Settling In

Okay, so writing something everyday is not going to happen at this point. I still feel like there is a lot going on, and a lot to chronicle…

The field days are getting better. It is still incredibly hot, and I am literally dripping with sweat at 5am. I’m carrying a gallon of water, which just barely gets me through a 11, 12 hour day. But, recognizing the monkeys is getting easier. There is at least one monkey (Baba, alpha male, looks like a grandpa and is fluffy) that I can ID at a mere glance. Now that I am getting better with id’s, though, its time to start learning how to record the behavior of the males. We do a 10-minute follow on one monkey, and record everything that they do, who they’re close to, who comes in contact with them, etc. So, first you have to be able to ID the monkey that you’re following, all the monkeys that are within 5 meters (so much easier said than done), recognize what behavior is happening, remember what the code for that behavior is, and enter the code in a handheld computer, all while keeping your eye on the monkey you’re following. So, sometimes its easy if they’re alone and just foraging. But, if there are other monkeys around, and there’s a lot of social behavior and interaction, it can get complicated really quickly!

Unfortunately, because there is still so much to learn, I feel like I can’t really stop and enjoy the monkeys as much as I would like. If I take a moment, I need to just not be looking or thinking about the monkeys. But, yesterday, I had another close encounter with a juvenile. I think it’s the same one that said ‘hello’ to me the first day and the one that tugged on my hat, his name is Moody. I was sitting down getting my water or something out of my pack, and he walked right up to me, and he was looking very inquisitively at my handheld computer that was lying on the ground. I picked it up, and told him he couldn’t have it. Then he looked right into my eyes, he was like a foot from me, I could have reached out and picked him up. And it was different then looking into the eyes of any other animal, like a dog or a cat, there was definitely something in his eyes that was looking back. Not that there isn’t something that looks back from a dog or cat, but maybe its that this is a wild animal, and yet he was so comfortable being so close to me. And his eyes were so human. Sweetest little tiny brown eyes I’ve ever seen! Its moments like that that make the heat and mental and physical fatigue fall away…

It rained for the first time last night. It started about midnight, and I swear I have never heard rain so loud in my entire life. It woke me up (I was dreaming about monkeys, of course) and I had no idea what was going on. It took a while to realize it was raining, and that the world wasn’t ending. So, I was going to go out and wake up the monkeys this morning; Valerie was going to come out a little later and help me practice collecting the behavioral data. But, if its raining you have to have the personal computer in a Ziploc, which makes entering the data much harder, much more so if you’re just learning. So, we had a data day, even though it stopped raining at like 7 am and is sunny now. Oh well, no way to predict that kind of stuff. It smelled so good this morning after the rain.

I’ve seen a lot wildlife. I saw a tayra yesterday – a mix between a weasel, cat, and a bear (I think). I caught him mid-stride on the trail, about 40 meters from me, and he ran up a tree and was making these weird guttural noises, and kept running up and down the tree (huge claws for tree-climbing). I was a little hesitant to get closer, but I had a feeling he was more freaked out by me, than I was of him. After about a minute, he ran off. They look like this: http://www.jczinn.com/Central%20and%20South%20America/Costa%20Rica/Other%20Fauna/tayra_1196a.jpg

That same morning I saw a motmot, I think a turquoise-browed motmot: http://www.angelfire.com/bc/gonebirding/images/turquoise-browed_motmot_2_B.JPG

And tons of other wildlife. I need to make a list.