BSOD and Spiders...

The recent radio silence is due to my new status as a resident of Inconceivable-amount-of-work-to-do-in-a-spectacularly-insufficient-period-of-time-ville.

Since we last spoke via the written word and the magic of the internet I have presented my project to the school and written my research proposal, which will ultimately make up about a third of my thesis.

My proposal seminar was the first time I had ever spoken to the school and I didn't know the majority of the academics in the audience. Basically I was fretting over it for about a fortnight. I had practiced it over a dozen times and re-written my whole presentation at least three times.

It was all going amazingly well. I was speaking slowly, well slowly for me, so, I was speaking at normal human speed. I was getting nods and smiles and was just generally giving the best presentation ever heard, anywhere in the world, ever.

Then the computer died.

Not just a laptop, oh no that would've been easy to fix, the in-built computer system and projector decided that it had no reason left to live and sprinted off this mortal coil. Blue screen of death. In the middle of my presentation. Which was only the most important thing I would ever do in my life. Ever (not an exaggeration).

Wonderful presentation the likes of which may never be seen again....

Ahhhhhh!!!! There is no God!!!! The technology is rising up against us!!

But being someone who is composed under high stress and capable of thinking on my feet (yes, yes, all of those adjectives are me) I didn't let the potential robot apocalypse impede my imparting of gibbon wisdom. So you can breath a sigh of relief that, despite the best efforts of the cyborg rebellion, my proposal seminar went brilliantly.

However my research proposal itself has experienced some larger hurdles. Namely my apathy. This last week I have discovered that time spent on the internet, watching game of thrones and secret garden and sleeping is a much more enjoyable way to spend my time. And enjoyment is the name of the game. Except in honours. In honours, pain is the name of the game. Its not a very nice game.

Wacky Korean dramas are always preferable 

I have spent over a full week sitting at a desk, reading papers and typing from 9am til 5pm. At the end of each day my brain is so full I am no longer capable of forming complete sentences let alone producing world-class research. Unfortunately there are only 24 hours in the day and due to my weak human shell requiring feeding and sleeping there is even less time in the day to actually do work. Therefore I haven't been going into the zoo and instead have been mindlessly drinking coffee and yelling obscenities at the intermittent internet. 

Despite my best efforts, actually that's a lie, despite my mediocre to average efforts I didn't finish my draft by Friday. I had told my supervisor I would..

I convinced myself to take the weekend off and come Monday, I found that the two day extension I had given myself had been wasted. By me. Gosh I can be lazy. Unfortunately late Monday afternoon my supervisor came into the honours room to give another student, who is prompt, organised and an all-round show off, their draft back. I dealt with this like any mature adult would and hid behind my desk until she left.

Thankfully I have now finished my draft and can now come out of hiding. This means I can go get coffee and go to the bathroom without sneaking around corners and skulking in hallways. 

Unfortunately life is out to get me at the moment. Just when all my work is concluding, I am riding high on a euphoric bubble of self-importance, life decided to nearly kill me. Death by spider. 

The dark and ominous tale begins thus:

I had spent the evening with friends, playing laser tag. It was an enjoyable sport and I was full with the pleasure of my own success and the merciless defeat of my enemies. 

We were leaving the car park whose dark, unlit corners boded some unfortunate event, what a fool I was not to listen to those whispers of danger...

My arrogance clouded me to the obvious, when giggling and chatting in the car, a spider comparable in size to a melon or a small child's head ran across the windshield. Unlike a natural spider, who runs in a zig-zag motion and seeks the darkest corners to hide in and conduct its nefarious plotting, this unholy beast ran across the centre of the windshield, with no fear of predator, for what predator would hunt such an atrocity. 

As it ran, for a second, our eyes met. In its gaze I felt the hatred of the devil, and an intelligence masked only by its apparent similarity to a common house spider. In that moment, I understood. This spider was meant for me. His hatred and fury was intent on one goal. My complete and utter destruction.

I screamed and yelled for the driver to stop the car. He did not heed my warnings. I had no time to explain the perilous nature of our situation. I undid my seat belt and leapt out of the car. The car was still only in second gear so thankfully I did myself no damage, much to the beast's chagrin. 

Finally, my friends became aware of the severity of the situation, and while I stood in the middle of the road, (protected from the beast by the likelihood of passing vehicles), they dealt that vicious, abhorrent, mutilation of nature a swift death via shoe.

Needless to say its been a stressful week.

Thankfully tomorrow I can return to the zoo, where word on the street is that the gibbons miss me. At least some of the animal kingdom isn't out to kill me.

Meet The Silveries

I decided it was about time you were all formally introduced to the lovely ladies and gentle-apes who provide the fodder for my poor excuse for humour and will hopefully provide me with amazing results to publish.

For no rational reason, first off the blocks, allow me to introduce The Silveries:

The Silveries are the only family of Silvery Gibbons in my study (hence my unique and creative nickname for them) or as they're more formally known Hylobates moloch. Silvery Gibbons are also known as the Javan Gibbon because, surprise, surprise they're found in Java, Indonesia. They are critically endangered, which means there's a 50% chance they will be extinct in the next decade (by comparison Pandas are endangered, but not critically). This is predominantly due to the extensive deforestation of Java. Partly a result of the massively increasing human population but also due to extensive illegal logging which produces furniture and other homewares.

Silvery gibbons live in nuclear families, so essentially they have a breeding male and female and any offspring under eight years of age. Infants are dependent on their mothers until two years of age but remain with the family until they disperse as mature adults. Because of these family structures the infant mother relationship is very important. A poor attachment in infancy can lead to lifelong social problems and affect the individual's survivability.

The Silveries live on the island at Perth Zoo, their nearest neighbours are the Ring-Tailed Lemurs (who can produce an incredible cacophany) and the various waterfowl in the lake (including my nemesis the Pelicans).

I am Lemur, hear me scream!shoutyabberyell!cackle.

Unfortunately being on the island means the gibbons are out of the range of good photos on my camera. Any decent photos in this post are taken by Perth Zoo, any that look like they were taken by a blind person with no arms were taken by me. Never fear, I will be saving up for a new lens for my camera, so when I get the money together, prepare to be amazed by incredible photos (so in a decade or two).

But, without further ado allow me to introduce the five Silvery Gibbons representing their species in my study.

Jury

Damn kids.

Jury is the adult male of the group. He is in his mid-twenties and unfortunately has diabetes. He now has to have daily insulin shots but he's great with his training and comes up straightaway to get his shot in the morning. The poor fella also has to contend with a 7 year old, a 4 year old and a 1 year old hooning about on the island at all hours of the day. 

He's pretty relaxed and acts much older than his age. He has taken to sitting on the ground when the youngin's get too over-exuberant. Unfortunately for him there are plans to breed another infant soon, so he's going to have to keep on with the father schtick for a bit longer. However, he has a pretty solid partner in Hecla.

Hecla

The best mother of the bunch.

Hecla's our golden girl. Of the gibbons at Perth Zoo she has the best track record as a mum and a partner. She's successfully rearing her fourth infant and her intervals between pregnancies are getting shorter. She is also in her mid-twenties, and has been with partner Jury for a long time.

How she maintains her eternal patience I'll never know. Unlike Jury who often goes and hides from the kids in the corner, she always pays attention to them. Even if they're jumping at her for attention. Most of the time she will subdue them with a hug or a half-hearted effort at play. 

Nakula

Just playing with my log....

Poor Nakula. He's seven years old and a mature adult, at this age in the wild he would have dispersed from the group to go find his own mate. Unfortunately, being in a zoo, he can't just hop out and start looking for women in South Perth. There were plans in place to take him to Java and release him into a sanctuary but that has now fallen through, so the whole process has to start again. It is a very, very long process.

In the meantime Nakula is slowly getting pushed out of the group. He still spends a bit of time playing with his sisters, but he spends the majority of the time on his own. He entertains himself by rolling a log around or batting at the ladders and balls. He has a fan in his keeper who gives him an extra banana every morning. There is no word on how Nakula feels whether this banana is a worthy trade.

Although Nakula has been spotted peeing on a duck from the branches of a tree, so I think he's doing okay.

Cahaya

Oh hey, I didn't see you there.

And, the ratbag. At four years old Cahaya is going through the gibbon terrible twos. And boy can't everyone tell. She swings up behind the others and hits them on the head, then tears away. She tries to grab at the keepers/me as we pass. She is the greediest little ape I've ever seen and will run around trying to get as much fruit as possible into her mouth in one hit. She is a favourite of her sister Sunda though who always loves to play.

Today she discovered that the electric fence had been turned off and was grabbing and poking it, later she taught Sunda. She's going to get a nasty shock if she isn't paying attention when they turn it on.

Despite her terrible behaviour she is sharp as a tack. She follows the routine of the keepers and me to the minute. Today I got in trouble for taking an early toilet break. She was unimpressed at my lack of commitment.

Her favourite game is to try and catch the ducks that waddle onto the island. Those poor ducks. I don't know why they ever go near the gibbons.

Sunda

It's a grape, not her tongue...

And last, but by no means least, is little Sunda. She is just over a year old now and is really getting into the groove of being a gibbon. She's pretty brave, she ventures unhindered from mum although her mum is her favourite playmate. She and Cahaya go tearing through the island at times, up and down the trees, jumping and falling and swinging and climbing. Its positively dizzying. She had a bit of a shock today when she slipped and fell but she didn't fall very far and a hug from mum cleared it up in no time. 

A favourite among the keepers, Sunda is definitely the charmer. Although I suspect she is beginning to get spoilt. She demandingly trilled at the keeper until he feed her this morning. Cahaya will soon put her back in her place. If she turns her nose up at food for too long then its Cahaya's. 

So that's the Silveries. I hope you can appreciate their quirks and personalities, they're a great bunch of individuals. 

Before I go I'd like to make one special mention:

One of the African Painted Dogs at the Zoo had to be euthanised yesterday. They are going through breeding season and therefore are readjusting all their hierarchies, sadly violence and aggression is very common and deaths can result. Unfortunately now two of the dogs have been euthanased. Kibuiri and Half-Tail. Its a sad time for all the keepers and researchers and I want to offer my condolences. They were great dogs. I don't have an image of either of them but this is an old photo of one of the pups, once upon a time both Kiburi and Half-Tail would have looked like this.

xxxx

Such is the life when you are working with animals.