The Minnesota Zoo is well known for its 485 acre facility in Apple Valley, Minnesota – just minutes away from the Mall of America. However people may be less familiar with the amazing work the Zoo does outside of Minnesota. The Zoo’s Conservation Advisory Team and the Minnesota Zoo Foundation have been sending Zoo staff around the world for years with the Ulysses S. Seal Conservation Grant. This grant allows staff to help support conservation projects they are personally passionate about and even participate hands-on in the research, if possible. From Hyacinth macaws to endangered sea turtles, the Minnesota Zoo has sent staff to 24 different countries on 58 grant projects and is excited to continue this great extension of the conservation work being done here at the Zoo itself. Overall, the grant has provided over $365,000 of critically-needed funds to over 120 unique conservation programs in 47 countries around the world.

We finally made it to Bangkok at around midnight and immediately went to bed. It’s almost impossible for me to sleep on a plane, so after 20 hours of travel, our beds were a welcoming sight! We spent the weekend in the city, which was needed to adjust to the 12 hour time difference. We filled our days with sightseeing, and of course plenty of naps! I found the most challenging thing about adjusting to such a large time difference is convincing your stomach that you don’t need to eat dinner at 2:00 a.m.! Sleep came pretty easy, but the growling stomach in the middle of the night was hard to silence.

After our initial weekend abroad we headed to Khao Ang Ru Nai (KARN) Wildlife Sanctuary. My colleague, Dr. Kate Jenks has worked at this site previously and has even collared dhole there. We needed some of the equipment that was being stored there to bring to the new sanctuary that we worked at. Most of our day was spent traveling, and although the bus ride was extremely cheap, it took us about 5 hours to get to KARN! Right before we arrived at the sanctuary we were stopped just in front of the entrance by guards. I found out that the roads leading in and out of the sanctuary are guarded and the road is shut down at night because there was a problem with elephants raiding the fruit and sugarcane trucks that were passing through at night. Definitely not a problem we ever have to worry about in Minnesota!

We toured around KARN and then met with Dr. Jenks’s field research assistant. We took inventory of all of the equipment and packed up what we could to take back with us. Afterwards, they treated us to the traditional Thai meal of hotdogs and rice. Yes! Hotdogs! They tasted just like the ones you would buy in America! (We ended up eating several meals that included hotdogs in my 2 week stay). The next day we headed back to the city to gather the rest of our equipment and get ready to head to Salak Pra Wildlife sanctuary.

We had a day in Bangkok before we went to Salak Pra. The collars we would be using to track the dhole needed to be set up and turned on to make sure they are giving off a GPS signal and that that signal is being recorded online. We also were using trap transmitters (that let us know when a trap closes and catches an animal) and we needed to make sure the equipment was working as well. We did this all in the city because at the sanctuaries there is no cell service and no internet.

Anyone who is familiar with Murphy’s Law will understand our frustrations with what happened next! (Put simply: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.) First off, our collars were not working! We saw no data online! That means either the collars themselves weren’t working, there was something wrong with the website, or the satellites that detect the collars weren’t turned on. Not soon after that, we realized that the equipment needed to detect the trap transmitters was broken! This means when a trap went off we had no way of knowing unless we went out and checked ourselves. (This is not ideal as we wanted as little human disturbance as possible.) After all of this bad news, we headed to Salak Pra because we still had a lot of work that could be done until we got all of our electronic problems figured out. And at least this way, if/when we did get everything working, we would be at the sanctuary ready to go!

We met Dr. Nucharin Songsasen from the Smithsonian Biology Institute, who is also helping with the project, and headed to Salak Pra. The main highway to Salak Pra is like any other busy well-kept road. The dirt road leading into the forest to the ranger’s station however….is extremely bumpy, rocky and wet. We had to drive through 3 streams to get there! Once we reached the rangers station we set up our hammocks and headed into the forest! We were changing out SD cards in 3 of the camera traps that were around the sanctuary. We saw so many animal tracks while driving to our cameras! We saw canid (very possibly dhole), elephant, civet, peacock and even tiger tracks! After the SD cards were changed out we were just about to head back when we heard a very loud, distinct noise not very far off in the distance. I knew what it was immediately and had my camera at the ready…ELEPHANTS! We heard a baby and several adults trumpeting! We hopped up on a hill to get a better look, but even though they are extremely large animals, they are easily camouflaged in the thick bamboo. We hopped in the truck and headed back to the sanctuary, which was in the same direction as the elephants. We were riding in the back of the truck so we were instructed to stay down and no sudden movements! We passed by slowly, but were making some noise so we didn’t scare them. They were trumpeting away as we drove by. It was amazing and slightly terrifying at the same time! We made it back to camp and before dinner we looked over some of the pictures from the traps and we saw some dhole (yeah!), elephants (there are always elephant pictures), civets, mongoose, peacocks, leopard cats, porcupines and jackal. This was also the night at dinner that I learned that “spicy” in Thailand is VERY different from “spicy” in America. I’m pretty sure I burned off a few taste buds that night.

Murphy ’s Law continued to haunt us and followed us to Salak Pra! The collars still weren’t working and neither were our transmitters! On top of that, the rangers that were helping us were going to Bangkok for the weekend so we wouldn’t be able to get any work done at the sanctuary. Fortunately, this gave us a chance to go back to the city and work out our technical problems (and buy more SD cards)! We contacted the company that makes the collars to try and troubleshoot and also figured out we can use hand held radios to detect the trap transmitters, as long as they can dial into a specific frequency. We searched one of the big electronic stores in Bangkok for radios, but we just couldn’t find ones to dial into exactly the frequency we needed. Dr. Songsasen worked on getting the collars functional.

Monday morning rolled around and we again headed back to Salak Pra. We stopped along the way to pick up 2 vets that will be assisting us with the project. When we reached the rangers station we received our first piece of good news: the rangers had radios that were able to read the trap transmitters! One problem down, one more to go. Since the transmitters were now functional, we got to work setting up traps. Luckily the rangers had seen dhole around the sanctuary and knew the best places to set up. We worked until dark and headed back in for dinner. As we were sitting around the table we hear very loud crunching of bamboo and the rangers immediately grabbed me and brought me to get a better look at what was in the forest…another elephant! There is a large water trough at the ranger’s station that a few elephants frequent and this night was no different! The elephant casually walked right up to the water, drank for a few minutes, and went on his merry way. It is so used to seeing people that we were luckily in no danger. They are surprisingly quiet animals walking through the grass considering their size!

The next day we headed into a nearby town to pick up some bait for the traps and also check on the status of our collars. We received our second piece of good news: they were working! Well, 2 of the 3, but it’s better than nothing! When we got back to Salak Pra, we set up the remaining traps and baited all of them. We were FINALLY ready to catch some dhole! The next couple of days were a waiting game. We kept busy going back and forth changing out bait for the traps, checking when something would set them off (probably some other animal brushing by them) and doing night check for the transmitters.

Unfortunately, by the time I left we had not collared any dhole. I did come very close to extending my stay thanks to Mother Nature! The day before I left there was a very heavy downpour that nearly flooded the road leading out of the sanctuary! Luckily, the rangers got me out and I didn’t miss my flight. Fortunately by the time I left all of our technological problems had been solved and Dr. Jenks and Dr. Sonsasen were staying for another 2 weeks to finish the project. Even though I wasn’t able to see any dhole, I did get to see a number of them from the camera trap photos! It was an amazing experience to be a part of this project and I extremely grateful for the Minnesota Zoo and the Ulysses S. Seal Grant Committee for sending me!

Check out Part One of this blog post here.