A Mixed Day

So, good news first. While I was in the field thinking about this blog entry, I was originally going to title it "Monkey On The Ground!". Having monkeys on the ground in the dry season was a daily occurrence; in fact, they were pretty much always on the ground. Now the monkeys are rarely on the ground, and when they do come down to about 10 feet or so, its very exciting. And even more exciting when they actually get on the forest floor. They only get to the ground for a second or so to pick up a fallen palm tree or bromeliad fruit, and then run back up a tree. Yesterday they were down at eye level for almost an hour, and they were not only on the ground for a few seconds, but they were actually walking on the ground. Oh, it was so nice. I really do miss the dry season. Not the heat so much... But the monkeys were just so much more fun. There's something exciting about having wild monkeys that close to you. So, I got to nab a few more pictures (as well as get some much-needed fecal samples and easy follows!)


































































































The bad news is that Luna's baby, Errol, went missing yesterday. I saw him the day before yesterday, but when I saw Luna yesterday afternoon, she didn't have Errol with her. He most likely was the victim of infanticide sometime during the night. Because the alpha male in a group sires the vast majority of infants, other adult males will kill newborn infants, because it brings the female back into estrus, and she's able to get pregnant again, so the other males will have another chance to sire offspring with that female.

When I first saw Luna without Errol, I was totally in denial. At first I thought maybe he was next to her belly and I just couldn't see him. Most of the time the infants will travel on the mom's back, and they are very obvious because it looks like the mom has on a little baby backpack. But occasionally they'll be nursing while the mom is moving, so they're harder to spot. But when Luna got closer, it was obvious that Errol was no where around. So, then I just thought that maybe she pawned him off on another adult for a little while. A few days prior I had seen Errol climb onto Albus (an adult male) while they were resting. But, the whole group was moving fairly fast and so it would be unlikely that Errol would be with someone else in that situation. A few minutes later I was doing a follow on Crabbe, and saw a bushy-browed female with a dorsal infant out of the corner of my eye, and thought it was Luna and that I had just made a mistake. I was so relieved. But after the follow I realized that the baby was too young to be Errol, and that I had seen Minerva, who just had a baby about a month ago. So, sadly, Errol is gone. I am really bummed out. From a scientific perspective, its all very interesting but personally I am sad. Its just a stupid reproductive strategy, I think. Such an enormous waste of energy. And I really like Luna. She's older, and has had a few babies, so I didn't think that this would happen to her. I wonder what she thinks about it all. I really do think that the moms must be emotionally attached to their babies (as I think all verebrate moms are) and that she must feel a sense of loss, and probably even sadness. And my heart goes out to her for that. But thank God Hufflepuff's okay. I would have a breakdown if anything happened to him. And there would be at least one male monkey with a couple broken legs.... Nobody messes with my Hufflepuff.

The monkeys also took me to a new place in the forest yesterday. Its the site of an old dam bridge from the farming days. A fig has taken it taken it over, and is growing in and around it in interesting ways. Its always an interesting feeling to come across human artifacts in the field. Its like a reminder, after being in the forest with only monkeys for 12 hours, that yes, there are still humans in the world. And always nice to be someplace I haven't been before.