It has been three straight days with temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius)! Let me tell you, that’s hot, really hot, so hot my thermometer doesn’t go any higher. Our field station has no air conditioner and the fans work infrequently as we only have electricity a few hours a day, and sometimes we go several days with none. A regular supply of electricity is a mere fantasy, like a child’s wish of candy raining from the sky.

Days like these remind me of old M.A.S.H. reruns on television. I used to always think the stories of Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Honeycutt sweating away in their tents was overly dramatized. I laughed at how ridiculous they looked languishing in their sweat-drenched shirts. But now the stories take on an entirely new meaning. From personal experience, I know they were faking it. I look much more pathetic than they ever did! (Read Brian’s previous blog, Field Adventures in India)

The amazing thing is that in a few weeks, the monsoon rains will come, and we will have to deal with the heat plus high humidity. Yet right now, we are in the “dust bowl” stage. It hasn’t rained in months, and the parched earth lends itself to erosion via the strong winds that herald the arrival the monsoons. Dust is everywhere! It makes daily ear cleaning a must. I thought I was losing my hearing after a long day in the field. I was nearly panicked. I cannot adequately express the overwhelming sense of relief when I realized it was just sand that had clogged my ear canals!

But neither extreme heat nor sandstorm is deterring us from accomplishing our project’s goals. We have over 200 red-crowned roof turtle Batagur kachuga nests in riverside hatcheries, and hatching should start within the next week. Construction is coming along nicely on our new headstarting facility, the local welder is finishing the predator proofing that will completely fence the large pond. This facility will be a model “green” system of recirculating water through biofiltration tanks, with all the water pumps being powered by solar energy. Additionally, we have broken ground for our education center; we expect it to be ready by late summer. Hopefully by then high daily temperatures will be back down to comfortable 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius).

Just a thought: would a battery powered ice-cream maker be a justified “research” expense?

Brian Horne is a postdoctoral fellow for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.

Moderator’s note: Brian has been granted permission by the government of Myanmar to survey the upper Chindwin River in the Huakong Tiger Reserve (a first for a western chelonianist, or person who studies turtles) for remnant populations of the Burmese roof turtle Batagur trivittata. This turtle was thought to be extinct for nearly 60 years until a small breeding population was discovered on the lower Chindwin River several years ago. For the past four years, Brian has been working with the Turtle Survival Alliance and the Wildlife Conservation Society to headstart juveniles at the Yandabon Zoo in Mandalay from hatchlings produced at riverside hatcheries on the lower Chindwin River. He will search for suitable release sites for the largest juveniles in hopes of maintaining wild populations of this critically endangered turtle in late May and early June.

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