Second cat on the air

14th of September, we got up at 6:30 to eat breakfast and pack the car. Kim and Namshur left the camp, if not for good then at least for a long while. Since I wasn’t going, I took my time, I was actually at the toilet when I heard Kim screaming “Snow Leopard Alley” as she came running down Signal Mountain (the place where we listen to our transmitters). Well. I’ll be damned, it says on our whiteboard that we were going to catch Longtail on the 13th, on day more or less eh? I know, originally I said the 2nd of September but there’s nothing wrong with a second guess, is there?

 The plan was that the car was going to leave at about 7:00-7:30 but it didn’t seem as any one minded the delay. The trap that had been tripped was Lower Snow Leopard Alley, a really good snare (if Kim or I may say it). We’ve worked hard to improve it. In the same manner as the trap that caught Aztai, it is also situated at the base of a cliff near some scrapes. From the beginning, we built a huge pile of rocks to funnel the cats to the trap but two weeks ago or so, we moved the trap a meter (the hole was a bit too big) and carried maybe 2-300 kg of rocks away from the place. There is no funneling at all (except some very small, thorny bushes to lead the cat right) but on the other hand it looks very natural. We waxed the cable last week and lifted it up a bit, that is we placed small flat rocks under the cable, that way the cat will likely not stand on it. Downside is off course that it is easier for the cat to see the snare.

 You could almost touch the tension in the car as we were driving towards the snare, since it was Kim’s last day she walked the last part to the trap and soon came back with her thumbs up. Oh, man. That felt so great, especially after all these empty snares and false alarms.

 I loaded a dart and we walked up to the cat, I kind of recognized his face pattern (he has two arches above his eyes, hope that there will soon be some pictures on the blog) and was almost sure that it was Longtail. Whoever it was, it was pissed off. The cat had dug out the drag, the transmitter was moved, the trap was several meters away from its previous position and our trap camera was dead. It received a fatal blow during the capture, you can actually see where the canine teeth went in, he really tried to kill the camera.

 If you think of it it’s not very strange, the cat we caught was a 44 kg heavy male. He probably considers himself to be pretty cool and he is in the middle of his home range (we think). As he strolls up Snow Leopard Alley, he suddenly feels the smell of another cats poop on his scrape! What the … (Longtail can’t know that it was we who placed that juicy scat on the scrape). So he walks up, sniffs the scat and as just as he is getting in position to erase this ordeal his paw gets caught, he gets pebbles thrown in his face and as he tries to run away he realizes that he is caught. But that’s not all. The bastards who did this to him didn’t stop there. No, they put a camera at the trap to take pictures of him in his humiliation and since it is dark that camera uses a red “flash” for the Infra red pictures.

 Even if the pictures are of lousy quality we can actually see the nose in one picture and in the next; the canines when Longtail decides that the “flashing” thing must die! 

As we approached him it became obvious that he was still upset about the trapping incident. He tried all his snow leopard tricks to intimidate me; he showed me his teeth, he hissed at me, he even tried to look big. Nothing helped though, seconds later he had a dart in his thigh.

 The capture went smoothly and we got all the samples. Thank you Jonas and USDA, we collected blood in 10 filter paper strips and placed them in clothes pinches? (kladnypor in Swedish) to dry. Midgi decided that the cat should be named Bayartai (pronounced Bayr’te) which means “Good bye” and also “everybody happy”. I’m glad that Kim and Namshur were around to catch this cat cause he has fooled us a few times. Oh, he wore his previous name with honor, Longtail’s tail was 1.8 cm longer than Aztai’s…

 At about noon they all left the camp. Midgi is driving and Oyuna came along. She has been complaining about a bad tooth ache for a while and on the 13th she asked if I could give her some of the drugs we use for the snow leopards and pull the tooth…

 I don’t want to be rude but I’m not too keen on killing the cook either so I said no. Though I offered her to go to Dalandzadgad with the crew to visit a dentist instead and she took the offer. Remember what I wrote about herder mentality and planning, she was in Dalandzadgad a week ago but did she see the dentist? I shouldn’t be too hard though, I think that dentist and black smith is the same thing out here and there is probably not much hope of getting any other pain relief than Vodka. I would hesitate to go to the dentist too under these conditions. Speaking of dentists, I was at one in Sweden in June to make sure that my teeth were fine before I left. I have a tooth that’s been hurting once in a while and I was a bit scared that it would give me problems. The dentist asked me to say how much it hurt on a scale from 1 to 10. This must be a universal scale cause the ambulance personnel asked the same question about my knee in Canada. I don’t want to claim that I’m a tough guy in any way (on the contrary rather, see below) but I reckon that if 10 is the highest value there is; that must mean that you pass out after 10. So I answered that my knee was four to five and my tooth was maybe 1.5. The dentist took some X-rays and said that I needed a root canal. Later the nurse asked about pain relief and dentist answered “no need, it’s dead”. That’s strange I thought, I’ve always heard that root canals are kind of painful. Well, she was 50% correct, one of the nerves was dead, the other one was fine. I wasn’t fine when she drilled into the nerve though. Would actually place that sensation at about 6, or maybe even 7 on the scale. Somehow the dentist thought that it was my fault cause I hadn’t told her how much it hurt… Well Mrs Dentist, it hurts now. Is that normal shouldn’t the tooth be dead if you do a root canal? What have you done with my tooth? I don’t dare going to the blacksmith, as I wrote I am way to Knapsu (explanation of Knapsu will follow) for that.  

 When I’m writing about the not-so-wise and at the same time somewhat painful parts of me I might as well tell you the foot story. It’s a bit embarrassing but the foot is fine now so I figure that I can share it.

The last week in Sweden was very hectic; two days before I left I decided to wash my winter sleeping bag. There is a good washing machine and tumbler? (Machine where you tumble dry things) at Grimso wildlife research station where I used to work. I brought the sleeping bag, threw it in the washing machine and did some computer work, came out and realized that the tumbler was broken. You must tumble dry the bag to get the filling evened out through the bag… I called all my friends until I found a person Jenny, with a tumbler. She brought the bag and tried to tumble it at her apartment but she could only set the machine at hot or cold, she was afraid that hot would be too warm so she chose cold.  The day after she dropped by with the bag, it was still damp so I left it outside (in the warm and nice weather) to dry and went to the station to do some computer work. Couple of hours later Gustav says “wow, I think that we will have some rain”. I looked out, saw nothing but black clouds, threw myself in the car and almost made it. The rain started pouring down when I had one km left, as I ran to the sleeping bag I saw a pool of water on it. I had had too much to do for a couple of days and didn’t need that. In pure frustration I kicked out, hit the stairs and felt what I would describe as maybe a three or four on the scale spreading in my right foot. Great, how am I to explain this to Tom? It’s not possible, better to tie the boot hard and try not to limp when there were people from the project around. The foot doesn’t hurt anymore, maybe 0.2 on the scale but that doesn’t count.

It was Chris who introduced Knapsu to the camp. If you read the book “Rock’n roll in Vittula” by Mika Niemi you will find a very good explanation of the word. Vittula is a part of Pajala, a village in the northernmost of Sweden, close to Finland. I hope this is correct cause my good friend Marie comes from Pajala and she will be very upset if I get this wrong. Many of the people up there speaks both Finnish and Swedish, Knapsu is Finnish and means “unmanly”. Typical examples of knapsu are: doing the dishes, pushing the child-trolley…

We have tried to come up with some rules of what is knapsu in camp. Chris thinks that screaming in the shower cause the water is cold is knapsu, I would rather say that heating the water up before using it in the shower is knapsu. Though that means that I am knapsu cause cold water is not a friend of mine…The day Kim and I set the trap we caught Bayartai in she brought a tin can of sprouts for lunch. I have never had sprouts before. Sprouts are small fishes (we call them agnsill in Swedish and use them as bait to catch for example mackerel). Kim claimed that it was very knapsu not to eat the heads… I claim that the people here have misunderstood the whole concept. You are not supposed to eat the bait but rather the thing that eats the bait. God damn it.

 Being afraid of the dark is very knapsu. I am not afraid of the dark. But when it is dark I am a little afraid of the things that I can’t see cause it’s dark…

Last night I had a transmitter tripped. I kind of hoped that it wouldn’t be a snow leopard cause I was all alone and things are always harder when it’s dark. We have a full moon here and since there are no trees it is very bright in the nights. As I’m walking to the trap I start thinking of all stories about wolves with rabies that get shot in the villages and that I am walking right under cliffs that would be great for a stalking snow leopard. Then I notice that my headlamp is about to die. I have another one in my backpack but it’s kind of neat to walk in the moon light. And I’m not afraid of the dark; I don’t need light. So I’m telling myself.

 Half of you are probably laughing at me now, but as I wrote, I’m not a tough guy. The interesting thing is that I have walked the same way many times in daylight, often with my MP3 player. I would probably be an easier prey for a rabid wolf but I feel secure even though I can’t hear anything, strange? Same thing happened in Kenya when I lived in a tent with some Massai. As long as my friend Ulf was around things were fine but when he got sick and left I woke up a couple of times cause a leopard snarled nearby or some lions roared as they passed by and that was scary. When a leopard circled my tent, snarling I held my knife tight and swore that I would move the tent closer to the fireplace at first light. But as light came, I felt secure again and left the tent where it was. Strange?

 I don’t know. But I know that it wasn’t knapsu. Stupid maybe but not knapsu.