Vanessa's Journal

Feb. 20

Today was the big birthday party for Lao Yang. I think he is 42. Birthdays are different here compared to the U.S., as people traditionally only really celebrate the birthdays of older people (60 and above), particularly in the rural areas. It is believed that a person needs to earn the right to celebrate a birthday by living through hardship, gaining wisdom, and becoming a respected elder in the family. Therefore, everyone thought it was weird that I wanted to celebrate Lao Yang’s birthday. Lao Fan told me “Lao Yang doesn’t have a birthday; he is too young for that.” I wasn’t sure what to do, but the American in me felt obligated to get him a cake anyway. It was a great party and Lao Yang seemed to enjoy being the center of attention, although he was relentlessly teased (in a loving way) from his two older colleagues Lao Wang and Lao Fan.

Feb. 21

Today, I checked traps with Lao Yang. Just when you think you have figured out the behavior of the traps, you are thrown for a loop. After lamenting about the fact that the metal traps never seem to close, two of our metal traps were closed today and we had to reset them. They were the Erdaoping and Baiyan metal traps. The metal traps have large holes that most small animals can escape from, so we aren’t sure who the culprit in each case was, but the yellow-throated marten is a prime suspect. I think what went on here is that the meat in areas directly outside these traps was eaten almost entirely in the last few days, so the animals were forced to enter the traps for the meat. Our strategy has been to use meat on the outside of the traps to lure in the giant pandas, and once we feel like we have one “hooked”, we will potentially remove or lessen the outside meat to entice it into the trap itself. We just haven’t got to the point yet of feeling like we have narrowed in on a giant panda.  But it is interesting to follow these other animals and see how they behave. Needless to say, we have more meat on the way to compensate for the heavy foraging of the meat outside these cages. 

I also had an interesting interaction with a squirrel today. I was waiting up at Jianpengzi for Lao Yang to come back from checking one of the traps, which he insisted on going to by himself in order to save me from the extra hiking. I was standing perfectly still, and the squirrels in the area did not seem to notice my presence. One of them came right up and sniffed my boot, only to run away soon after. The squirrels are so precious. One of them seemed quite overweight for a squirrel of that size, such that I suspected that it had been visiting our nearby trap almost daily. 

In general, it was a nice hike today and it seems like we have been in a strange cycle of heavy snowfall followed by incredible sunshine to melt it all away. My field assistants have stopped wearing double gloves, as have I, which is a sign that the weather is changing. It really is quite beautiful out there when the sun is shining so brightly. One feels the need to pinch oneself when looking out across the beautiful scenery, which seems too beautiful to be real.