In the Tropics

Track 1

Aimee: So Paul, what’s the most memorable job experience that you have?

Paul: Hmm, well, I think the most memorable one is the volunteering time that I spent in Australia. And I was up in the northeastern corner where there’s a relatively small rainforest's. And I was helping with a research station that’s located in the rainforest. So we do a range of different things, going from trying to control coconuts—coconut trees.

Aimee: Control?

Paul: Yeah, because, like, believe it or not, you imagine this kind of tropical paradises to have coconut trees but they’re actually very invasive and they’re not native to that area. And basically, if you let a population of coconut trees to go out of control, nothing else can grow.

Aimee: Oh.

They drop their fronds, and they drop, obviously, the coconuts, and nothing else can grow. So you basically lose a lot of the native species there. So we’re trying to keep them under control. There was also caring for bats that had been orphaned.

Aimee: Bats?

Paul: Sometimes they’re born with physical disabilities that mean they can’t survive in the wild.

Aimee: Like a sanctuary then.

Paul: Yes. Just like a sanctuary, yeah. So they take care of—

Aimee: What size of bats, like any other—

Paul: Fruit bats.

Aimee: What size are they?

Paul: They’re pretty, like, once they spread—they’re like little monkeys with big wings.

Aimee: Yeah. So what’s their wing span then?

Paul: Let’s say, maybe, I guess up to probably 4 feet. Does that sound too much?

Aimee: So about a meter?

Paul: Yeah. Some of the big dudes, they got huge wingspan.

Aimee: Oh, the only bats I’ve seen in real life are really tiny. They’re just like mice.

Paul: Oh, the micro-bats.

Aimee: They’re like little birds, you know. You see them flying around and you think, “Oh that’s birds.” No, they’re bats. So these guys sound pretty big.

Paul: Hmm, but they’re completely like omnivorous. They only eat fruit, so like, they really—

Aimee: Do they eat the coconuts?

Paul: Well, the coconuts are kind of tough for them to get into. You need to be able to make a hole, I suppose, to get that.

Aimee: Of course, yeah.

Paul: But they eat all, mostly like fleshy fruits; apples or whatever they can get really—berries. They’re really important for spreading—because obviously they eat the flesh of the fruit but they don’t eat the seeds. So they just kind of pass through them and they’re really useful for dispersing seeds. So rainforest regeneration, they’re very important animals.

Aimee: So they’re like the big bumble bees of the rain forest, then.

Paul: Yeah. I guess you could look at it like that, yeah. So yeah, that was an interesting volunteering kind of odd job that I had, I suppose.

Aimee: Yeah. Essentially yet really cool.

Paul: I really like to go back there someday.