Kevin in China
clock | August 21, 2008Kevin has just posted another photo-rich report from his herpetology survey in China. Lots of pictures of Chinese landscape, Chinese people, Chinese food, and yes - cool Chinese animals.
clock | August 14, 2008Kevin has posted another very long and picture-rich essay from his China survey. Many pictures of interesting reptiles and amphibians, yummy food, and stunning Chinese landscapes.
clock | August 11, 2008For those of you who have enjoyed Kevin's herpetology dispatches from China two years ago, you may want to go over to the FieldHerpForum.com and read his reports from this year's trip.
clock | July 1, 2008For those of you who remember the adventures of Kevin in China from two years ago, he is there again, doing his herpetology fieldwork and reporting regularly. Instead of this blog, he is posting his adventures and pictures on a herp forum - probably the best way to follow is to check out his posts there.
clock | October 9, 2006Kevin is back from China and busy with school, work and herping in the Sandhills so it took him some time to put together this last installment, covering the last few days in China, the last-ditch efforts to ID some of the mysterious frogs, and the glorious return.
We have yet to get together for a beer, but if he decides to continue writing on his own blog, I'll let you know.
Conclusion
13 September
We arrived back in Beijing around noon. It was a good two hours until we finally made it back to the institute of zoology. Emma wasn't getting off work (she was teaching English at an…
clock | September 12, 2006Kevin has only 5 more days in China so, apart from rain, various farewell dinners are keeping him too busy to do much collecting. Except, this time, it is a different kind of herping altogether, watching the alligators at a farm and diving for turtles.
Anhui
4 September
My last complete day in Muyu; as this day had been approaching I have been thinking about all my experiences. The most beautiful hikes would have to be the hike on the 31st in Xiagu, when we followed the river back down to the trail. We saw many sights that we know no one else ever went to, due to the remote access and danger…
clock | September 5, 2006The adventures continue. It's like Steve Irwin, but without the cameras.
Last Leg
(of Shennongjia)
27 August
Watched some made-for-TV movie (in English!!) with the chick from the TV series "Weird Science" and the movie "King Pin." My plan for the next few days was to go to Pinqian for 3 or 4 days, depending on luck, returning to Muyu on the 31st because the 1st was Xiaoli's birthday. Then we'd go to Caiqi (Tai chi) for a day, followed by one last visit to Dalongtan to check on the tin.
For the most part, whenever I am in Shennongjia I am at the mercy of Linsen and/or Xie Dong. Linsen was…
clock | August 28, 2006Well, nobody in the comments here or here could help Kevin identify the mystery frog yet (if you are a herpetologist or fancy being one, take a look) and now Kevin caught yet another, even more mysterious frog. Can you help him identify it? Leave a comment here if you recognize what frogs are these.
Anyway, if you are fan of the series of adventures of Kevin in China (and if not, you should start the series from the beginning - you WILL get hooked), the new field report is under the fold.
Dongxi, revisited
22 August
Didn't hear from Linsen about where I am to get a bus or taxi to Yichang.…
clock | August 24, 2006Perspectives, the magazine of the North Carolina State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in its Summer 2006 issue has highlighted five 'stellar' students, including Kevin (the third one, so you'll have to scroll down - they do not understand the concept of Permalinks yet).
The article mentions his prior survey field-work in the Sandhills of North and South Carolina, particularly his excellent study on the effects of moon phase on snake activity.
clock | August 22, 2006Kevin, lacking all the necessary literature out in the middle of China, is having some doubts about proper identification of one of the frogs. He sent an e-mail asking for help.
I know that many scientists read this blog, but are any of my readers Herpetologists? If so, check out the photos and post your ID opinion in the comments. Kevin will come by later to see what you have to say. Here is his message:
Hey everyone, got another mass ID question. I realized some pics of my mystery frog were lacking, so I gathered all the pics of Frog B and put them in the folder "confounding amphibian…
clock | August 22, 2006A broken taxi, a mouthy snake, and a question about snake embryology.
Jiuchong, revisited
16 August
Day of rest. Day before I was at Banqiao, tomorrow I'm heading for Jiuchong. I discovered to my absolute horror that Independence Day has been taken off the air. My savior, my light at the end of the tunnel, my safety blanket has vanished. No one except for Vanessa and Emma will be able to empathize with me. The line up is no longer Shaolin Soccer, followed by Independence Day, followed by the bank robbery movie, followed by the Russian movie, now the line up is completely different. The line-…
clock | August 18, 2006Kevin is back in the field, catching herps with abandon...
Return to Muyu
7 August
My first day back to the great town of Muyu. No more pizza, no more burgers, no more fries, no more cold beverages, just curious friendly faces. Linsen appeared in my room around 9am almost as if he hadn't missed a beat. I hadn't even told him I was back. I had gotten in at 11pm and without a Muyu card I didn't bother to call, and of course I wasn't going to call at 11pm. I'm guessing he walked by the hotel and Hi Yin or someone told him I was back. Emma had said Hi Yin was very excited when she heard when I…
clock | August 11, 2006Kevin leaves the countryside for a little vacation in the capital.
Beijing
1 August
It's August, absolutely the best month to be in the sandhills - I'm quite envious of Stateside people. We arrived in Beijing around 3pm today. We had taken the hard sleeper, so there were six of us in one room. When Dr. Li and I came in May we had the soft sleeper, which slept four people to a room. This was my second time on a train and I kind of prefer them. They are very calm, relaxing, there's nothing to do but read, write, or listen to music.
When we got out of the train station we hailed a cab. We had to…
clock | August 10, 2006Getting back to civilization...means having a Big Mac and realizing that watching MI3 dubbed in Chinese does not mean you miss anything of the brilliant plot and dialogue....
Yichang
(E-chong)
30 July
Today Vanessa and I left for Yichang. I got up around 6am and the bus left around 6:30. The driver took a different route than I remembered. During the drive I introduced and converted Vanessa to Metallica - at least the mellow side of Metallica. We arrived in the steaming hot town of Yichang at about 12:30pm. With its humidity and heat this town is like a sauna. Yichang is probably the biggest…
clock | August 9, 2006After getting over his sickness, Kevin moves on with his research...
Xiagu, revisited
26 July
No fever this morning. We finally left for Xiagu. The primary purpose of Xiagu was to get the exact coordinates of that one Azemiops Mai Dachuan had found back in 2002. We were traveling with a full load, about six people, including Lao Tang, the guy that accompanied us to Bancang. One of the girls I was guessing was the entomologist, Linsen said she was a student at Wuhan. The Shennongjia photographer was also tagging along for the day. He was wanting to get pictures of me catching snakes and what…
clock | August 8, 2006I was wondering why it took Kevin so long to send in another report. Well, he was sick...
Chinese "Ebola"
This write up is going to be short and concise. Most of the days it consists of I wasn't in the mood for remembering details, so some of these days will fly by.
22 July
Today was another town day. Nothing special going on; Ci Ling was going elsewhere in Shennongjia to go white water rafting. The location she went to has some sort of Chinese secret and foreigners aren't allowed to go. Ci Ling told Vanessa and I that if we were caught we'd be fined 500 to 1,000 Yuan. She said not to worry…
clock | July 24, 2006Kevin is popular with the ladies....too popular...
It's been awhile since I've written anything so I decided to write up some stuff. Many cultural things have happened, but very few herps. Nearly everything is from Muyu with an occasional trip here and there.
13 July
This is where I last left off. We had left Bancang earlier this morning, around 6am. I do not know if I had written before about seeing two Chinese Pheasants in the road on the drive back. They quickly ran off so I was unable to get any pictures, just have visual images. Oh, and I found out about my "illness" on the trail at…
clock | July 18, 2006Kevin goes on a huge hike, finds an enormous snake, watches another snake eat a frog, carries a snake for 45 minutes in his hands, gets bitten by a pseudocobra, drinks five liters of stream water and gets sick....all in great detail under the fold....
Bancang
(Bantong)
10 July
Today the plan was to travel to Bancang for a couple of days. The station is a lower elevation station and we were warned that it was very hot. I need to get a few mid-summer observations in, so I felt we should still go. We took the refuge SUV, which I think unless things change, I will not take again. When we arrived…