pelf-ism is contagious

Don’t you just love custom-made signs?

pelf — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:36:50 +0000

There is this sweet little store called Cape May Signs on the 96th Street in Stone Harbor, just before the traffic lights on 3rd Avenue. The store has a variety of funny, witty and sarcastic signs pasted on all walls and windows and not a single inch of space is wasted.

There were sooo many signs that some of them were also displayed outside the store to attract potential customers.

When I first saw the “spending my kids’ inheritance” sign, it reminded me of a quote I read somewhere which says that the earth/planet that we are living on is borrowed from our children. It was clearly a quote on “sustainability” and “conservation” but I guess some subjects can just be applied to a wide range of things!

The “horn broken” sign is absolutely hilarious though I am not a “finger person”. I guess if you put that sign up on your car, you are being polite by informing other drivers about the “finger”

And of all the signs that can be found in the store, I guess my favourite sign must be this one:

I know it’s crude and not all that appealing to the general public, and frankly speaking, it’s a little too vulgar for my liking. But then again, think about it. Think about all the annoying people who annoy the “whatever” out of you daily. And well, if these annoying people could fly, I’m sure this place would be an airport!

Check out other funny signs here (please DO NOT click if you think you might be offended by such signs).

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Playing the Flickr game

pelf — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:48:31 +0000

OK, let’s take a break from all the road patrols and gory-looking pictures and ugly horseshoe crabs and do something FUN!

But first, I’d like to congratulate myself for successfully upgrading my blogs and my sister’s to WordPress 2.6 WITHOUT messing anything up, and without having to call Edrei in the middle of the night to help me fix it. GREAT JOB, PELF!

Anyway, let’s get back to this very FUN Flickr game that I picked up from Edrei. For those of you who might be interested, I have been uploading pictures taken from my maiden voyage to the USA into my Flickr account, so if you’ve got time, do drop by. BTW, I am based at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ until August 8th.

Now, the rules of the Flickr game are simple. First, answer the following set of questions. Then use those answers to search for pictures in Flickr using Flickr search. Then, pick a picture from the first page of your search results. Then copy and paste each of the photo’s URLs for the images into the Mosaic Maker.

If you’re ready, these are the questions:

What is your first name?
What is your favourite food?
Where did you go to high school?
What is your favourite colour?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favourite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favourite dessert?
What you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name.

Look what I’ve got!

Image credits:
1. The intruder, 2. Legendary Panda Cub tree climber, Su Lin., 3. Porta de Santiago (A Famosa) (#24), 4. The View Of Tehran - Greens Vs Blue Sky, 5. Richard Gere, 6. peachy, 7. Waiting for Belphegor HDR, 8. Too, 9. Leaving the nest, 10. A Helping Hand, 11. Fresh Dinner, 12. Aren’t the penguins cute??!!

And these are my answers/keywords, just so you know what’s what in the mosaic above

Pelf (like Edrei, I found it funny that none of my photos appeared on the search result)
Chinese (NOT the panda)
Melaka
Green (though not all shades of green)
Richard Gere (hey, I heard he’s a Buddhist too)
Anything peachy
Paris (it’s called a DREAM vacation, OK?!)
Chocolate chocolate chip ice cream
Turtle scientist (that’s a picture of leatherback turtle hatchlings emerging)
My family (and everybody else I call “family”)
Interesting
Pelf Nyok (this is my current Flickr profile)

Please feel free to snatch this and post it on your blog (and let me know so that I can check out your mosaic)! It’s FUN

4 Comments

At July 17, 2008, Edrei wrote:
Glad to see someone did it. :)

You got to save a picture into Flickr or onto your server. They don't allow direct hotlinking.
At July 17, 2008, Nicole Price wrote:
Congratulations on the upgrade. I too struggled for quite some time. I do not think that I am quite cut out to try the Flickr!
At July 18, 2008, Hsin wrote:
I did mine :biggrin: here --> http://blog.hsinyuek.com/?p=149

pelf: A password is needed to access Hsin's blog :)
At July 20, 2008, Pelfy wrote:
Maybe you wanna take a peep at mine here.

:biggrin:

Horseshoe crab spawning census

pelf — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:32:42 +0000

Apart from the terrapin-related research and conservation work that we do at the Wetlands Institute, we do other research work too. For example, one of the earliest projects that we were all involved in was the horseshoe crab spawning census that was conducted in May and June.

A census was conducted 2 days before the new moon and full moon, on the new moon and full moon, and 2 days after the new moon and full moon. During the spawning census, an intern walks some totally random number of steps on the beach for 1 km, and then count the number of male and female horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) that are found in the quadrant. Another intern records the number of horseshoe crabs in a data sheet.

The female horseshoe crab is bigger than the male, and she is usually partially submerged in the sand and the males would be “hooked” onto her. We have seen as many as 10 males to a female! Apart from the obvious difference in size, the male horseshoe crab is also characterized by the presence of a pair of boxing-gloves look-a-like legs.

Besides counting the number of horseshoe crabs in the quadrant, two other interns are responsible for counting all the male and female horseshoe crabs in the same 1 km length of the beach.

Despite what you might think about horseshoe crabs, they are pretty harmless. Some people eat them, though they haven’t much meat to begin with. And whatever you do, NEVER EVER pick a horseshoe crab up by its tail. I guess it’s akin to me picking you up by your THUMB. And, legend has it that whoever kisses a LIVE horseshoe crab will have 7 years of good luck!

More pictures taken during the horseshoe crab spawning census here.

8 Comments

At July 15, 2008, budak wrote:
where did that legend come from???

How do the American horsecrabs differ from the Malaysian ones?
At July 15, 2008, Pelfy wrote:
Can you secretly bring back a horsecrab for me? I would love to kiss one too, but of course I wouldn't mind kissing two at a time (= :biggrin:
At July 15, 2008, Nicole Price wrote:
Crab is the Sun Sign for Cancer. You must know that the crabs are excellent friends and very sentimental. I am not surprised about this legend.
At July 16, 2008, Weweng wrote:
Its kinda slimy :) Thanks for the info.
At July 16, 2008, Weweng wrote:
WIll you eat such kind?
At July 17, 2008, Ludo wrote:
What funny pictures of Crab!
At July 17, 2008, KG Lew wrote:
very interesting... learning new things each day :)
At July 17, 2008, Cellulite Lady wrote:
Legend or not, I don't think I'll be trying to kiss one anytime soon. I know they're probably friendly, but MAN are they ugly.

Trapping terrapins

pelf — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:37:47 +0000

Apart from going on a road patrol 5 times a day and performing eggectomies on roadkills, researchers at the Wetlands Institute conduct other terrapin-related studies too. For example, a visiting scientist from the Swarthmore College deploys crab traps in Mulford Creek, just behind the Wetlands Institute in a mark-and-recapture study.

In the mark-and-recapture study, the visiting scientist deploys his commercial crab traps in the creek during the first high tide of the day. The fish bait will attract crabs and well, diamondback terrapins! He then checks the traps again during the second high tide (which is usually in the evening) and he empties the traps and brings the terrapins back to the institute.

Depending on the number of terrapins that the 15 crab traps are able to trap, back in the lab, we will have a micro-chipping party We will fill up a mark-and-recapture data sheet for each terrapin, and we will then measure and weigh it. If the terrapin does not have a microchip (and most terrapins don’t), we will microchip it (but since micro-chipping is an entirely different business, I will blog about it next).

Terrapins that have been processed will be kept overnight, and they will all be released the next morning, when he checks the crab traps during the first high tide.

When we go on a road patrol, we would usually see only adult female terrapins because only females come out to lay eggs. But with the traps, we are able to trap juvenile terrapins as well as male terrapins. It is hoped that the data collected from the mark-and-recapture study is sufficient to estimate the population size of the terrapins in the area.

7 Comments

At July 9, 2008, Naoko wrote:
Pelf taking baby terrapin out... Cute! XD
At July 9, 2008, Nicole Price wrote:
That is a nice humane way to trap and release the young ones.
At July 11, 2008, Eva White wrote:
Hard work but worth it.
At July 11, 2008, merv wrote:
something tells me that if i were the one removing the terrapins from that trap, my hand would get trapped inside haha!

microchipping party... hehe sounds like something an IT g33k would say
At July 12, 2008, danielctw wrote:
You are really doing what you're good at. Good job on that, I always love to see turtles being saved. Even tortoises...
At July 14, 2008, Pinky wrote:
don't the terrapins bite you when you try to take them out?
At July 15, 2008, xeldec wrote:
Great to hear that there are folks protecting and helping out mother nature. By the way, that's a great pic of you and that terrapin in hand.

How we save the eggs from female roadkills

pelf — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:15:25 +0000

Female diamondback terrapins that are spotted during road patrols are processed on the spot.

She will be checked for a microchip, and if she has one, we will try to remove it. Used microchips will not be re-used but they make very good educational materials. We keep them in small vials and pass them around during talks so that the audience have an idea how big the microchips are (the size of a grain of rice).

Whenever possible, we will also measure her carapace length (shell), carapace width, plastron length (underside) and height, but usually the carapace is very badly smashed that the only measurement we could take is the plastron length.

We then check for the presence of eggs in her oviduct. Some female terrapins are run over by cars after they have laid their eggs, but there are also many that are killed before they could lay their eggs. In cases where the eggs are not crushed (and strewn all over the road), we will put her in a box and bring her back to the lab at the Wetlands Institute.

Back in the lab, we perform a little surgery to remove the eggs in her oviduct, and the procedure is called oophorectomy, or simply known as “eggectomy” at the Wetlands Institute

The flap of skin right above the leg is cut open to expose the oviduct. In some severe cases, the carapace/plastron would be so badly damaged that the oviduct is visible without having to cut it open.

The terrapin carcass is then tilted to one side so that the oviduct and the eggs would slide down. It is always easier to let gravity assist in the removal of the eggs because we do not want to squash them by inserting our fingers into the cavity and grabbing the eggs. The eggs can be easily dented if we weren’t careful with them.

On average, a female terrapin lays between 8 and 12 eggs in a clutch, and we normally salvage that amount of eggs from the roadkills, but of course, there were instances where only 1 egg was found.

And sometimes, only undeveloped eggs are found in the oviduct!

Salvaged eggs are cleaned with distilled water and wiped dry before they are placed into containers containing 3 L of vermiculite and 300 mL of distilled water. The containers are then placed into incubators set at high temperatures so that more female terrapins are produced to replace the ones run over by cars.

More pictures taken during eggectomies (Warning: DO NOT click if you are not comfortable seeing VERY GORY pictures.).

15 Comments

At July 7, 2008, kristarella wrote:
That's pretty gross. ;)
However, excellent that you're able to save and nuture some of them. Good work!
At July 7, 2008, Bart wrote:
This is very interesting and educational :o). Keep up the good work!
At July 7, 2008, Nicole Price wrote:
Fantastic work that is being done there. These small measures will go a long way in keeping these poor creatures from becoming extinct.
At July 8, 2008, Mike wrote:
I've heard of this procedure but had no visuals to go along with the description, very interesting. There is some more info on this egg saving procedure on the Empire of the Turtle web page. Thank you Pelf!
At July 8, 2008, Pelfy wrote:
Very educational write-up. It looks as though I am watching Grey's Anatomy (=
At July 9, 2008, Puay Aun wrote:
Amazing things you are doing Pelf... A way deeper level of conservation...
At July 10, 2008, pelf wrote:
I wouldn't say that it is more significant, or "deeper" than what others are doing to save the turtles. Instead, I think it is a very brilliant thing to do.

When you think that all is lost, think again.
At July 10, 2008, Puay Aun wrote:
Yes... perfect phrase... When all is lost... think again... :-)
At July 10, 2008, cool photos wrote:
this is something I would post on my blog if I had a gore section :confused:
At July 11, 2008, Eva White wrote:
What is the success rate of hatchings?
At July 11, 2008, teng wrote:
Keep on blogging, we need you. I’ve got so much useful stuff from your blog and really value you opinion in this stuff.
At July 14, 2008, Pinky wrote:
thats great that you're helping the unborn terrapins out!

whats the % of babies that hatch out of the salvaged eggs?
At July 15, 2008, xeldec wrote:
I agree with the other commenters. Please keep on posting. These are very educational especially for a guy like me who is clueless about terrapins. I'm learning a lot and pretty much getting more curious about the subject.
At July 16, 2008, Angela Allen Parker wrote:
Interesting. Incredibly gory (especially right after enjoying a large meal), but great information.

Reminds me of a turtle that was cleaned when I was little on a farm, the turtle (not rare at all in that area, btw) was full of eggs, which were tossed in the compost pile.

Apparently the heat of the compost was just right, because a few weeks later we had tiny turtles crawling all over the farm.

I'd completely forgotten about that until I saw these egg "strands" photos.
At July 17, 2008, KG Lew wrote:
great things you are doing! great! :)