Day 5: Last Chance to see Mongoose dem

Woke up to another gorgeous morning in St. Croix. Had breakfast and then went snorkeling with Matt. It was very cool. The water was incredibly clear and I saw lots of fish. I saw a blue tang, a banded butterfly fish and a gray one I haven't identified yet. Unfortunately my masked leaked and the fins I was wearing were too small so I didn't swim all that long.

After my swim, Buzz, Matt, Katie and two local high school students, Devin and John, went to check the traps while I stayed here with Jonathan and did some grading. Unfortunately, we only caught three mongoose dem and one of those had been killed by a dog. The two that weren't killed were left at the refuge headquarters to be examined while we talked to Jonathan's class via Skype. Everybody came back here and we had lunch before returning to the refuge.

We got to the headquarters about 1 pm and got set up for the Skype session. Jonathan's class arrived about 1:30 pm and we got started. The first mongoose was a recapture, but we anesthetized him anyway so the class could see what it was like. Jonathan's class was really interested and started asking questions. They asked questions about mongoose trapping, what the mongoose were like and what the island was like. They even asked Devin and John about local food and culture. The second mongoose was new so the class got to see how we tagged them. While Jonathan's classmates continued to ask questions, Katie, Matt, Devin, John and I went to pick up the traps and we picked up one more mongoose on the way. It was sad to pick up the traps because it meant that our trip was almost over. We examined and tagged the last mongoose and returned to the Cottages. I drove back to the Cottages and it was easier than I had expected. We said goodbye to John and Devin and left Katie with Jonathan while Matt, Buzz and I returned to the refuge to release the three mongoose dem and take GPS recordings of the trap sites. When we completed that we dumped the remaining chicken feet in a big pile near one of the trap sites and set up a motion camera to (hopefully) pick up some interesting mongoose activity.

We spent the rest of the day at the cottages drinking beer and rum, eating dinner and hanging out. After Jonathan went to bed and Matt and Katie left, Buzz and I sat on the beach watching the stars and talking about whether there is a genetic basis that makes us want to care for our parents. Buzz believes there most likely is such a genetic basis while I continue to believe it is a cultural trait. In any event, it was a really interesting conversation. We finally went to bed around 11:30 pm.