My days in T&T in 2011 have been very exciting due to the visit of the Cornell vet students. I've been doing a lot more spur-of-the-moment planning which has led to many great opportunities. Take today for example. We visited the Aripo Livestock Station and met with the head of the facility. He mentioned the need for research on brucellosis and Johne's Disease in his dairy animals and asked if that would be something of interest to me. Sure! He also invited me to a conference on manure management next week. My networking skills have gotten pretty good since I've been here.

While at Aripo, we sampled from buffalypso, a strain of buffalo that is a mix of breeds. Aripo uses them for dairy, so they will be used for my cattle study. We also sampled from regular Bos taurus cattle as well. Sarrah Kaye removed some ticks from two buffalo. One was definitely R. microplus and the other is believed to be Ambylomma.

After some lunch and a quick trip home to pick up Gigi, we stopped off at El Soccorro Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. We saw all sorts of birds, turtles (and sea turtles), reptiles, you name it. We even saw same the Boat-billed Heron I saw at UWI a few months ago. The staff did an amazing job with that bird. Before, it looked sickly and scared. Today, it looked regal. I told them that I would come back to voluneteer in the near future. I'd also like to collect samples from their animals. They seemed on board with the idea!

Tomorrow should be another fun and interesting day. We are going to another wildlife clinic, except that this one is run by the foremost expert in the field: Detta Buch. She has a Trinidad Piping Guan at her rehabilitation center. It is a goal of mine to see one before I leave Trinidad. Score!!!

Exhausted again. Must end here.


Gigi with a burmese python


High-fiving my primate relative


Sampling a buffalypso


Group photo at the El Socorro Wildelife Rehabilitation Centre


Parrotsitologist! harr harr harr


Boat-billed Heron