Monday, January 08, 2007

Dung-Ho

New Straits Times
January 7, 2007
A young researcher whose heart is as big as the animals she’s determined to save lets JESSICA LIM tag along on her unusual quest.
AFTER months of battling shin-high, leech-filled mud, dense undergrowth, wasps and a kind of poisonous tree sap that breaks skin into raw blisters, the petite girl squatted happily by the treasure she sought.
It was a shimmering, lustrous pile of elephant dung.
"Wow. Very fresh. So nice," said elephant researcher Cynthia Boon as she broke into a smile.
Boon pinched a bit of the human head-sized bolus and sniffed it.
The team whipped out their dung-assessing gear — a GPS reader, compass, measuring tape and identification tag — and began noting how far it was decayed, the size and exact location.

To read the full story click on the blog title

No comments: