I made it to the field camp, quite luxurious I must say…. we have an electric fridge and freezer, electric stove…. I spy a coffee maker, and I’m sure there is more hidden.
It was a good day with Alfonso and Tobi, I photographed the methodology of how to collect the ants, and the data collecting that followed. The ants are invasive and travel slowly, they are on either ends of the study area, but not in the study area yet. The idea is to try and develop some strategies to halt the spread of the ant. It is pretty impressive as a creature, it is asexual, multiple queens can live in a nest. Since it is asexual it won’t fight its neighbor relatives, yet it is super aggressive towards other ants and insects. Multiple queens means it is almost impossible to kill since there is always a backup queen. In addition, when it floods the worker ants form a raft to protect the queens! Talk about an evolutionary ass kicker. The people I’m with are good teams, everyone is helpful and supportive.
Also: the ants are collected with peanut butter on index cards with chop sticks, always next to the proposed road, in the savanna or forest.
After a pleasant one hour plane ride, I’m in Gamba. Shell Oil runs the flights so the plane was nice and everything was spick and span. Smithsonian is partnering with Shell for this study so Shell is providing housing and logistical aid, in addition to funding. My stomach is getting better (I caught something on the trip over), and my appetite is slowly coming back. And I took my first photo!