ash stop for a much deserved drink

Sadie back in action!

Whoa! Check out the size of that scat that Sadie found! Liz wears a woman’s size US 9.5 boot. That is definitely a large scat! It had a great diameter…could be another possible tiger sample! Look how proud and happy Sadie looks!! She is loving working again. We are still taking it really slow and steady. We want her to recover completely before working too hard…of course, Sadie always has other ideas.

Finally heading back to town, where we will met up with Heath and Max, another of our Conservation Canines. After two weeks off sleeping in hammocks, the team can not wait to sleep in a bed!

Hiking to camp

Vong and Dua collect scat samples

Close encounter of the large kind!

Sadie is back to work! It’s her first day since getting Tick Fever in the middle of January. She has a slow, steady and short day but does great! Scooby is raring to go and struts his stuff with a smile for Jen and Vong.

We had a surprise visit in the afternoon.  While sitting in camp, reading, trying to ignore how hot we are, we hear huge crashing noises coming through the bamboo heading straight for our river! Lo and behold, a herd of wild elephants came through the trees. 12 in total!! With 2 babies!!! It was incredible! Of course, Sadie May has to bark, scaring away the whole herd. I kid you not. Luckily we had a ranger who was quick as a muntjac and headed off after them for a couple of photos. Amazing!

In the spotlight!

Yeah! Another cell (area of land being covered by the dogs for scat) successfully completed! Thanks to WWF’s GIS man, Ratanak, we had great maps helping us to move around a cell in the best areas possible.

Now we are off to Mereuch to meet with WWF donors and the press! We are definitely excited and nervous! Five international press agencies will join us at Mereuch for a taste of what we do with Scooby and Sadie in the field….

Film day!! Yikes! Jen, Liz, Vong, Oudom and the dogs are interviewed on camera! The dogs did a fantastic job, smiling perfectly for the camera and loving all of the attention. Liz and Jen pulled through and the Cambodian handlers did a great job.

Scooby, Jen and Vong even found a scat for the film crews! Scooby was watching Jen and Vong looking “proud as a peafowl!”

Vong, Jen and Sadie describe their work for the cameras.

Checking-in to Choul Outpost

Today, the Dog Team headed out to Choul Outpost in the northwest corner of Mondulkiri Protected Forest.  And little did we know the adventure we were in for! Jen and Scooby ran into Elds deer while surveying a drainage, meanwhile, Liz and Scooby walked into a fishing camp, a herd of cattle and a couple of water buffalo!

That night at Choul came with a little more than we bargained for. As Jen and I were settling down for the evening, eating cookies and contemplating life, we saw in the black of the night a light in the distance. After staring for several minutes, we finally realized it was flashlight. Could this be poachers, loggers or axe murderers (our imaginations were running a little wild)?! We altered the rangers and they set off in pursuit but unfortunately they didn’t find anyone that night.

This water buffalo was caught on camera trap in Mondulkiri

Can you spot the Eld's deer?

Encounter with King Cobra

Sadie and I were in some great looking habitat (big shady trees, hidden waterholes) but before I knew it she had her tail between her legs and was stopped dead, looking at something on the ground.  I noticed a very large scaly tail by my feet and told her to come. Of course, she had spooked a King Cobra causing it to rear up! Sadie made it safely back to me and Vong (my Cambodian orienteer for the day), and with shaking hands I managed to take a picture after a couple of tries.

Scooby had a record scat day! 24 detections found along low use roads and a dry drainage!! We think they are all leopard but everything counts.  Scooby, while cooling off in a water hole, scared off an otter and a fishing owl.

Sadie found a King cobra!