Woke up at 5.30 ish after not much sleep, my imgination getting the better of me, also heard an animal calling and got excited wondering if it was a maned wolf, but it turned out to be an owl. I´d pitched the tent in a hollow and felt like i was sleelping on slope, so dicided i´d move it to another pitch tomorrow.
my first attack by a creature.....
After breakfast i went back to my tent at the new pitch to get my water bottle which was outside. I grabbed it and felt a sharp searing pain in my finger. When i looked down i saw an inch long ant scurrying away! I suspected it might have been an bullet ant, so named because the sting feels like you have been shot like with a bullet! However it must not been a full sting as it felt a bit worse from the time i got stung by a wasp back home last summer. I checked wih rob and it was a bullet ant! Time to move pitches again!! My finger throbbed till at least 3pm that day.
Field work
We started to get the camera traps ready. These are remote auto cameras that take pictures of anything that passes. They are put out in pairs at a station, then there is a station every 500m. There are 8-10 stations in a line and 2 lines 500m apart.
The Pampas del Heath was in a sorry state. There had been fires a 1-2 weeks before. The grass had started to sprout but there were still palm trunk smouldering and ash & black dust. The Breeze was hot dry and dusty. My trousers and feet were black already.
On the way to the first station point Rob heard a male maned wolf calling. We set up the first cameras strapping them to trees, both facing the same animal path. You then have 5 mins to get out of there before they activated. We split into 2 teams. We used GPS to find and map the location of each station. It was mid day by the time we got to station 3, there was no shade and it must of been 40C. Eddy found in a hole in a hummock a small anaconda only 6 ft long. However as much i wanted to see them catch it i was feeling the heat of the midday sun.
I went back towards the last station and waited in the shade of some palms the lads said they would come back for me after they had finish setting the traps. After an hour in the shade i had a look in my binoculars for the lads and saw the camera traps 100m away. I decided to go back to camp after leaving an arrow made with brash by the camera so the lads could see i had headed back. On the way back i bumped into Julio who lad lost his team, we waited at the first station and then headed back. Antony said he´d heard Eddy and JC calling for me, so i was worried they had not realised i had come back. They came back to camp 20 mins later.
There was now time to chill out, so i moved pitch, 3rd time lucky! by the time i had moved pitch i had missed Theo and Antony going back to the boat and river to get more food. So missed out a swim and bath in the Rio! I had a wet wipe wash insead.
Eddie and JC had caught the anaconda and brought it back to camp to photograph as well as rescue from the blistering dry pampas. but dont worry it was onyl a baby at 6ft long!
The plan was to leave the pamas in the morning a day early, most of the pampas had been burnt, so there was not to survey. The rest of the traps would be put out and first light.
