16.1.11

Ticks and Vampires

Ticks. Yuck. Among the most unpleasant of all the bloodsuckers - they make mosquitos look like angels.

We are being plastered in ticks as we stumble through thick viney forest looking for the thin yellow lines left by the crossbow arrows. Eventually these lines will all be joined and we’ll be able to start the long process of pulling the big cable across the valley. If the ticks don’t suck all our blood before we can finish the job.

The presence of so many ticks isn’t as bad as it seems. It means there are plenty of animals around - which means that there will be predators such as the dry forest cats; jaguars, pumas, ocelots, margays and jaguarundis - one of the crew even saw a puma yesterday.

On the other hand, the vampire bats are missing. In a place where a year ago we filmed vampires sneaking up on deer with the thermal camera, now there are none. An evening’s wait revealed no more than a mouse and two rabbits (which of course in their own way are just as interesting.)

4 comments:

savannah said...

inventive and let's hope, easily done! xox

LẌ said...

Perhaps Night Of The Tick on National Geographic?

Avo said...

So what's the theory on the bats? They've followed their main prey to other grounds?

ammonite said...

The only thing achieved with ease around here Savannah is cake-eating, the rest is one big wrestling fight.

xl - Night of the Tick sounds like a faulty alarm clock

Alesa - we don't know what's going on but hope to find out.