What would it be like to study a dangerous serpent in an exotic place? Daren Bagsby, '08 (Straughn, Ind.) can tell you. His research project, coordinated by Dr. Darryl Karns, professor of biology, and Dr. Harold Voris, curator for the Department of Zoology for the Field Museum in Chicago, allowed several students from Hanover to visit Thailand and study the habitat and biological changes of several snakes. Below is his journal about his experience.

This research project was made possible by the generosity of the McArthur Foundation of the Field Museum of Chicago and The Rivers Institute of Hanover College.

Friday & Saturday June 8th/9th
Location: Cincinnati Ohio, Chicago Ill., Tokyo Japan and Bangkok Thailand
Activities: We spent the past 28 hours travelling. Dr. Karns and I flew from Cincinnati to Chicago. There we met up with John Murphy from the Chicago field museum during out layover. Next, the three of us flew to Tokyo. In Tokyo we met up with Tracy Tamashiro and the four of us flew into Bangkok after a short layover. Once in Bangkok, Hanover alum Harold Voris '62 and two graduate students from Chulalongkorn University picked us up. They took us to the Mandarin Hotel where we checked in and went to sleep before getting up early the next morning.

Monday June 11th
Location: Thai Natural History Museum, Temples and the Grand Palace Bangkok, Thailand
Activities: This morning we convened as a team and headed off to the Thailand Natural History Museum. There, Dr. Karns, Dr. Voris and John Murphy spent time talking with the curator of the museum about their project and the upcoming transfer of the T-Rex skeleton named Sue from the Chicago Field Museum. While they talked, Tracy and I took the opportunity to wander around the museum and look at the exhibits. I was quite impressed with their biodiversity exhibit. The museum also had a few live species, the most interesting of which was a newly discovered species of aquatic snake. Unfortunately, the museum's adjacent building was closed. After leaving, we returned to the hotel and while the other three went to purchase a cell phone, I went off to explore. I visited the Temples of Wat Pho and Wat Phrae Kao, as well as the Grand Palace. I also spent quite a few hours walking around downtown Bangkok and saw various government buildings and Buddhist temples. I ended up having dinner on Kosan Road, a popular tourist street loaded with shops and restaurants. Finally, at the end of the day, I made my way back to the hotel to meet up with the team, who were having dinner in the hotel lobby. With the exception of people accosting me to try and sell me things, it was a great day.

Thursday June 14th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: We spent the morning travelling to the Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, which was about four hours north of Bangkok. Dr. Karns, Dr. Hill. Mrs. Hill, Mr. Murphy, Tracy and I went there in a van loaned to us by Chulalongkorn. We stopped to have lunch at a small restaurant on the side of the road. When we arrived, two students who were a part of our project, Shab and Yosuki greeted us. Dr. Hill, along with Taskin, the head of the station, showed us around the compound, including where we would stay. We took most of the afternoon to unpack and settle in. After dinner at a local restaurant to celebrate our arrival, Dr. Karns, Mr. Murphy, Tracy and I went on a night cruise in our van and walked around the dam looking for creatures. We spotted a few individuals of the genus rhabdophus, along with a large scorpion, vibrating termites and various species of microhylida.

Friday June 15th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: Today was our first day of field work. Our morning started off with radio-tracking the six individuals of our study. Four of those were at the dam where we did our night search last night and the other two were at King Cobra cave, a small creek about a mile off the main road. Unfortunately, we were unable to find all the individuals at King Cobra Cave because a storm came and we didn't want our expensive equipment to get wet. We came back to the station and had lunch. Afterwards, we went and checked the traps. We had two sets of three traps set up in the two different environments of the reserve. One set is in the evergreen forest and the other is in the tropical forest. Both sets include a drift fence with one pitfall trap at either end and two funnel traps along the center. Caught in one of the funnel traps was a small frog, bufo melanostictus. For dinner, the employees of the station greeted us with another party. Following the feast, we placed the temp RH and light monitors at the dam.

Tuesday June 19th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: Today I continued to camp out at the damn. We took 24-hour body temperature readings every half hour throughout the day. Also, we observed and photographed night foraging behavior for two individuals. We also encountered several species of frogs at night. Interestingly, their calls begin right at dusk, creating near deafening noise levels, yet they also all seem to stop pretty much around 10:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. We released a new individual for our study today after undergoing radio transmitter implantation.

Sunday July 8th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: Today I finished my 24-hour body temperature monitoring in the woods at 4:00 p.m. To celebrate, we went to a market in Pakton Chai to purchase dinner, which we ate at Dr. Hill's house. At the market, I got the chance to see and pet my first elephant. Unfortunately, the catfish I had made me very sick and I spent the majority of the rest of that night in the bathroom.

Tuesday July 10th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: This morning we radio-tracked very early in the morning as Taksin took us to the Phanom Rung and Prasat Nuang Pan ruins. We followed this with a small shopping trip at some local shops, a visit to the Khorat mall and ended with dinner at a lakeside restaurant.

Wednesday July 11th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: Again, we went radio-tracking early in the morning so that we could spend the rest of the day at Khao Yai National Park. There, we hiked the trails and drove around. We saw the two biggest waterfalls in the country, along with a few exotic species of animals. However, on the trails we encountered quite a few leaches.

Thursday July 12th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: Today I began the last stretch of 24-hour body temperature monitoring.

Saturday July 14th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: Today I continued with my 24-hour body temperature monitoring up at the dam. While at the dam, Taksin brought a group of tourists by and I talked with them about our research and what it's like to sleep in the jungle.

Monday July 16th
Location: Sakaerat Environmental Field Research Station, Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand
Activities: Today, I finally left the station and separated myself from the group. Dr. Hill was nice enough to drop me off at the bus station in Khorat where I caught a bus to Pattaya, a costal beach town about 5 hours southeast of Sakaerat. Once there, I checked into my hotel and went out to check out the local night life.

Tuesday July 17th
Location: Pattaya, Thailand
Activities: Today I spent the morning taking a quick swim in the pool and then I went off to the Sanctuary of Truth. This is a large wooden temple along the beach. I took an elephant ride once around the structure and then walked through it. While I wanted to spend the afternoon at the beach, unfortunately, rain prevented that plan from happening. Instead, I spent the day walking from shop to shop in downtown Pattaya and even went to see a movie in an effort to try to stay out of the rain.

Wednesday July 18th
Location: Pattaya, Thailand
Activities: Today I went scuba diving. After struggling to find a dive company, the front desk eventually paired me with a diver. This was necessary because the first rule of diving is that you always dive in pairs. We went to two dive sites around Pattaya Bay, both of which I thought provided a very unique diving experience. Some of the interesting creatures I saw included clownfish, a large moray eel, multiple sea urchins, trumpet fish, a pregnant seahorse, sea anemones, and angelfish. Afterwards, I spent the remainder of the day at the hotel pool.

Saturday July 21st
Location: Pattaya, Thailand
Activities: Today I checked out of my hotel and Tae and his aunt took me to the Sirachi Tiger Zoo just outside of Pattaya. This was quite an experience because while it was a zoo, it was very interactive and I was able to pose for pictures with various animals. I also had the chance to assist a baby crocodile break out of the shell of its egg. In addition to seeing the interesting exhibits, I got the chance to try crocodile for lunch. Afterwards, Tae's aunt dropped me back off at my hotel in Bangkok, where I checked in and settled for the last leg of my trip.

Tuesday July 24th
Location: Ayutthaya, Thailand
Activities: Today I am going on my first and only tour in Thailand. I arranged a tour through my hotel that would take me to Ayutthaya, which is the former capital city of Thailand, and the Bang Pa-in Summer Palace. Along the tour, I got a lot of history of the country, along with getting to see some very interesting ruins. I spent the afternoon floating back to Bangkok. They served lunch on the boat and I got the chance to talk with three 28 year-old women from South Africa.

Wednesday July 25th
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Activities: Today was my final day in Bangkok. As such, I wanted to visit a few places I hadn't seen yet. I visited the Temple of the Dawn, a forensic science museum, and the Thai National History museum.

Friday July 27th
Location: Bangkok Thailand, Tokyo Japan, Chicago Illinois, Cincinnati Ohio
Activities: Today I travelled back to the U.S. After a delayed flight out of Bangkok, we almost missed our flight in Tokyo but luckily, they held the plane for us. We left Tracy in Tokyo since her connecting flight to Hawaii left from there. We separated from John Murphy after customs in Chicago. Finally, after arriving back in Cincinnati, I left Dr. Karns and returned home.