Famed bird researcher Pilai Poonswad has spent 25 years doing research on hornbills in Thailand - enough to know that the rare birds might become even rarer without continued efforts at conservation and study

ATIYA ACHAKULWISUT

Grooming people to do field research is a crucial task, according to Professor Pilai.

There are different miracles for different callings - magic moments when many things come together and everything seems to make sense - such as when a writer discovers his way with words or a singer finds her voice.

For bird researcher Professor Pilai Poonswad, that magic moment was finding a bird's nest 25 years ago.

It was no ordinary nest. It belonged to a big, majestic bird, the great hornbill. Code-named GH No. 1, the little nesting hole in a tree in Khao Yai National Park offered plenty of information about this elusive bird that, before then, had been rarely seen and little-known.

In a way, the nesting hole marked the beginning of a life-long love affair between the woman and the big bird, a career in in-depth research that would make the name "Pilai Poonswad" synonymous with hornbills.

"I was very excited - thrilled - when I first saw that first nest hole," recalled Pilai. The usually intense eyes shone with childlike enthusiasm. "I watched it for six hours from five in the morning to 2pm. At that time, I didn't know anything about hornbills or their behaviour. I saw how a male bird was trying to find fruit to feed the sealed-in female. It was very fascinating to me."

A microbiologist by training, Pilai, 60, teaches the subject at Mahidol University. When it comes to research, however, she is all about hornbills.

In 1979, she set up the Thailand Hornbill Project with a Japanese friend, the academic Atsuo Tsuji from Meijo University, to study the biology and ecology of hornbills in Khao Yai National Park.

As the years passed, the scope of the study grew and the areas covered expanded. As a result, 14 years later in 1993, the research project became the Hornbill Research Foundation.

Pilai now studies hornbills throughout Thailand, but specifically in Khao Yai National Park, Huai Kha Kaeng wildlife sanctuary and Budo-Sungai Padi National Park.

Pilai's dedication to the subject is legendary. Hornbills are secretive birds. To locate their nest holes so that she can observe their behaviour, Pilai has to trek around and camp in the forest for days, sometimes months, at a time.

"That is what field research is about - a hard life," Pilai said, adding there were many things one couldn't control when it came to animal research. "Sometimes, I had to hike up to one nest hole for an observation early in the morning, then trek further and perhaps spend the night at another nest. Often, we got to eat only one meal a day. And sometimes, we didn't get any information in return! The bird didn't show up, or it rained."

As one of the early generation of bird researchers, Pilai had quite a bit of paving the way to do. She was assisted more by her own curiosity and passion than technological advancements. Forget the modern tracking devices that might be seen on Animal Planet. She collects her data manually, by hand and foot.

What does she do once she spots a hornbill flying by?

"Run after it," Pilai said with a smile.

Her team started using radio monitoring in 1984.

For purely academic, conservation-biology research like hers, lack of financial support is a fact of life. With no budget to hire helpers, Pilai often has to carry research equipment or long, heavy lenses to photograph the birds herself while she treks from one nest to another all day long.

The results almost crippled her.

"I became semi-paralysed in 1984. My leg muscles became weak and shrivelled. I had severe back pain, so bad that sometimes I could not walk at all."

That happened once when she was alone in the forest. What did she do?

"The distance was about three kilometres," she said. "When the pain became unbearable, I would simply lie down on the forest floor. My hair was covered with ticks and leeches.

"It was terrible. I had to crawl and stop like that for hours before reaching my camp."

Professor Pilai Poonswad succeeded in engaging local communities in the Budo Mountain to save hornbills.

It took years of rehabilitation before she could walk again. Her doctor recommended that she swim every day to exercise her muscles. Pilai obliged. Her swimming pool, however, was the muddy Lam Ta Kong creek in Khao Yai, where she would go to monitor her research efforts.

The lack of support, not just financial but of any kind, for academic research, especially from the government, is one topic that can dim the enthusiastic glint in Pilai's eyes, albeit temporarily.

"Raising funds to finance our studies is the hardest work of all," she said. Although she received a 15-million-baht grant from the National Research Council, the amount must cover six research projects for five years. Divided, that means each project gets only 600,000 baht a year, or 50,000 baht a month.

"It is just not enough," she said as she sighed. She has more than 20 staff, at present, who work on such projects as the design and instalment of artificial nests for hornbills on Budo Mountain, what influences the hornbills' food choices and what impact the loss of hornbills would have on the forest's seed dispersal process.

"I am lucky to have some people willing to help with fund-raising. If I had to do it by myself, I would not survive," she said.

The latest, rather unorthodox, attempt to raise funds for the foundation was the auction of a nude painting of famous model Penpak Sirikul, who agreed to pose for charity.

"The foundation was really in trouble at that time. I have to thank all those people who bailed us out."

She added that it was not easy to find and groom field researchers. They must love the subject and be prepared to overcome hardships and make personal sacrifices. The foundation has groomed many such potential assistants. It would be a waste if she couldn't find money to support their continued work, Pilai said.

Ironically, that means the Hornbill Research Foundation and the subject of its research share a somewhat similar status: threatened or endangered.

The obstacles won't stand in the way of Pilai's dream, though. Her personal goal is to help develop a comprehensive database on every species of hornbill in Thailand. "Not just about their biology or life cycle, which we already know about, but about their relationship with other beings and the environment."

There is still a lot to be learned, she admitted, to the point that she could see no end to the quest for knowledge.

"I still go hiking into the forest to help my staff collect data whenever I have time. I sleep better in the woods," she said. With the physical limitations, her role is more of an entertainer than hike leader these days, she added.

"I always tell my assistants, 'Let me know which trail is the most difficult,' and I hike with them so that I know what they have to go through. It is a way of showing support for one another," she said.

She may have a long, long list of publications, books and awards to testify to her achievements, but she is proudest of her people - her research assistants and the villagers at Budo who keep trekking up and down the mountain watching their birds and keeping track of what they are doing.

"These people will be an asset in the further development and distribution of the information. I am proud of the villagers and ex-poachers at Budo who set up hornbill conservation centres in their villages. It is not that I think that these are our projects and that I am great. I am just so proud of these people."

Efforts earn award

Professor Pilai Poonswad loves this time of year. The rains may make the forest floor slippery and leeches may lurk everywhere, but it feels cool and clean all around.

The hornbill researcher, respected for the personal dedication she gives to the subject matter and the depth of her continuous study, will have another reason to mark the season: She has won the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise, the first Thai woman to ever receive the honour.

"I'm glad for the recognition," Pilai said.

Earlier this year, she was also named a recipient of the Mahidol University Award for outstanding research. "I'm glad about the award because I hope it gives encouragement for people in the same field who are struggling to continue their work," she said.

Conservation biology is a lonesome pursuit plagued by constant lack of support, she added. Research grants do not always cover the costs of data collection. Assistance from government agencies is rarer than sighting an endangered species.

Established in 1976, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise aims to recognise "people who break ground in areas which advance human knowledge and well-being". So far, 55 people have received the award, including fellow Thai Pisit Charnsanoh, founder of the Yard Fon Foundation, which works on marine conservation in the South. Pisit was named Associate Laureate in 2004.

The award recognises, in particular, Pilai's efforts to engage local communities around Budo Mountain in the country's southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, in saving hornbills and in the process using conservation activities as a means to promote income-generating eco-tourism.

Late in 1993, Pilai was contacted by a young man from Pattani, who informed her that villagers around Budo Mountain poached hornbill chicks for sale, including those of rhinoceros hornbills, a species she had assumed were extinct in Thailand.

"When I first went to the village, I didn't hear any hornbill calls. It was possible that all of the chicks had been poached," she said, adding that about 300 chicks have been hatched during the more than 10 years her research project has been in operation.

By talking to villagers and poachers one on one, she learned that the villagers there were poor and that the hornbill chicks, especially those that were rare, could fetch as much as 20,000 to 30,000 baht.

Realising the damage that could be done to the species and forest, Pilai spent time explaining the importance of hornbills in the ecology of the forest to the villagers. To compensate the ex-poachers for their lost income, she recruited them as guides and research assistants in collecting data on the hornbills that reside there.

"These people are reasonable. They understand our point about the loss to their forest and ecology if the birds disappear. They are willing to cooperate even if they receive less money as our helpers than as bird sellers."

In her office can be found stacks of notes written by these local assistants about what kind of fruits their assigned hornbill ate on such and such date, how much they ate and how often.

The project areas are in the deep South, where killings occur almost daily. Does the violence affect her work?

"It is certainly difficult for us and quite a worry to me as head of the project. I give priority to safety. I coordinate with soldiers and the villagers on whether it is safe for us to go in. I always tell my staff not to be too bold. You can't do conservation work when you're dead."

After the economic crisis in 1997, Pilai came up with the unique idea of asking urban people to "adopt" hornbill families by paying yearly fees to the foundation, which uses them to hire these local people to monitor the birds and collect information for the research project."I used to be so proud that up to 70 per cent of the 'adoptive parents' were Thai," Pilai noted. The number has since come down to about 50 per cent. Pilai attributed the decline to a possible tighter economic situation and perhaps a lack of continued publicity, an important activity, but one the cash-strapped foundation cannot afford.

"I do understand that it's difficult to be generous when the budget is tight. It's also a burden to do the transaction and everything. I'm worried, though, that if Thai people don't care about conservation, all the work and research we have done will mean nothing."

For information about hornbill adoption, contact: Hornbill Research Foundation, C/O Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Rama 6 Road, Bangkok 10400. Call 02-201-5532 or email scpps@mahidol.ac.th.

On hornbills

There are 54 species of hornbill in the world according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 6, 13 of which can be found in Thailand.

According to the Hornbill Research Foundation, only the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) is still commonly found. The remaining 12 types are either threatened, endangered or vulnerable to extinction.

Hornbills are striking for their relatively large sizes, bold colours, huge bills, often with a casque on top of them. Asian hornbills are mainly fruitarian, although they don't mind small insects or lizards from time to time, especially for pregnant females and nestlings.

As seed dispersers, hornbills help grow more plants and trees in their forest habitat. Since they also require a large home range, a variety of fruits to feed on and cavities in big trees to nest, they are often said to serve as an indicator of the health of a forest. This means that where there are hornbills, there should exist a relatively vigorous forest ecology.

Hornbills at Khao Yai National Park start breeding between the beginning of January and the end of March, ending in May or June. They nest in cavities in living trees. Since hornbills can't make their own nests, unlike woodpeckers, the availability of nest sites is one factor that can limit their population.

After breeding, the female goes inside the nest hole and locks herself in there. She uses a mixture of clay, rotten wood, faeces or other materials to seal off the cavity, leaving only an opening small enough for her to receive food from the male.

According to the Foundation, the female lays her eggs, incubates them and rears the chicks inside the nesting cavity. The entire process takes three to four months. During this time, the family depends on the father bird to feed them. If something happens to him, the whole family is likely to perish.

There have been cases of the male bird deserting his family for another female, but not many, Pilai said. If the male is gone soon after the sealing of the nest, the female might break away - that would mean no breeding for her during the season. If the male disappears after his mate is shut in for a while and already starts shedding her feathers, she will die.

There are also cases of cooperative feeding, in which three or four birds - usually members of the same family - work together to feed one family.

According to Pilai, it took about 10 years to collect enough data to understand the life cycle of hornbills. However, there is still plenty about which she is curious. What prompts hornbills to choose which fruits they eat? What is the role of their calls? Is there a dialect among them?

"Some people, however, complain that our studies are taking so long. Why can't we know everything after some 20 years? Well, there are still so many things I would like to know. And we need new, updated information from the field. Our study could be endless."