Michelle Update  

As an individual who works with animals and a zoo keeper, I admittedly and some what embarrassingly have serious issues with rats. I acknowledge that it is irrational, yet when a rat scuttles past me I cannot help but shiver and more often then not accompany that shiver by a very girlie squeal. So I ask myself, where better to overcome such a silly fear but the bush houses of remote PNG?

My first patrol through six Tenkile villages brought with it rats. When I heard them at night trampling around the room I kept my eyes shut and turned to my ipod for solace. By my second patrol I was all too aware of their nighttime activities and by tucking my mosquito net tightly around my therma-rest I felt the comfort of a cubby house both mosquito and rat proof. Relief from the possibility of the nightly visitors came in the way of the occasional cat sitting on the steps of a bush house; kept only for it's rat killing ability no doubt.

So why is it that some animals can make you shudder and others you absolutely adore? It was in a remote Weimang village that I had a new appreciation for the connectivity locals have here with animals of all shapes and sizes. It was in this village that I saw a boy with a rat that he had just killed and was swinging it around applauding himself for the feast to follow, and why not? This I felt was remote fearless living. So why should I care about the night time adventures of a rat if it's just trying to make a living itself?

In modern western living we select which animals we like and detest based on preconceptions of an animal's lifestyle and how it might relate to ours. A rat for instance regularly scavenges for food and can live and breed happily on the waste we produce. Not as pretty or admired as one's pet pooch.

In remote PNG animals of all taxonomic classes are a part of people's everyday lives. They live alongside them and when they eat them they do the catching, killing, skinning and cooking all on their own. No supermarkets here to do your dirty work. When protein is limiting in your diet, all types of bush tucker can prove to be a tasty morsel. The protein surveys we have been conducting have proven this to be the case, with villagers eating a range of things from sago grubs to wild pig, cuscus, frogs, rats and bandicoots. Preliminary reports also show that since hunting has been restricted to certain areas, the conservation area itself has provided animals with a safe breeding ground to boost their populations. As the populace of certain species increase their territories move down towards the hunting areas, providing an opportunity for local villagers to practice age old traditions.

So as time passes, I am becoming more accepting of the rat. I even watched one scuttle around the other night (from the comfort of my cubby) without so much as a shiver or squeal!