Hometown glory

Well, my twelve weeks spent in Jersey is now over and what do I have to show for it? The answer is “Lots”!  A massively increased knowledge of the animals that are out there in need of our help; an understanding of what can be done to save species from extinction; an experience of full-time animal care; some new friends that share my enthusiasm for conservation; a toe that has been dipped into the field of research and an ear that has been dipped into by a moth and assorted surgical tools!

Without doubt the highlight of my stay has to be the Orang-utans. Orangs are, as mentioned in my previous post, the greatest apes of all on so many levels, all stemming from their high level of intelligence. They are able to manufacture tools from the materials around them, they are kind and offer gifts to keepers (half a stick of bamboo in my case) through the mesh, they can produce rain rovers/sun screens from paper bags and blankets from hessian sacks. The list goes on and on and serves to demonstrate just how similar they are to humans and how important it is to help save them and their habitat. Their homelands of Borneo and Sumatra are both suffering from huge amounts of habitat loss due to the cash-crop of palm oil being grown, harvested and sold to companies all around the world.

Jaya making his own bed

I had a fantastic time spending not one, but two days working on orangs. It was incredible to be helping to look after them and spending time learning from, and more-or-less shadowing Gordon, who is deputy head of mammals. The tasks could be broadly grouped into either cleaning or feeding. Everything was just on a much larger scale than for the small mammals that I was used to looking after. I had gone from not leaning on any perching for fear of pulling the enclosure apart to being able to put my full weight on the mesh hammocks and feeding hoppers to get from one part of an enclosure to another. Similarly, I had been used to closely monitoring how many slices of carrot each giant jumping rat received to witnessing orang-utans insert whole apples into their mouths.

Jaya 'interacting' with Gina

    

Jaya and Gina for drinks with additional sound effects from Dagu

           

Dagu, Dana and Kea for drinks

I have come away from Durrell with so much more than I went with. So many questions asked and answered, opinions shared and discussions had. Each of these has provided a learning opportunity that will stay with me for a lifetime. In my opinion learning from someone that is an expert in their field is ten times more valuable than learning the same thing from a book. The reclusive aye-ayes played their part as well, as did the many visitors to Durrell that I met. Their contribution in the form of raw data will over the next 6 months or so, be studied, analysed, digested and presented in the form of a dissertation report that will aid the conservation efforts of aye-ayes in the future.

So many people have made the experience enjoyable and it would be difficult to list everyone but you all know who you are and I owe you all a big thank you!  In particular I would like to thank all the staff at Durrell for their patience with me during the study, as well as their help and cooperation with regards to the many and varied maintenance, feeding and cleaning roles undertaken in the six weeks that preceded it.

(A reminder of the great nights, days, fun and laughter had with some really great people)

Since being back on the mainland I have had a lot of fun spending time with the people (and dog) that I missed greatly over the twelve week placement. I am now back in Northampton ready to commence my final year of university. Last night was a good opportunity to catch up with my friends prior to re-enrolment, have a nice meal and prove that we never come away from a pub-quiz empty handed. Sadly, the prize of five chomp bars, which we gladly accepted, was only available to the lowest scoring team!