Some of the pics from trip to Ecuador are now on Flickr. It’s meant to be documentation, so I whittled the number of pics of monkeys with lasers on them down to 20 something. There were over 500.

Go to Flickr

Here’s a few of the best:

Walking home late last night in downtown Brooklyn, I happened upon a colony of rats on the corner of Lawrence and Willoughby. There were about ten rats, males, females, very young to adult. For example, these five rats:

The group was originating from the fenced off area that had construction materials, and crossing over to garbage bags on another part of the sidewalk. The construction area had i-beams, long tubes and pipes, perfect byways for rats. A few of the rats looked to be about 12-13 inches, about 2lbs. I couldn’t tell what they were eating, but at one point one of the rats dashed back to the site with what looked like a giant bread crust. I spoke to a guy who wanted to know what I was doing, he worked for the MTA. He said that this corner has long had a problem with rats, and told me of other sites that would be worth checking out. For example, Battery Park, near the WTC sculpture. The rats were ultimately unnerved by my presence, taking photos with the flash, and sitting not so far away from their route to the garbage bags. This one was another chance pic, where I wasn’t sure if there was a rat in the frame because it was too dark, but the flash reveals much much more!

This is a post I meant to finish several weeks ago, but never did. I’ll post it now in the interest of showing how ideas are developing over time, but keep in mind a fair amount of the individual project information is stale. The first two projects are less likely now (though I still intend to taxidermize a rat).

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This rat project is blooming. It feels good to be back tilling the fields after 7 months of fallow with no ideas. I’m still in the mental soup stage, in which I let my free associative brain wander and build connections on its own. This is a crucial stage and can’t be forced. If I try to BE CREATIVE and come up with ideas nothing will happen. It works best when I sit there and daydream, just let my subconscious drive the car and hold the map. It’s not a passive process. It’s like imagining your childhood bedroom in three dimensions and as much detail as possible. It’s like traveling through your neighborhood like a mental Google maps car with a third eye. How much detail can you see? This is when the wildest ideas come and censorship has no apparent role.

This envisioning inevitably produces solid images. The project as it exists in my head now is finished, wrapped up and presentable. What’s in my head is shallow, however, and nothing like the way it will really turn out, but that’s how I move through artistic processes: backwards revisions, like remembering the future. The trick is to be flexible in my thinking so the project can evolve on its own. For this, I allow decisions to be made based on coincidences and confirmations, I follow the serendipitous and the correlative signs that have no place in critical or logical progression of thought. Since I’m neither a scientist nor a truth-seeking artist, necessarily, an allegiance to the empirical is not needed. In a certain way, I have very little interest in truth since fiction can illicit the same emotional responses; a narrative discourse can be truthful without a basis in reality. I thank several artists and writers for this realization, most notably Roland Barthes, Deborah Hay and Omer Fast.

Now onto rats.

There are several projects I’m pursuing that all fall under the rat umbrella. Again, these ideas are imagined final products that help me understand the process as I move through. These are quite literal, with very little nuance. Not all of them will happen as depicted below, and there will be more that come up along the way.  Some of these may never happen at all! Here’s what I have so far:

1. Rat Abortion Apparatus: how to solve the rat problem. Picture this: a brown rat splayed on its back with it’s limbs stretched and pinned back. Brown fur is real, taxidermized from an NYC rat. The mouth is opening and closing ,the limbs are shuddering. A person is allowed to operate the controls, one of which operates a scalpel. Vivisection. The scalpel makes a T-cut from sternum to anus, like in an autopsy. Another control pries the incision open exposing the insides of the rat are exposed, but rather than guts there are countless rat fetuses made of green plastic. The control panel reminiscent of a back-hoe controls a scooper that excavates the rat. It seems rather real even though it is a simulation. The scooper is able to remove several fetuses at once, kind of like one of those games at the arcade that drops a mechanized hand onto a stuffed animal and drops it into a chute. Not a delicate process– brutal, direct, destructive. An antechamber behind the rat is filled with more plastic fetuses that are pushed upward as more are emptied. People can take home their prize. The apparatus distances the person from the repercussions of their actions, it emphasizes the machine as an enabler of gross activity. The entire interface could be viewed through a spy camera, which would add a layer of difficulty as well as distance. This may also draw parallels to surgery on humans. Is that a can of worms worth opening? I’m currently researching how to successfully taxidermize a rat. I have no interest in a store-bought rat or any other rat I would have to kill myself or know that someone killed for this purpose or something similar (feeding a snake or a science experiment). I am interested in a rat that I would find on the street, fresh, poisoned or maybe killed by a dog (I’ve seen this happen in Washington Sq. Park). There is a certain amount of respect and duty I feel towards rats as a species, and rather than using a produced rat, I’d rather use a rat that is the equivalent of road-kill in the country. A wild NYC rat A rat that wouldn’t have to die if we humans were not here. A rat that wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for us.
2. Rat Spermicide: sterilizes, safe and easy to use. Oral. Pellet form. A plastic bottle that looks like it could contain over-the-counter drugs like Advil. A safe alternative to poison. Sprinkle the same as poison, in safe area away from children and pets. Make a mold of a bottle, print label stickers with corporate design. Pellets are little, colorful, candy-like. Make a flowchart for use a la nyc.gov. This could also reference the fact that we humans have our own birth control problems. Why is the onus on the female to protect herself by taking birth control or telling the man to wear a condom? There should have been a male pill long, long ago. Here it is, but with obnoxious comments like: “It is time for men to have some control. I think it would empower men and deter some women out there from their nefarious plans…” According to Caroline Bragdon, an official at the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene with whom I spoke on the phone recently, the city has already tried sterilization as a means to control the rat population, but it didn’t work as well as simply killing the rats. One rat can breed hundreds of rats in the lifespan. Humane number reduction/control was trumped by simplicity and efficiency.
3. The rat costume. (will write more later)
4. Tracking wild rats in NYC using RFID, and camera traps. (will write more later)
5. A series of new rat trap designs based on the current relationship we have with rats. (more later)

I found these three links on Russ’s blog, and decided they were very relevant to what I’m trying to do with tracking wild rats.

Animal Tracking Whitepaper- Princeton University

Tiny Transmitter Tracking Bees

Dragonfly

I’ve also been accruing a bunch of Delicious links on RFID. Eric Rosenthal recommends passive tags that have supercapacitors in them for wider range, and then I’d build the transceivers. The research I’ve done has not yielded results yet, there’s just too much out there and I don’t know enough yet to discern the useful from the non-useful. Give me a few weeks.

I started a flickr set dedicated to rat sightings. It can be a representation of a rat like this one below, or a real rat like the one below that.

I tried getting in touch with Sam Easterson to see what kind of cameras he uses and how he attaches them to large wild animals like wolves, and small nearly weightless animals like chicks. I wanted to know about power, transmission, and hardware, but he replied that he is short on time and cannot answer my questions. I hope he finds the time soon…

On a slightly different and somewhat less appetizing note, neuroscientist John Chapin at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn has been affixing cameras to rats for search and rescue missions, as well as to locate bombs. The rats, however, are remote controlled via direct neural interface, with electrodes attached to the portion of the brain that reads impulses from the whiskers, the most sensitive physical sensor on a rat. I heard a rumor from my friend Karl Cronin that rats with cameras had been used in the days following 9/11 to search for people trapped under the rubble.  I know dogs are very good at this task, but rats can navigate much smaller spaces and find their way back out again. Dogs trained in search and recover are divided into two categories through training, 1) search for living people, 2) search for dead people. The former is replaced by the latter after about three days of search because if a dog trained to find living people kept finding dead people it would place a huge amount of emotional stress on the dog, who expects a living person at the end of a search. The reward, in this case, is not a hot-dog, but a reunion with a stranger.

Had some trouble with the small radio collar today, got a regular “thump” approximately every 1.3 seconds, rather than a beep. Took them to the park and had signal from the center nearly to the western park limits (nearly 500 ft). Then we had a weak signal when I took the collar to the 10th floor of Skirball Center.  Almost no signal at ITP (interference?). The frequency of the collar was 148.9000 MHz, if that means anything. Tony says, “I suggest FINE TUNING the frequency when the collar is close to the receiver to get a nice “ping” rather than a “thump”.  I don’t figure you’ll get much range with the receiver since the antenna is omnidirectional.”

More pics here.

On the plus side, here’s a website I just stumbled on. A live 24-hour web cam in a black bear’s den. There’s videos of her giving birth 2 weeks ago.  She’s hibernating right now.  http://www.pixcontroller.com/WebCam/BearDenWebCam.htm

They could only do this because the “bear comes from a long line of research bears” and there was a power supply very near to the shallow den. But it certainly gives ideas. Bears don’t see IR.

I received an email back from Biotrack (which is now a part of Lotek Wireless), a company that produces radio collars and other tracking devices.  Probably not what I need anyway– I’m not tracking in a huge territory, nor do I need to ruggedize so thoroughly. Plus they’re prohibitively expensive, unless I can borrow a receiver that can listen to the device… No GPS sized for rats! But Lotek does have these amazing pit tag data logging GPS devices for fish and birds that, at first glance, seem pretty amazing. Datasheets for several different kinds are downloadable here: LotekGPS and here: lat-tdr.

Jan 17

Dear BioTrack,
My name is Arturo Vidich and I am a graduate student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. I am tracking wild rats in New York City to find out more about their secret social lives when they’re out and about, as well as in the burrow. This project will be funded (hopefully) by iLand arts residency and NYU.  Below are some questions and general interests in your products:

-Rats can sometimes get out of collars and chew through harnesses, so I am looking into biodegradable/ingestible glue solutions to affix the tracking devices. That way I don’t have to catch the same rat twice– the device will fall off on its own, and on the off chance the device is found it can be returned. Another option I’m looking into is a harness or collar that has a biodegradable clasp that will cause it to fall off within 7-14 days. Do you offer something like that?

-Given the short nature of the study period, a stronger signal with a shorter battery life would seem to make sense. The area I’m going to cover (pending rat range assessments) will probably not be very large, but I’m concerned about on-board data storage when the rats go into enclosed areas– I want to be sure that as much in-burrow activity as possible will be stored for logging later when the rat emerges– is that possible with your line of devices?

-One aspect of this project that I am considering is affixing a video recording device to get visual contact once the rat is out of sight. Does your company make any device, or have an interface on existing devices that could pair with something I build myself?

Lastly, if possible, could I have some quotes for this species, with the various options you offer?
Thank you!
Arturo

Jan 18

Dear Arturo,

Thank you for your enquiry and your interest in our products.

Biotrack specialise in VHF radio-tracking equipment for wildlife. I am afraid that none of our transmitters currently store data on board. The VHF transmitters emit a signal that can be detected with a receiver and antenna to locate each individual animal when you want to.

However, we do have receivers that can be set-up and left to detect presence or absence of the individuals in certain areas, the SRX-DL. I have attached the datasheet for this receiver for more information.

Previously for Rats we have supplied our transmitters on Brass or cable-tie collars. The brass makes the collars much more difficult to chew through. We can also supply transmitters that can be glued to the fur and these transmitters will fall off over time. The time that they will take to fall off is variable, especially if the rats will attempt to prise the tag off themselves. I have attached the datasheet for our small mammal collars for more information.

We do not make any collars with biodegradable clasps or similar break-away options but would be happy to make the collars so that you can add in your own break-away section.

We can also make these transmitters with activity sensors which change the speed of the VHF signal when the animal is moving and this signal rate can be logged by the DataSika.

Do you think that our transmitters and receivers could be suitable for your study?

Glue-on backpack transmitters start from 165 US Dollars and collars from 195 US Dollars. All prices exclude taxes, duty and shipping.

Our manual tracking receiver, the Sika or Biotracker, starts from 2,780 US Dollars, and with this you will need an antenna at 370 US Dollars. The SRX-DL (model B) for tracking our beeper transmitters is 2,995 US Dollars.

If you are looking for tags that continuously store location (and activity) data, you will need a GPS collar/backpack. However, these will not work underground as they will not be able to communicate with the satellites. We do not currently have any GPS collars small enough for Rats.

Please feel free to ask any questions and I look forward to hearing more about your study.

Best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Walley
Technical Sales Advisor

Biotrack Ltd, 52 Furzebrook Road, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5AX
Tel: +44 (0)1929 552992, Fax +44 (0)1929 554948

Biotrack is now part of Lotek Wireless.
Together we offer a greatly expanded range of telemetry equipment and expertise.

Small Mammal Collar

SRX-DL

I’ve compiled a list of people with whom I’ve had email contact in the last two weeks about my NYC rat tracking project. Some have been very helpful, and others have yet to reply.  If anyone reading this has any other insights into non-ITP people who would have useful expertise, or who might want to collaborate on this project, email me. The Wildlife Observation Tools class with Tom Igoe and Tony di Fiore is already panning out, and Marina Zurkow will be an informal adviser.

-Carolyn Kurle PhD (Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, UCSB)
-Dr. Robert Corrigan (senior scientist in NYC Dept. of Health)
-Katherine McFadden PhD (Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University)
-Natalie Jeremijenko (artist, engineer and scientist)
-Sam Easterson (artist and wildlife documentation specialist)
-Jennifer Monson (dance artist and iLand Arts director)
-Caroline Bragdon (NYC Health Dept.)
-Carolyn Weiss (Co-producer, “The World Without…” Science Channel)
-Cathy High (visual/media artist, independent curator, educator, possible dramaturge)
-Lorie Bierbrier DVM (Veterinarian specializing in rodents, dogs, cats)

COLLABORATORS I’M STILL LOOKING FOR:

-rat (a docile pet rat that I can size/fit tracking equipment to for non-invasive testing/optimization)
-tech (tracking devices, attaching sound/video to rats, visualizing data)
-video documentation (it’s really going to be a mockumentary, in a way)
-costume (I’m going to need help with this giant rat suit with motors, moving parts…)
-dramaturge (someone who will work on research and development, both conceptually and pragmatically)

These roles will be as collaborative as possible, but with any project, people end up doing more of one thing than another. Ideally, all these elements would be in dialogue towards an ultimate end project.

On Saturday morning Russ and I went to Central Park zoo to observe snow monkeys (macaca fuscata or Japanese snow monkey) using the methods described to us by Tom Igoe and Tony di Fiore from the Anthro department. It was very cold. The macaques seemed cold too, huddled together. Every once in a while there would be a disturbance and the troupe would bound around. [Clicks for pics ]

The assignment was to observe the monkeys and record their behavior using three different methods, which were described in class as well as the reading from last week (Measuring Behavior, Paul Martin & Patrick Bateson). The first method is called an ethogram, lit. behavior writing. Record all observable behaviors in two categories: 1) events, which are bouts of behavior that happen in a short period of time (Tony demonstrated by slapping Tom– well, not really), or defecating; 2) states, which are durational and can be comprised of many events, such as sleeping, eating, grooming, watching, sitting, etc. Record the frequency or rate of events per unit of time.Create acronyms and codes for each observable state or event to optimize the other methods of observation.

The second method of observation is to focus on an individual in the group, paying no attention to the others unless they interact with the individual you’re watching. Record the observable behaviors (states, events) that your subject engages in. In 2 minute intervals, record what they do to another individual, record what is done to them by another individual.

The third method is to scan the entire observable group and record the behaviors in five minute intervals.  Record events more than states because states are likely to be missed.

Here is a spreadsheet that outlines what I recorded. It was so cold outside that the spreadsheet is incomplete for the assignment.

Even though, “Snow monkeys can make more than 30 vocalizations and a wide range of facial and body expressions” (CPZ website), we only observed a few eventful facial expression changes besides curiosity, neutral, and concentration. One of the facial expressions that stood out occurred right before a small tiff between one of the mothers and the “old lady”. The mother had a young monkey with her most of the time. The young monkey ventured off and seemed to grab the old lady monkeys head and ‘kiss’ her on the lips; the old lady monkey bared her teeth and screamed at the young monkey, causing the mother to come. The second incident happened as I was leaving. One of the young monkeys did not want to be groomed by the mother anymore and squirmed away. The mother sent him off with a spank on the rump and a grimace. The male was mostly hunched over by a rock, sometimes venturing down the rock archipelago to mess around with stuff by the water. The old lady monkey was the only one who ‘foraged’ among the wood splints laying around. One monkey ate some moss. None of the monkeys went in the hot tub or the water.

Visiting the zoo made me at once nostalgic and angry. The Central Park Zoo is not a great place for animals (is any zoo??? Well, at least the Bronx Zoo has a Serengeti-like plain for some to wander around on). I don’t think the future of animals is so bright. The Snow Leopards were sad. For some reason they were separated and one of them was crying and pacing. The other one was just pacing, but on the opposite end of the cage from the other one. Mating season? Gus the polar bear was looking worse for wear, and licking his paw.