Blog 7 Day 7

Well today is Thursday March 19, 2009. I got a great night sleep last night. Katie and I woke up at the same time to go to the bathroom at about 7 am. We both got dressed and got ready to go to the cottages for breakfast. I told Katie on our way out that I had a feeling that I was forgetting something. I get all of the gates and doors locked and we get out to the van and Katie forgot her socks. I went and unlocked all of the doors and gates and she came back down. We got into the van, locked the gate (which is a tough one because the lock comes completely apart), and began to drive down the road. Then I realized I forgot my sunglasses. I had to go all the way back and unlock everything. It took me 10 minutes to get in and out of that building and get into the van. Anyway, we got back to the cottages and I made breakfast. I had eggs, steak, potatoes, and some bacon. I can honestly say that this was the biggest breakfast I’ve had since I have been here and I ate the whole thing and was ready for the day.
After breakfast, I had to make a large decision; should I write a blog so that everyone can read it sometime today? or should I go snorkeling? Well like my friend John said, (who I will talk about a little later) “there are two types of time, no time and Cruzan time.” So I decided to go snorkeling. That is why I am writing this blog late at night. I saw a stingray today and I got some great video footage and some great pictures! I will show everyone when I get back. After snorkeling, Buzz yells out to me that I have to get going because the two boys that were going to get the mongoose with us were here. These two boys, Devin and John are natives to the island. Devin was brought here from New York when he was an infant, but John is a pure Cruzan! He is an amazing person with a bright mind. He had so many stories to tell me about mongoose and the different vegetations here on the island. If I can come back to St. Croix in August, I am going to call John so that he can do research with us during our 2 weeks here. I think that he would really enjoy that because he told Katie after I left how much he liked all of us. He was just so polite.
We took the two boys out to the refuge and showed them the ropes on how to capture the mongoose. Unfortunately because of all of the hustle and bustle of the day, we didn’t get a chance to make bets on how many we could catch. It was good thing too because we only caught 2 mongoose dem. I was frustrated but buzz was still in good spirit. He was just glad that we had 2-mongoose dem to show to the children over the videoconference. (Mongoose Dem is how the locals pluralize mongoose). We also found one dead mongoose.
Finding this dead mongoose made me incredibly upset and it really bummed me out. We found the trap in the middle of the road. A wild dog had dragged the poor defenseless, caged mongoose out into the open and tortured the poor mongoose until it eventually bled to death, stopped moving and the dog must have lost interest. When we retrieved the mongoose it was missing its two hind legs, a front left leg, and one testicle. The poor mongoose didn’t even have a fighting chance because it was caged. It wasn’t the way that I wanted to begin my last day on the refuge, but life goes on. Katie and I are going to dissect this mongoose. Katie is going to see if it has any internal parasites such as any worms in its digestive tract and also check for heartworm. I am going to check the stomach and determine what it has been eating.
After we caught the mongoose we came back here to the cottages and ate lunch. Then we went back to the refuge to do the videoconference with Juniper Park Elementary. The skype session was awesome!
The kids were asking Jonathon (Buzz’s son) all kinds of questions. Of course, Jonathon being the amazingly intelligent kid that he is answered the questions like a mongoose expert. It was great to watch. The kids asked great questions for everyone there and I think that they learned a lot from this experience. The kids also asked John (the Cruzan boy we met) some great questions and he had some great responses. I was impressed.
After the videoconference, Katie, Phil, Devin, John, and I went back into the field to see if we caught any more mongoose dem and collect all of the traps because unfortunately this was the last day. Once again it was bittersweet. It was quite the exciting adventure but it was coming to an end. We caught one more mongoose on the trip. That put us to a final total of 3-mongoose dem for the day. After we got all of the traps picked up, we brought the mongoose back to the refuge and collected the last bit of our data. We then returned back to the cottages by the sea.
It was about 4 pm at this time and John and Devin had to go home shortly. Devin pulled out a second sandwich that he had made and began eating it. John had eaten his entire lunch so he was just sitting there. I asked him if he was hungry and he said that he was but he had eaten it all. I went inside and took some of the steak from last night and made him a fat steak sandwich. He was so grateful. I definitely am going to call this kid if I can come back. He is 16 and a junior in high school so he should be around.
While Katie, Devin, John, and Jonathon all waited here for John and Devin’s ride to come, Buzz, Phil and I went back to the refuge to drop off our three caught mongoose and retrieve GPS readings of every trap. On this last walk down this road that I have become so attached to, we approached a big solar powered tower. Buzz said that he used to climb it and take great pictures from up there and that I should give it a try. Without hesitation I climbed the fence, carefully went over the barbed wire, and ascended to the top. When I got to the top I could see both shores and it was beautiful. I took video footage and a lot of pictures! I climbed down and continued our walk to the beach. After we collected all of the GPS data we needed, we took what was left of the chicken feet, which was a lot, and put it in a pile and placed the field motion sensor camera in front of it. We will collect that camera on Saturday morning hoping to have collected a lot of digital images of what would eat these chicken feet.
When we returned to the refuge Katie and I decided to dissect that mongoose. It was awesome! The smell was pretty horrible, but considering the mongoose was in the hot sun when we found it, it was not as bad as it could have been. When I cut the stomach open, I found the chicken toes completely whole and a lot of hair. We determined that by the color and type of rat that lives on this island that it was indeed rat hair. The mongoose dem have been eating the rats! I thought that this was very fascinating because they are both introduced species to this island. After the dissection we made some dinner. I cooked up the rest of the squid for Buzz and I while Katie and Phil had leftover pasta. I had some of my amazing pina coladas and am writing this blog.
I am sad to say that this trip is coming to an end. This has been quite the exciting trip and I cannot believe that I have gotten to experience things that few people have. We have quite the fun filled day tomorrow. We are going shopping in the morning in Christiansted for souvenirs and then on a half-day cruise to Buck Island where we will do some serious snorkeling! Then we are going to a jazz concert at night and then to the Lost Dog for pizza and beer. I cannot wait! Once again it will be quite the adventure!