Comments on: Where is Paradise???

By: Gretta Kwasnicka

Gretta Kwasnicka — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:02:51 +0000

Well done!

By: Ramona, Kento and Girls

Ramona, Kento and Girls — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:29:11 +0000

Good Day Jack and Tiffany!
Wonderful blog and absolutely fascinating story of your latest sailing ventures.
We live vicariously through your blog and the girls will share the sailing adventure in class next week. We have you guys as a pinpoint on the map in Soleil’s classroom. A very fine educational tool and what a story.
Send more photos.
Lukim yu Behain,
Telluride Kids.

By: Colin Purrington

Colin Purrington — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:18:53 +0000

With your collection of beetles, might be fun to look at their phoretic assemblages compared to other, less toxic beetles in the same area. You’ve probably already done that.

As a complete aside, can you con IT people at calacad to make your blog RSS type, so I can subscribe?? Would increase readership by orders of magnitude, I suspect. Great to see you.

By: John Hocknull

John Hocknull — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:02:16 +0000

Brings back lots of memories of when I was a Patrol Office in the Bosavi 1974-76. As OIC Komo Patrol Post I used to patrol through the entire area carrying out various function from policeman, magistrate, agricultural adviser etc. My last case as a local Court magistrate was one of canibalism in the Bosavi.
Next time you go please invit me son who is senior curator at Queensland Museum. Just publishing a paper on three dinosaurs recently discovered in western Queensland.
Great country, great people, great nature.

By: jdumbacher

jdumbacher — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:43:51 +0000

Good questions – and ones that we should all think about with all of our work. As I am sure that you know, the CalAcademy is very committed to reducing our impact in every way possible. In the field, my research team travels as light as possible, and we try to reduce our impacts on the local culture as well as on the environment – this means living as simply as possible, carry as little as possible, and eating with and staying with our local hosts whenever possible. Purchasing garden food from local villages helps reduce trash (plastic wrappers, tins, etc.), while supporting the local economy and affirming local food choices.

This particular camp, set up by BBC, is being turned over to the local villagers when the expedition is finished. The village is working with another outside group to use the infrastructure for future eco-tourist enterprises and working with university groups in PNG, USA, and Australia for college credit courses. We are all hoping that this is successful – as it will be an amazing place to continue rain forest research and to teach tropical ecology and evolution! It would be very difficult or impossible for the village or the universities to launch such an enterprise without the initial support provided by the BBC.

You may be interested in our CalAcademy planning for future island related research, in which we will utilize a sailboat for getting to the islands and for living on. This will additionally reduce our impact in many ways, including reducing our use of fossil fuels for transportation, reduce our need to build camps on the islands, and we plan to equip the boat with the latest solar and wind powered generators for our work. The work we are blogging here in MIlne Bay and Manus is basically reconnaissance for that future work that will require a boat and visits to some of the most remote and unstudied islands…

There are lots of things we are doing in addition to reduce our impact – too many to mention here – but we will be posting them on our South Seas research pages:
http://research.calacademy.org/research/bmammals/southseas/southseas.php
Check out the “Expedition philosophy” link for some hints. I hope to find time to add more thoughts here. Feel free to email me with any thoughts or ideas you may have too.

Thanks!

By: Don McIntire

Don McIntire — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:28:19 +0000

Dear Dr. Dumbacher,
I had first noticed the study of poisonous birds in my copy of the Birds of Paradise/Frith & Beehler. I am interested in Coleoptera in particular, and have had a fascination for parasitism and toxicity (Beetles sequestering plant allomones and toxins for defense). How does natural selection play in this scenario of the birds (Ifrita cowaldi and Hooded Pitohui) predation on such aposematic and toxic insects as the Melyridae? It seems an extreme adaptation, since there a. re a massive number of other less-toxic insects to choose from in the rainforest environment. Obviously it must have taken some time and acclimatization for the birds (as the poison-arrow frogs) to sequester the deadly toxins involved. I do not expect an answer to my comment, but I just find this all very strange and wonderful and want to thank you, and others like you, for these elegant views into the world which is often so confusing and truly MAGNIFICENTLY BIZARRE! Sincere thanks, D.McIntire-Tucson, AZ.

By: Susanna

Susanna — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:29:18 +0000

I appreciate all the research and study that goes on to help us better understand and appreciate our world and its creatures, I am wondering what environmental impact you and your team have on the local environment which is very fragile. Do you consider conserving as much as possible with air travel, road travel, etc.? A lot of gear, food items, etc. are brought in. What do you do with all that “stuff” at the end of the visit? Hopefully, you carry it out with you when you return home.
A concerned environmentalist

By: sherrie moore

sherrie moore — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:07:31 +0000

I THANKS YOU FOR THE AMAZING PHOTOS. JUST LIKE I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE.
ENJOY THE RESEARCH.

By: suzanne poulsen

suzanne poulsen — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:05:45 +0000

i enjoyed this very much and very interesting,educational for a grand ma. thanks.