Guest Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 11 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said: I saw some at the supermarket this arvo and thought of you! Part of it is the novelty-the US government, in their infinite wisdom, protects us from Kindereggs. And part of it is that they are just so cute :). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 19 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said: How's your daughter feeling about the congress? Nervous? Excited? A mix of both? We're all cheering her on! Starting to get more nervous now that we're in Dunedin and it's more "real". Her talk isn't until Weds, so even once the official activities start (people are arriving now, so there are unofficial things going on before the opening ceremony Monday morning), she's not "on" right away. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, dmmetler said: Part of it is the novelty-the US government, in their infinite wisdom, protects us from Kindereggs. And part of it is that they are just so cute :). You can buy them in bulk on Amazon. The toy is in a separate compartment from the chocolate now. Toys are just as cute. We sell them at our German School. (Okay, technically Kinder Joy not Kindereggs, but still fun.) Edited January 2, 2020 by Lawyer&Mom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 The Kinderjoy don't have this range, though. They're all endangered/threatened animals, and all Southern hemisphere. (AUS, NZ, and Polynesia). There is also an enchanted creatures I'm eyeing, but I think it will be hard enough to finish one range before we leave. Although I did find that KMart in the city centre stocks the endangered animal ones (as well as the enchanted creatures). Supposedly, people have had them confiscated at customs, so I'm guessing I need to extract the toys before landing in the USA. DD is more than willing to help me consume the eggs (did I mention just how good Australian chocolate is?) 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 Day 10/11- Day 10- we arrived in Dunedin, found our rental house, and found the grocery store. I already posted house pictures. Apparently the cat says we bought the worst food possible-I'm not used to outdoor cats refusing food. Day 11-we went to the Orokonui ecosanctuary, which is a large piece of land, fenced off to keep mammals out, and with active removal of possums, stoats, rodents,cats, etc for the benefit of reintroducing native birds and reptiles. There are multiple ecosanctuaries in NZ, both on islands and on the mainland-Orokonui is focused on preserving the cloud forest ecosystem. It has been active for a bit over a decade, and is a habitat now for many species, and is the site for the only recent mainland wild reproduction for both kiwi and tuatara, after successful reintroduction. We didn't see Kiwi, they're nocturnal, nor tutatara (it was a bit windy and on the chilly side), but did see many tua, who sound like a cross between a bird and R2D2 (beautiful call interrupted by mechanical sounding beeps and sounds), blackbirds, including one who attempted to play dead (like a hognose snake), Otago skinks (endemic to this part of NZ), the brown creeper, bellbirds, kakaruai, and takahe. Lots of amazing plants and trees, including the fern trees (quite a change for us Northern hemisphere folks where ferns are low lying plants) and awesome lichen. It is truly an amazing site and efforts, and an awesome natural history research site. We saw a lot of places where there were obviously experimental sites set up-we should be able to hear about some of the efforts with tutatara, jeweled gecko, and Otago skinks next week. The active conservation and preservation (vs just sort of hoping for the best) is great to see and an amazing effort. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) Day 12- We visited the OCHO chocolate factory. Until about 2 years ago, a lot of the Cadbury production came from Dunedin, and they were a major sponsor/employer. They had an extremely popular tour, similar to the Hershey World of Chocolate one, without the amusement park (one of the companies that was part of the original expansion to the Southern Hemisphere was based in Dunedin). Unfortunately, they chose to centralize in Australia, pulling out of Dunedin entirely. After an effort to crowd fund to keep some lines open (and the tourist part running) failed because the company wasn’t willing to let the local folks keep going, crowd funding moved to supporting a tiny, craft chocolate company, Otago Chocolate, which specializes in single source, high cocoa chocolate. The company is currently owned by about 3500 people, who bought shares in the original funding drive, and produces about 150 bars a day (tiny), pretty much all pure chocolate. They do a tour and tasting as a big part of their story, largely to try to provide some of what was lost in the Cadbury pullout. I have to say, maybe I don’t have refined enough taste, but high cocoa chocolate still tastes super bitter to me, even when it comes from a craft producer vs a bar of baking chocolate from the grocery store, and even their milk chocolate was pretty dark. I prefer Whitaker’s or Cadbury. Of course, the fact that my favorite bars generally aren’t pure chocolate (in fact, I think the only ones left from the first set of “favourites” I bought in Sydney are the dairy milk and the Turkish delight) probably plays into that-OCHO doesn’t make Cherry Ripe or Crunchie. Next, we went to St. Clair Beach. One thing about Dunedin. It is really, really far South. Like “penguins and sea lions” South. We are in the middle of summer, and the temperatures feel more like early Spring. It’s green, it’s growing, it’s sunny, with rains almost every night/morning, birds are singing, but you still want a jacket, and I’m rather glad our rental house came with electric blankets since it doesn’t have central heat. There were a few surfers out, and both DH and DD went in just a bit (I decided that when it’s already cold on the beach, going into the Pacific without a wetsuit seemed like an experience I wanted to miss). We then went down to the Octagon-basically the town square, except that it has 8 sides. Dunedin was built inside an extinct volcano, so the Octagon is also about the flattest part of the city. Most of the rest of it is hills and rises, with a lot of very twisty roads and some of the tightest turns I’ve ever seen. I am in awe of anyone who rides a bike here. I’m hoping to make it back into the Octagon during the day. At night, the only things open are restaurants and clubs, but there are a lot of interesting looking shops there, as well as some historic buildings. Today the WCH officially starts, although it’s mostly meetings and a few workshops, although we do plan to go to campus, check out where everything is, and pick up our ID’s, etc. And the pre-conference networking has started. There were groups collecting at multiple pubs last night. DD may well be the only delegate/presenter not able to partake of that piece of local culture. I do wonder how well early morning sessions are going to go for those coming from farther north. Nights here are short-dusk isn’t until about 9:30 pm, and dawn hits before 5:00. As someone who tends to follow the sun, and struggles in winter at home, NZ summer is great, but does tend to lead to sleep deprivation. The good news is that if you primarily want to do stuff outside anyway, you’ve got a lot of sunlight. Edited January 4, 2020 by dmmetler 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Last year, Bring it on the musical was a big part of DD’s cheer competition soundtrack. I have the same songs running through my head today. In many respects, it kind of seems wrong that most academic pursuits don’t get the lights, camera, and action of sports. Or even of the dog show world that I was reading about in my e-book backlog on the flight from Sydney. Think we could get Lin Manuel Miranda to write a musical about the world of science conferences? Cross the line-from Bring it on 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) Great photos! I was hoping to see a photos of the sea lion sleeping on bags of sand. 😂 How specific is that? Cracks me up. And what are the sand bags for anyway? Is there flooding somewhere? That is really cool to hear about the extra long days. It's the same in the arctic in our summer. People sleep with special blinds on their windows, or just stay awake until the early hours. Edited January 4, 2020 by wintermom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arctic Bunny Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Reading everything with interest, having lived at the other top of the world! Definitely take the toys out of the eggs. I believe it’s the capsules that are the whole problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Are you currently in Australia? All the news here is about massive wildfires and evacuations continent wide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 We’re in New Zealand right now (and will be until we head home the 12th). We were in Australia from the 24-30th. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Let's get started! Today we explored the Otago Museum at the University of Otago campus and got oriented. A relatively relaxing, low key day before the serious work begins tomorrow. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 BTW-I have exceeded my pictures max for direct uploads, so I'm posting photos via a link, which is kind of a pain on mobile.if you want to see more and are on FB, let me know and I can friend you there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arctic Bunny Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 5 minutes ago, dmmetler said: BTW-I have exceeded my pictures max for direct uploads, so I'm posting photos via a link, which is kind of a pain on mobile.if you want to see more and are on FB, let me know and I can friend you there. Oh no! I’ve been enjoying them so much! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 I'll try to post at least a few, but it's a lot harder to post large numbers this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 1 hour ago, arctic_bunny said: Oh no! I’ve been enjoying them so much! Me too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 A good breakfast is important to everyone! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 If professional conferences were covered like sports: Every four years, the most eminent minds in Herpetology gather. They represent every biome, every continent but Antartica. They are supported by top Universities, Government and NGO conservation organizations, by zoos and wildlife centers, and by their peers in professional organizations. Some are students, appearing for the first time on an international stage, some seasoned veterans.All have come to the far south climes of Dunedin, New Zealand. It's time for the 9th World Congress of Herpetology!!! (Insert appropriate celebrational music here) Today the events include: Species Conservation Population and Landscape Genetics I A new event, X-Ray Microtomography Amphibian Bioacoustics Adaptation and Evolution-sprint and distance events (AKA-5 and 15 minute talks) New and Innovative Technologies in Herpetological Research and the must see Novel Approaches to Science Communication and Conservation, which will lead off with the exciting case of Romeo, the Sehuencas water frog. But first, we go to St. David Hall at the University of Otago for the opening ceremonies, followed by an exciting keynote on “Slowly Does it, Working with Reptiles that May outlive their researchers” 7 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 4 hours ago, dmmetler said: If professional conferences were covered like sports: Every four years, the most eminent minds in Herpetology gather. They represent every biome, every continent but Antartica. They are supported by top Universities, Government and NGO conservation organizations, by zoos and wildlife centers, and by their peers in professional organizations. Some are students, appearing for the first time on an international stage, some seasoned veterans.All have come to the far south climes of Dunedin, New Zealand. It's time for the 9th World Congress of Herpetology!!! (Insert appropriate celebrational music here) Today the events include: Species Conservation Population and Landscape Genetics I A new event, X-Ray Microtomography Amphibian Bioacoustics Adaptation and Evolution-sprint and distance events (AKA-5 and 15 minute talks) New and Innovative Technologies in Herpetological Research and the must see Novel Approaches to Science Communication and Conservation, which will lead off with the exciting case of Romeo, the Sehuencas water frog. But first, we go to St. David Hall at the University of Otago for the opening ceremonies, followed by an exciting keynote on “Slowly Does it, Working with Reptiles that May outlive their researchers” I was trying to think of bands with reptiles in their names to be playing at your opening ceremony. My list started and stopped at Whitesnake 😅 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 1 hour ago, chocolate-chip chooky said: I was trying to think of bands with reptiles in their names to be playing at your opening ceremony. My list started and stopped at Whitesnake 😅 The Turtles (Happy Together) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Well, Sir Elton John is supposed to be playing in Dunedin later this year, according to the Dunedin mayor's speech yesterday, so maybe he can lead off with Crocodile Rock 🙂 Day 13-or World Congress of Herpetology,Day 1 Overture, dim the lights,this is it, we'll hit the hights....on with the show, this is it! The first day of the Congress was extremely windy. For the opening, every speaker began with a greeting and introduction in Maori before switching to English (one thing I like about NZ-the indigenous version comes first), which had DD a little worried that she'd missed a requirement in her talk, and that she was going to be disrespectful if she skipped it, but would totally mess it up even if she managed to get it written out since there was no way she could pronounce it correctly with an American accent! Fortunately, the afternoon sessions did demonstrate that this wasn't a requirement. There are 870 delegates representing 57 countries,and over 600 talks, speed talks, and posters, with 24 specific symposia-this is a huge conference. Yesterday's sessions featured Alison Cree's keynote on tuatara and the slow life histories of NZ lizards (one of the live bearing gecko species has a 14 month gestation period, and by the end, you can see the baby gecko attempting to kick it's way out. I think every mother in the place felt those kicks and now has a lot of empathy for the gecko!). We then went to the amphibian bioacoustics symposium-basically, using technology to detect frog calls and, from them, ascertain presence and absense of species. And this was where the global nature of the World Congress really stood out. It is fairly typical for there to be keynotes at conferences that either are given by someone from another country, or involve extensive fieldwork in another country, mostly because you work where the animals are. But in that first afternoon, we had speakers from Europe, Japan, Asia, India, Australia, and Canada, and they represent institutions from those countries, plus China and Sri Lanka, and work in the above countries, plus Borneo, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and outlying islands (and in some cases, source additional data from local recordings in even more countries). The scope is amazing. The other thing that really stood out is that we're used to there being a big audience and fill rooms for big names at large conferences, but for a majority of sessions to be poorly attended, and most of the people coming to the conference to socialize, and to show off their own work and their students, but the real meat actually happening in the hotel bar and various other venues. For this conference, it is obvious people are there for the talks-and while there is a lot of networking happening, it's not happening in a hotel bar until after the sessions have wrapped for the day. It was rather nice to have the afternoon tea literally be milk and cookies and fruit. Alli (and anyone with food allergies or sensitivities) appreciate the clear labeling (down to the type of cheese in the quiche, which may well be due to the fact that blue cheese is on my allergy list). It is very easy to be vegetarian in NZ in general, and especially at the conference. Alli was definitely concerned about the professional level, since unlike most of the conferences we attend, student speakers are a definite minority (although a lot of the poster presenters are students, and I think every single student is presenting something), but the afternoon sessions were, while excellent, very stress reducing. From the person trying to find inexpensive, off the shelf components to beamtrace frogs in Borneo, using Raspberry Pi, open source software, and common components, who ended up going from a 6 speaker system to a two because the components she could get in Germany were not able to be shipped to China (where she currently lives), she struggled with the programming, finally got that together, only to discover that her casings were not watertight, and while she got enough data to prove her concept, and to show that this can work before everything shorted out, it was an extremely frustrating and stressful project. DD and I decided that she needs some engineering focused homeschooled kids who love playing with such components and coding to work out the kinks. Then there were the usual slide glitches, the Canadian student who had been initially accepted for a 5 minute talk, but got slotted into a 15 minute session instead, and struggled because he hadn’t put his additional data in his notes or slides, having distilled his talk down to 5 minutes, which also meant that he got utterly grilled in the question period due to there being lots of extra time. All in all, she came out feeling pretty confident that she can do this, and, by the end of the day, was quite enjoying the conference. Due to high winds, the electricity was out in our rental house when we got back. Not too big of a deal, since it came back on later, but it is a bit chilly-and by that point, batteries on almost everything were pretty low. DH spent the day exploring Larnach Castle, which is the one castle in NZ, and pretty much exists because a rich immigrant from Scotland wanted one, and a family in the 1960’s discovered it and restored it. He has a different set of photos on the digital camera that we haven’t uploaded yet. Today, our plan is lots of behavioral ecology. Although the rain may lead to picking sessions due to proximity. One feature of a university hosted conference vs a convention center-you actually have to go outdoors at times. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 This morning so far, behavioral ecology, including how well do geckos stick, and do they choose things they stick to better, do snakes take the moon into account at a full moon, what makes fire salamanders more or less yellow, and my personal favorite, a "mature student" from University of Victoria-Wellington who was researching gecko color changing in response to predators (literally, paper rolls of predator and non-predator birds and butterflies)-and who seemed absolutely terrified (I'm guessing the reason the room monitor clarified that she was a mature student is so people understood that she wasn't a seasoned pro, since she isn't the typical 20 something grad student). She settled in and rocked it, by the way. Way to go, Mom!(she acknowledged her daughter on her final slide). Next, more behavioral ecology, and it also lets us scope out DD's room for her talk tomorrow. After that, lunch and making sure her slides are loaded and ready. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Tell her good luck tomorrow and we're rooting for her!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Slides uploaded for tomorrow! 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 13 minutes ago, dmmetler said: Slides uploaded for tomorrow! Will the talk be streamed somewhere for us to see, by any chance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 DH is planning to record it, and hopefully we’ll have it up on DD’s instructor page at Athena’s. They are live streaming the plenaries to a second site (because there are more participants than any site on campus holds except the rugby stadium), but I don’t think there is a livestream. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Think they knew we were coming? This is at the University bookshop Only in NZ 🙂 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 There's a John Green young adult novel with a tuatara as a main character (sort of). It's called Turtles All the Way Down, if I remember correctly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 The favorite talk of the afternoon- Asian water turtles can recognize more and less in groups of up to 10 numbers, quite reliably :). And I pretty much find it impossible to listen to a talk from an Australian male Herpetologist without picturing Steve Irwin. 6 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 On 1/6/2020 at 7:29 AM, dmmetler said: If professional conferences were covered like sports: I read this post out to my brother and daughter using a sensationalist broadcaster voice and they loved it. 🦎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 I'm so enjoying this thread! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Day 14/Day 2 WCH Yesterday was behavioral ecology. Lots of great talks, lots of interesting content, some of which will make it into future IntroHerp and Herp2 classes. The two standouts for me-the “Mature Student” who was obviously terrified (I’m guessing she was announced as such because the room monitor wanted to make sure the audience knew she wasn’t a seasoned professional, since she was in the age range of many of the PI’s), but who pulled it out and rocked her talk on gecko color changes in response to possible predators (she used paper cutouts of predator and non-predator birds and recorded bird calls. The geckos definitely picked up on the idea of predator present) and the afternoon talk on learning in Asian water turtles, where she was able to teach 80% of her test turtles to distinguish more and fewer cubes up to 10, and 90% up to 9 (and her methodology basically followed what you do with young children, or kids with dyscalculia to work on such skills). One of her final points “turtles are not moving stones”. Alli got her talk uploaded, so it is ready for tomorrow. Afterwards, we went to Baldwin Street, which may no longer be the steepest street in the world according to the book of records, is definitely pretty steep. DH walked up it. DD and I decided our joints would prefer we didn’t. DD’s session starts in about 3 hours. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/herpetology-meeting-draws-hundreds-city 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 We're waiting for the session to start. DD is the 2nd speaker. She's gotten connected with the room moderator and AV person, made sure her slides are set, and generally is comfortable. Her herp mentor didn't make it, due to her father's health issues, but DD seems to be handling it pretty well, and there are enough friendly and familiar faces to provide support. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 There is a live stream, but I don't know if it is anything but keynotes https://hdtvstreamingair24.com/World-Congress-of-Herpetology/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 I will be attempting to live tweet @LittlePythons as well. I'm not going to try to Periscope or FB live, 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 SHE ROCKED IT!!!! I’ll poat photos later (or they are on twitter). 10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 1 hour ago, dmmetler said: There is a live stream, but I don't know if it is anything but keynotes https://hdtvstreamingair24.com/World-Congress-of-Herpetology/ Do you have a time for Alli's talk? I'd love to listen in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 (edited) 9 minutes ago, dmmetler said: SHE ROCKED IT!!!! I’ll poat photos later (or they are on twitter). Argh! I missed it! Yay Alli!! Edited January 7, 2020 by chocolate-chip chooky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Here’s the twitter thread https://twitter.com/littlepythons/status/1214649242540634112?s=21 i don’t know if I managed to get all the posts in the thread 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, dmmetler said: SHE ROCKED IT!!!! I’ll poat photos later (or they are on twitter). That's awesome!! What a fabulous experience. So happy for her. Now she can really relax and enjoy things. I just read the Twitter and saw what her topic was. That is really exciting! I'm sure it was well received. Great job!! Edited January 8, 2020 by wintermom 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 Day 15/Day 3 WCH-Education and Outreach track 🙂 As mentioned above, today was the day for DD's talk. She was in a pretty great mood going in, and rocked it-she was comfortable talking about her students and the class, and had some great points that I've never heard her lay out so clearly before, even when talking about the classes. I'm hoping that the recording comes out well. There were some other great talks in her session, including on the value of training and developing local citizens when working in less developed countries, on the use of digital data and the iDigBio database to make museum specimens accessible to a wider group of people (and if you have a 3D printer, and want to print a frog skeleton, they have the files, and generally accept all reasonable requests to download. "I want to print a frog as part of our homeschooling program would be accessible", the efforts at educating local people in snakebite prevention and snake conservation, from people doing such work in India, and the results of amphibian education at the high school level. This afternoon, we went to the poster session, and then headed into the City Centre. One thing about NZ-many businesses close by 5:00-6:00 at the latest, so it has been hard to do much after the conference days. But DD was ready to do something different for a bit, and the afternoon talks were veering into depressing or "requires a specialization in that particular area to really understand), so it was a good time to explore elsewhere. We visited the Dunedin train station, and I took pictures there and of some otherold buildings (including the former Cadbury factory....sniff!). We also didsome shopping, so I now have some Kiwi keychains for my piano students. (This is the hive....I couldn't NOT include the kilt pic!) 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 WCH-Day 4/Day 16. Since today’s talks were a mix of “need a lot of background to understand” (biochem/toxicology and phylogenetics/taxonomy) “depressing” (disease) and “have already seen it or am likely to see it (combination of the above, since a lot of today’s talks are US ones, and about half the B.Sal symposium is from UT’s Animal medicine research group), we decided it was a good day to explore a bit. Tunnel beach is beautiful, takes a rather steep walk (supposedly a gentle slope according to the tourism site) to get there, and is a little scary (Alli got hit by a wave she wasn’t expecting, and found it quite intimidating). There was a sea lion sheltering on the beach, and Alli and I saw another one in the water (or maybe a fur seal) swimming-but we didn’t get a photo of it. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 Breathtaking photos! Thanks for sharing. I love those Wildlife Alert signs! I feel like there could easily be more details, such as, "Sally is a 12-month old sea lion who is experiencing bullying from the other sea lions. Do not bother her as she's in a fragile condition." 😂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 5 minutes ago, wintermom said: Breathtaking photos! Thanks for sharing. I love those Wildlife Alert signs! I feel like there could easily be more details, such as, "Sally is a 12-month old sea lion who is experiencing bullying from the other sea lions. Do not bother her as she's in a fragile condition." 😂 We were discussing yesterday what the backstory was :). And given the waves at the place, staking out part of Tunnel beach seems like a pretty clear way of saying “Mom, leave me alone!”-like the sea lion version of a teen door slam. It also made it clear just why Moana’s father was so against her leaving the sheltered lagoon. The idea of handling the waves even at St. Clair in an outrigger canoe is hard to imagine. (I watched Disney movies a big chunk of the flights, including Moana in Maori with English subtitles). 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 Today is social behavior and Sociality in reptiles and amphibians, which is the category DD has been waiting for. As always, it strikes me how easy it would be to walk in an assume they're talking about humans vs animals (for example, Eastern Water Dragon females tend to be accepted by other females or males, but males are treated with initial suspicion and possible aggression by both genders. As the researcher explained, water dragon males desire female companionship in season so have an incentive not to turn potential mates off, and females often are subject to unwanted attention from males, so see another female as being safer. Which pretty much sounds like the life of a woman from her mid teens through about her mid 40's. There was also another neat talk about how even "antisocial", "solitary" animals have to be social to some degree (in this case, crocodiles). More social behavior this afternoon 🙂 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 This afternoon was sociality-lots of how different animal groups interact, parental care, recognition signals, and just plain cool stuff. It's kind of neat to hear Japanese and Chinese giant salamander researchers discuss the difference in how male salamanders care for young :). 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 The bagpiper was interesting. Were there a lot of Scottish immigrants to NZ? Also a bit surprised to see the double decker bus. I mean I know it was a British colony, but I didn't know they could be found outside London. (Makes me wonder what sort of container ship carries double decker buses?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Dunedin is called "The Most Scottish town outside of Scotland". The name is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh, and most of the street names come directly from Edinburgh. It feels very British-except for all the Maori names and labels. It's a different feel from Auckland (although we were only in Auckland for 3 days, vs 10 for Dunedin). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Oh, dear....I don't know why the Limes have names, but this one seems rather, unfortunate.... 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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