Was lepaking with Sali on Sunday night – we watched Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Man’s Chest – good stuff, go watch!
She brought up Dr Lee Grismer’s talk scheduled for the next day. I was interested, had heard a lot about the guy from Jeet and Chris. So in the end made it a date for Monday night. Had dinner with her in Amcorp and drove to MNS HQ after Maghrib.
Found the auditorium to be packed, a lot of unfamiliar people were there along with the regulars. As usual, according to Malaysian time, the talk started at 8.20 (it was scheduled at 8.00), but it was awesome! Dr Grismer knows his stuff, and he’s a great presenter. Not at all like the dry old perfessers of old.
Dr Lee Grismer is currently the Professor of Biology at La Sierra University, California and the Visiting Research Professor at LESTARI, Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia. He is the Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Department of Natural Sciences, Loma Linda University, and also at Centro de Investigaciones de Baja California Sur, Mexico. He is the Honorary Professor of Biology at Hainan Normal University, China, and Research Associate at San Diego Natural History Museum, California.
He spent 22 years doing island research in the Gulf of California, Mexico before starting a research program in Malaysia in 2001. He have also worked in South and Central America, Japan, China, and Cambodia, and northern Africa. He currently have approximately 150 scientific publications.
OK, that bit was cut & paste from his biography...
On the left is his home turf - deserts and on the right, his playground - verdant rainforests of Tioman. For the uninitiated, the Seribuat Archipelago is a series of 60 islands in the vicinity of Pulau Tioman, in the South China Sea.
Their research has found 14 new species, including 10 types of lizards, three varieties of snakes and a frog in the area. It is believed the richness of biodiversity was contributed from Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia, and further adaptations yielded new species.
Thinking only of my blog, couldn’t resist taking photos during the talk and got told off by Lorett. I plead guilty, your honour... So as not to waste what I had blinded people for, here are some of the slides that were shown that night.
The first is a mock-viper, a snake that defends itself by LOOKING like a poisonous viper. It's not, actually.
The next, a frog that is toxic. It killed his specimen-bag mates in a matter of minutes. Moral: Do not touch black frogs with yellow spots. (Hmm... it looks awfully like the one the boys put in my lap in Lentang in my student days... I WONDER...)
And the last, a new species. A blue pit-viper. Yup, the only blue viper in Asia. BEAUTIFUL, isn't it? And named after the org bunian, since they're supposed to be the guardians of the forest.
During the talk, Dr Grismer cited a lot of stories about the funny funny things that happened while in the field. He told about how new species climbed into their trap buckets, accidentally finding new species, toxic toads and stuff. You'll find stories of this kind common among field researchers - the best things are very often the result of LUCK. He also told of the idiosyncracies of each species he showed. He's a great storyteller... It made for a very interesting presentation. Not boring at all...
At the end of the day, the presentation was about passion, something crucial for scientists and field researchers. Camping out on site for days and weeks on end can be hard, walking and climbing long distances extremely tiring. Their prize - finding rare or new species, or crucial information that will help in conservation. Only a field biologist would describe a Mangrove Cat Snake (Boiga negriceps) as non-venomous and beautiful, even though it chewed on his thumb and made his arms swell for.. well, ONLY a couple of days. Yup, it’s a labor of love, all right, lots and lots of it!
Dr Grismer fielded the many questions afterwards expertly and encouraged people to do research and write-up their observations. He is more than just a hotshot expert, he’s a mentor. His excellent photos and interesting explanations can make anyone fall in love with the beautiful amphibians and reptiles, especially the lovely, lovely snakes. Glad he’s on our team...
Went back feeling glad I attended the talk. Almost wanted to come up with a research project to work on... Almost... except that I’m totally daunted by statistics and am a lazybutt to boot. So... maybe not la... :-pHmm... something just got postponed, so my weekend just opened up. Maybe should try to go out to FRIM this weekend :-)
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