Getting Better

The field days are getting much better. Two days in a row in the field, and no migraines! I’m still getting better at id-ing, although I still make mistakes and there are monkeys that I stare at for like a minute, and still can’t identify. But, patience and persistence will certainly pay off! Valerie said that when she first started working with the monkeys, she thought that people were crazy to try to id individual monkeys, because they all look exactly the same. And, after like two years, she barely needs her binos to id monkeys all the time. So, I know its possible, I just need more time. But following the monkeys is getting a lot easier, I feel very comfortable doing that, although I still do lose them sometimes.

This morning I woke up the monkeys by myself for the first time. Waking up the monkeys means that you go to the tree that you know (or at least have a pretty good idea) they slept in so you can be there when they wake up and start to move. That way, you don’t have to waste time searching for them. I left the alberque at about 4 am. I got unnecessarily paranoid that my headlamp would run out of batteries, and I’d be stuck in the dark and have to wait until the sun came up, at which point the monkeys would no longer be in their sleep tree, and I would have to go searching for them, which is a big big waste of time. But, it all worked out. I’ve been out at night and early in the morning with Valerie, but of course its different when you’re by yourself. I walked along the main park road, which is paved, for a while, then cut into the forest. The trails are somewhat well trodden, and marked with flagging tape, but there are definitely parts where it is less than clear which direction to go, especially in the dark. And of course I couldn’t help freaking myself out by thinking of the Blair Witch Project. But, really, I feel very comfortable in this forest, its not freaky at all. Its got a good vibe. (oh, on a side note, we came across an old well the other day. Most of the park used to be farmed, so there are remnants of that time in various places. It was pretty cool, it had a hand pump at the top. Of course I couldn’t resist the urge to look down into it. And I don’t think I’ve ever looked down a well before. It was not a pleasant experience. Wells are deep. And you can’t see the bottom. And it made me think of The Ring. I got freaked out enough I had to walk away. All this in broad daylight with Valerie within 20 feet of me. This is why I don’t watch horror movies!!!)

Exciting wild animal experience: The monkeys were really dispersed today. So, Valerie was doing follows and I was wondering around trying to ID monkeys. I hear her say something, but she’s really far away, and I can’t understand. She whopped (which is what we do when we’re in ear shot - someone whoops and then you whoop back, until you meet, like marco polo but without the pool). So I whooped my way to her, and she was standing in front of a bunch (maybe 10) monkeys hanging on vines and looking at the ground, and alarm calling. There was a boa constrictor that had caught a possum. It had wrapped around it, and you could see the possum still breathing a little. The boa was about 2 meters long, and maybe a little bigger than a tennis ball at its widest part. We sat and watched it for several minutes, and then it looked like the possum stopped breathing. After a few more minutes, the boa started moving, and we got excited, because we figured that the boa was positioning itself to ingest the possum. Well, the boa let go of its grip on the possum, and the possum gets up, and starts to walk away! Well, not walk, stumble is more like it. It took a few steps, then fell over, took a few more steps, fell over. It looked completely stunned, of course. I felt really bad for it. But, it was so amazing that it was able to still move! It wondered into some bromeliads, and who know what happened… it might have died, but there’s a chance that it could have lived. It didn’t look that injured, its nose was bloody (from where the boa tried to asphyxiate it?), and it probably had some broken ribs, or internal injuries. We have a monkey in our group whose missing his left arm from just below the elbow down. Who knows what happened to him and he made it! Wildlife is amazingly resilient. So, the boa just stayed where it was until we left a few minutes after. It could have easily gone after the possum again. But, I guess boas are a surprises and stun predator, not a chase predator. Maybe it used a lot of energy capturing the possum? I don’t know, I’ll need to do some research on boas.

The monkeys were interesting to watch alarm call at the boa. They make a barking noise. And there were getting really close, like within a few feet off the boa. That didn’t seem like a good idea to me. Then one of them would get freaked out, and they would all run up the vines, then slowly make their way closer. Very interesting. I’m sure this is just one of many interesting encounters I’ll have with the wildlife!