This week Marina Macharia- a geneticist student from São Carlos Federal University – who is evaluating ocelot genetic diversity of Pontal do Paranapanema and Foz do Iguaçu came to visit us. This issue is the theme of her master degree dissertation and she came to see how the project works in practice. In other words:

- To have hands-on experience in the field.

After a, let’s say, a longer than wishful period of storms – here we are in the end of the rainy season – we could prepare the stuff to check the cameras on Seis R. It does not help our field activities but creates spectacular lightning shows on night.

Lightining in front of our house in Teodoro Sampaio.

We are trying to apply a new methodology to collect cat’s hair samples using “hair traps” with catnip (Nepeta cataria). Who never saw a domestic cat rubbing someone’s leg and objects? Or even had one rubbing in your own leg? Indeed, many times some friends of mine that do not appreciate this animals as pets (how could then???) use to say that this is the reason: they do not like of this behavior. Writing this I am remembering all cats I had – well, we do not own cats, they choose to be with us – and all I can say is that I miss each one of then…

So, the point is that wild cats and other mammal species also use to rub in unanimated objects. And: wildcats also “get high” with catnip!!! We decide to test if by fixing Velcro wetted with catnip we can stimulate the ocelots to rub on it and theoretically there is a great chance that the Velcro holds some hair on it. If it works we will use these hairs to get DNA samples.

I bring some catnip from Belo Horizonte and test it at home to see the reaction of the neighborhood cats. They do not look very impressed. In fact, no one of the four cats that use to walk around our house rubbed in the trap. Let’s see if we get better results in the forest.

On the day by day life, my beloved friend and partner Deep Thought (my computer) starts to overheating more and more frequently and stops to work without any reasonable cause. It make me lose many stuff and close to the complete despair – after all I can not stay without this tool - I decide to open it by my self to change the refrigerator cream on the central processor unit. Do it yourself! Well, if I say that it did resolve the problem it is a lie, but was an interesting experience…

Fixing???

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