Sleeping Sites

Hey everyone, this week has been pretty amazing one!!!

It was loris party in the forest with 7 spottings of different animals, 2 nights in a row. It was like the lorises were everywhere. And we manage to record some amazing video. This is why I love fieldwork so much because everyday is different and bring lots of surprise.

But this week I will talk more about the loris sleeping sites. After not seeing anything last week I decided to try again to look where the loris are staying during the day. Here are some pictures to show you how we record with the camera with limited equipment in the field.

Method sleeping site 1 — – The basis of the study is using this thermal camera.

Method sleeping site — – Using the thermal camera in the field.

This time we manage to see 3 of the lorises with the camera and even visual confirmation. We managed to see them only because they were active and thus allowing me to see them moving through the dense foliage. Lorises can sometimes be active during the day but they are sleeping most of the time and staying in the same tree.

– An example of our lorises sleeping sites under thermal camera.

For the other ones that we didn’t manage to see the leaves act like a cover for the heat of the animal. Here some picture to show the difference between what we normally see and the view with the thermal camera. It is pretty amazing and so much potential for future studies.

Priscillia Miard, Visiting Researcher