Perlis State Park- An Outdoor Weekend Posted on March 14th, 2014 by

Hello!

Friday the 7th through Sunday the 10th the Gustavus troupe made a long pilgrimage to Perlis State Park. It is located in Perlis (the northernmost state) right on the border to Thailand. I really enjoyed this trip; it was a very nice to get out of the city and enjoy nature.

Upon arrival we got settled into our cabins. After that we had quite a bit of free time. Some of us relaxed, while others explored the small stream near our cabins. The cool water was much appreciated.

Later that day we set up 3 mist nets, in hopes of catching some fruit bats that night. We also set up a harp trap to trap some insectivorous bats. The reason for the different traps is that the sonar of the insectivorous bats detects the mist nets but not the harp trap. Cool right?

The next morning we set out to check the traps. We did not catch any fruit bats, but the harp trap captured 5 insectivorous bats. Cute little buggers!

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That night we went to the stream to go herping. While the word sounds made up, I assure you it’s real. Herping is the act of searching for amphibians and/or reptiles. This night we were looking for local frogs and toads. I had a blast! We found about 10 frogs, and 6 different species. We even got to see a giant river toad (I think, but he was sizable!) If you can find him you get a star, cause I almost stepped on him.

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Sunday morning was by far the coolest part of the trip! We went spelunking into a series of caves in the park. IT WAS AWESOME! There is another blog post on it though so I won’t delve too deeply into it. But my favorite part was when we turned off all the lights in the cave and sat in silence in the dark, truly a powerful experience!

Thanks for reading!

 

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