of road kills & night foraging...

This has been a packed week even though it's only Thursday...

On Tuesday, somebody from the nebulous public reported a road kill along the PIE near the junction with BKE, reportedly a pangolin, a kind of scaly ant-eater. Of course, this was right up our resident mammologist, NM's alley. So we hopped on to B's vehicle, B being our government-agent & point-man for such things, and sped to the said location, only to find the carcass lying right smack in the middle of the right-most and the fastest lane, vehicles zooming in excess of 100 km/h when the traffic cops aren't watching.


Road kill, Malayan pangolin or Manis javanica


A snatch-and-grab operation in broad daylight was planned to recover the body. It involved a turbo-charged open-top pickup, a rather large fish-net, a long wooden broom-handle, 3 covert operatives and no air support...heh...

So B was the pilot for the whole operation, everything hinged upon him maneuvering & slowing to a strategic speed on a 100km/h heavy-traffic highway, allowing the 1.9m-tall NM, sitting behind, to swop down and scoop the body up with the afore-mentioned equipment. As for me, hey, I'm just the war correspondent clueless kaypoh, so don't shoot...


NM examining the carcass up close...what a pong!


Everything was systems go as we sped back to the hot-zone. The ride was choppy, with heavy enemy presence traffic all around. B made his approach, slowing down to almost a crawl for the retrieval. NM reached down and made the scoop...

"Crack!"


Preserving tissue sample in 95% alcohol for DNA work.


The broom handle snapped into two, dropping the body back on the hard tarmac road with a dull thud. B jammed on the brakes. Suddenly all hell broke loose as the enemy opened up traffic started to back up behind us. The sound of gun-fire cars horning was incessant, an RPG Audi A6 whistled pass, barely missing us.

"Abort! Abort!" screamed NM.

"Heck! I've had enough of this," I muttered, and promptly jumped over the side, grabbed the late-pangolin in my right hand, snatching up the net and broken handle with my left.

"Get back in! Get back in!" B shouted above the pandemonium.

I dived back into the vehicle. "Go! Go! Go!"

B sped us out of the hot-zone...

Remind me to either stay as a neutral observer next time or keep to walking in the forest, a much less stressful escapade...


Trapping a few ants in plastic bottles.
Photo by NM.

...which I did the same night along the Lower Peirce boardwalk. I think NM had enough of the afternoon's stunt and came along with me to chill out.


Big critters!
Photo by NM.

These ants, known as the Bornean Giant Forest Ant or Camponotus gigas, are probably the largest in the world, coming in at the size of a cockroach (albeit a rather skinny cockroach). They are rather timid creatures and scatter around when they sense danger in the form of ground vibration or torch light, so I had to be extra gentle in bagging a few of them.

Well, so much for the past few days...