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FishNet Explore '98 - Tuesday, June 23rd Journal Entry - PartII
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Yesterday's post recounted an "interesting" adventure in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Today's posting is of the same account, only fron Heiko's point of view.
Heiko Says.....
John was the first up and had, in this border town of Luckville, already filled the tank with fuel by 7am. We packed and left to reach the northern part of the reserve before the heat becomes unbearable out here in ths desert. It was a beautiful drive (51 miles)! TO BE RECOMMENDED TO ANYONE WHO LOVES NATURE. This untouched wilderness looks like it is a gigantic landscape done by Man! Everone of the giant (up to... high) ..... cactus had its place, never too close to the next one. In between beavertail cactus with violet flowers, or a .... with tiny yellow blossoms. Then the spiny bushes, which looked dead except that at their extreme end they had orange flower stems about 5 to 10 inches high! In between we saw cottontail rabbits hopping along, a ....snake and the holes everywhere of rodents (....) and lizards (....). Naturally the most stiking were the birds. The woodpeckers for instance, made holes for their nests into the giant ...cactus, mostly in the high upper part of it. Once used the next bird species takes over. The multiuse of these ideal nesting places can be seen throughout the park.
We reached about 9am Quitobaquito springs and sure enough, as predicted by John, the scientist and his wife were there working with the pupfishes. They had buckets full of fishes and as soon as the scientist saw me, he came towards me and said: "Heiko how are you? Remember we saw each other in Trieste last year at the Congress of European Ichthyologists and the year before in New Orleans at the AMERICAN CONGRESS! ALSO I WROTE ABOUT AQUA GEOGRAPHIA, YOUR MAGAZINE, IN COPEIA!"
Then I knew that I had Mike in front of me, the responsible editor for COPEIA, the world's formost scientific journal on herpetology and aquatic biology. "Come and meet my wife Mausi and Tim from the wildlife reserve". (This must have been an embarrassment for Tim, who had never told us that Mike was here, nor mentioned that any research was done on the pupfishes...).
Mike said "First have some water in this desert one must drink and drink, please make me happy and drink water. Then come and see what I am doing!" Mike has for many month/years working with the Quitobaquito pupfish population. He marks the individuals with a red or yellow spray/paint, a tiny dot one one side of the fish, with a color one can see on the fish only in darkness under a ultraviolet lamp. It is fascinating. With these markings he is able to make pretty exact population studies and tell how many specimens are concentrated in Quitobaquito (his estimates so far are over 30,000), as well as how many individuals remain in the affluent spring, in the channels and which stay in the lake/pond itself. And how many migrate (very few).
Mausi is a tremendous help and they come and camp out once almost every month and soon will finalize the study.
Tim, who heard all the conversation I had with Mike and his wife, offered to show us, that is Paola and myself, the affluent spring, channels and the more remote springs in the desert area around.
We walked behind him. He showed us the traps and how they collect the pupfishes for the study. The environment and the vunerablity because of the close border with Mexico and explained that 2 native tribes claim rights to Quoitobaquito Spring - which is the only water source in this remote area! And for thousands of years it has naturally been the land of the indigenous people... The settlers who came only a few hundred years ago and used this land for their cattle and naturally this only water source, have already been "removed".
Then Tim took us across the desert to the first spring. First it seemed that he didn÷t find it! (which I couldn't believe) and walked criss-cross over the hills and the desert. (I guess he thought that we had no experience and would never find our way back in case of getting lost). The first spring was practically a dried-up tiny waterhole with less than an inch deep and 8 wide, overgrown with plants. No chance for a fish to survive in it. Than he said "the other springs are a few miles away from here!" I followed him always watching my step and direction, even while photographing plants. Paola behind me. It was over one hour walk and far away from Quitobaquito, when we reached a hilltop and he showed us the almost green valley where there should be 3 springs. Downhill I asked him for the location and he pointed to 3 spots in this "green environment". Unfortunately this could have been anywhere there...
When we reached the valley, Tim had already been walking ahead, he suddenly disappeared in the bushes! We followed his footsteps, but those disappeared and became invisible over the stony ground. Paola started to scream his name (and can she scream!), but no answer. We walked all over the place, also to the localities where there should be springs. But no springs and NO TIM. Then I told Paola to stop screaming, and not to waste more energy, as we had no water, any food or resource and it was 114 F in the shade... We had been walking for over 2 hours in this unbearable heat.
Paola was afraid, especially as she had seen that Tim was running to disappear from us! I tried to calm her down and said: "Don÷t you worry, I will bring us straight back, on the shortest way, and we will reach Quitobaquito before Tim, you will see. This guy doesn't know me... He probably thinks we are some dumb gringos..."
About one and a half hours later I saw Mausi and Paola followed. She immediately had us have some water and was surprised that Tim had lost us. Soon John and Mike came with buckets full of trapped pupfishes and could also not believe that we had lost Tim. I just asked Mike if I could photograph some pupfishes and he said "sure".
About 15 Minutes later, as I had almost finished my photo session, Tim arrived. He did not say a single word in respect of his disappearance in the desert, nor questioned how we found our way back. (This already was the proof that he wanted us to get lost in the desert maybe to show us up, or to keep us from being able to photograph the pupfishes, which he denied us from the very begining and did everything he could to have had us travel all the way from Europe in vain... Well dear Tim does not know me!).
We made a group photo and I thanked Mike very much, as well as Mausi and Tim, and we left.