Squirrel Monkey Bones, Cricket Fighting, and Lectures

Yesterday was another long day, and I am hoping that I can get over this jet lag and get used to the humidity so I do not feel exhausted all of the time. We went to two museums yesterday. The first one was NTU’s Museum of Zoology. We began the tour by listening to the sounds made by the mammals and birds on display. We got to see the skeletons of an Asian elephant, squirrel monkey, and whale. We learned the differences between the toothed whales and baleen whales. One characteristic that distinguishes the two whales is the shape of the head. Toothed whales have concave heads and baleen whales have convex heads.

Baleen Whale

After the Museum of Zoology, we went to NTU’s Insectarium. We were able to go into the collection room and I found this very exciting. There was a very strong odor throughout the building I knew it was the solution used to preserve the insects. In the special exhibition room I learned that cricket fighting is a favorite pastime of the Taiwanese. Two crickets go head-to-head in a wood cage and who’s ever cricket comes out alive wins and the owner gets the betted money. Our tour guide said that they choose a certain species of crickets because they know they are good fighters. In order for the crickets to win they must be angry, so cricket owners throw their crickets into the air before the match.

Cabinets inside collection room

Dragon Fly that flew into Insectarium before we arrived!

After the museum tours we had 3 lectures and our 2^nd Chinese class. The first lecture was on the geography of Taiwan. I learned that 2/3 of the island is covered by forest; there are over 20 million people who inhabit the island; typhoons, monsoons, and earthquakes are very common; 70% of the land area is occupied by hills and mountains. The second lecture covered the flora of Taiwan. I learned that the Golden Dodder is a parasitic plant and forms haustoria to feed on its host plant; mangroves make up the west coast of Taiwan; Biting cat is similar to poison ivy and can be cured by Asian taro; there is a tree called “Round leaf chicken shit tree.” The third lecture covered marine biodiversity of Taiwan. I learned that Taiwan has the highest species diversity of lobsters in the world; most corals are hermaphrodites; some jellyfish can photosynthesize because they contain algae in their tissues; one of the reasons Taiwan has high marine biodiversity is because it is close to the Coral Triangle. Our 2^nd Chinese class was better yesterday, but it is still difficult to learn the language when you are exhausted and it is seven o’clock at night. I have found that learning the language could be useful. Difficult to learn a language in three days, but I can at least say that I know how to say hi, bye, thank you, your welcome, numbers 1-10, and some drink, fruit and food names.