Vacation, Computers, and Boas...Oh My!

Hi everyone!

We have just returned from vacation. Every month the assistants for the monkey project are given 5 days off to explore Costa Rica so that they don't go crazy after working all those 14 hour days. I volunteered to guard the house (burglary is a problem in Costa Rica) so that I would be motivated to catch up on all those fun things I hadn't found time for during the month such as FAFSA, TAship apps, watching all of my experiment videos again, grant apps, checking on my health insurance app, etc. It actually turned out to be a very relaxing vacation since I also had some free time to watch movies, read books (Atonement: book=good; movie=bad), and catch up on my sleep. Living with 8 people really makes you appreciate your alone time. But too much alone time can also make you a little loopy. Luckily, by the time I had started having conversations with the cats and dog in order to avoid talking to myself, my housemates had returned with tales of their vacation adventures.

Also, one of my housemates visited Davis over vacation since he was interviewing for a spot in the UC Davis Ecology Graduate Group (small world, right?) He brought back a computer from my advisor equipped with video editing software. Now I can analyze the videos of my experiments while I am in Costa Rica and get ahead of the game. What good luck!

Now it is back to work. I had a great first day in the field. We found Rambo's group early in our search day and I managed to relearn the monkeys I had seen in early January. My snake experiment went well and the monkeys didn't take us anywhere too awful.

Me hard at work in the forest

The coolest part of the day was when the monkeys started snake alarming in the afternoon. We ran over, assuming it would be the usual medium sized rattlesnake or boa. But instead there was a 10 foot long boa hanging out in a small pool of water in the middle of the forest! It was the biggest snake I had ever seen in the wild. Now I have a lot more respect for snakes as predators. This thing could definitely take down a monkey (and maybe even a human)! We were all so amazed at the size that we almost joined the monkeys in their voracious efforts at alarm calling.

If I can figure it out, I will attach a video of the boa moving at a later time. I am both in awe of its beauty and a bit frightened all at the same time.

A day in the field

Just in case you were wondering "what exactly does Whitney do all day?" here's a general summary of a recent field day.

4:00am - wake-up (wait! 4am! no you must mean 6am, right? I mean noone gets up at 4 in the morning unless they have to catch a plane, right? I know some people who go to bed at 4am after drinking all night (I shall mention no names) but waking up at 4am is a bit ridiculous!)

Nope that's really when we wake up!

4:00-4:30am - get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair, wash face, eat some cereal, put on boots, put on polinas (snake leggings), grab backpack, and get in car

4:30 - 5:15am - drive to field site on PanAmerican highway where semis and buses pass you on uphills or right before blind curves, drop off assistants going to second monkey group, park car

5:00 - 5:15am - put on heavy backpacks and headlamps (still dark you know) and walk in to the spot where the monkeys slept the night before

5:15 - 5:45am - stand around in the dark waiting for the monkeys to wake up and move around

6:00am - realize the monkeys are finally moving and scramble to put pack on and follow them, chase monkeys as they rush to good foraging spots, try to ID monkeys in poor light

**Temperature = 78 degrees**

7:00am - the sun finally rises enough that you can really see the monkeys and you realize exactly who you'd been following for the last hour



7:00 - 9:00am - Chase monkeys as they forage and travel along a creek; do lots of 10 minute focal follows (following one individual and recording everything they do and everyone they interact with) which involves rushing up and down hills, scurrying across rivers while trying not to fall in, and pulling your body (and pack) through vine tangles.

9:00 - 9:30am - monkey mini nap; we get a chance to sit down, drink water, and eat some food (after getting up at 4am this is practically lunch time for us)

**Temperature = 84 degrees**

9:30 - 11:00 am - monkeys forage and travel along the creek some more; we continue to do difficult focal follows where the focal likes to sprint off and disappear in the last minute of the follow making the follow invalid

11:00am -12:30pm - monkeys take HUGE nap; we learn monkey IDs and eat and drink and wait and wait and wait for the monkeys to move

12:30 - 1:30pm - monkeys move slowly down the river; we do more follows and learn more IDs; I start to get antsy because we haven't found a good place for my snake experiment yet and now more than half of the day has passed

**Temperature = 90 degrees**

1:30pm - run down the creek and across the road to set up snake experiment since monkeys are on their way; set up all of my equipment; ready to go!

1:45pm - still waiting for monkeys; other assistants say they are coming...slowly

2:00pm - monkeys almost to the road; I can see them!; get ready for the experiment!

2:05pm - monkeys decide to take a nap

2:15pm - still napping

2:20pm - wait one is moving toward the road; let's get ready...oh now it's plopping down on the tree branch and napping

2:30pm - here they come...finally! they are all headed directly toward my model, but wait why are they veering off in that other direction at the last minute and moving where they can't see my snake model? This wasn't part of the plan! Abort!

2:35pm - run ahead of monkeys to set up snake model again

2:37pm - monkeys are almost to my model...then I hear them snake alarming...at a real rattlesnake; I can't do an experiment immediately after they find a snake since it might create bias; Abort!

2:45pm - pack up my models and camera; run far ahead; plant snake model yet again in a great spot; wait for monkeys

3:00pm - hear monkeys snake alarm at another live rattlesnake! This is getting a bit ridiculous, especially considering they didn't alarm at any snakes during the previous 8 hours of the day

3:15pm - decide to do my snake experiment since it was far enough away from the live snake; unveil the model for a juvenile who...alarms! Hurray! We videotape the behavior of the juvenile and record all of the surrounding individuals that are alarming; success!

3:30pm - pack up all of my experiment equipment; try to find the other assistants who are with the group

3:35pm - get stung by wasps 6 times, mainly in the head; must have walked into a nest in my post-experiment euphoria; now my head is buzzing with pain instead of excitement

3:45 - 5:00pm - cross a pasture; say hi to the cows; find the monkeys; try to stay with the monkeys as they travel farther and faster in an hour than they did all day

5:00pm - light starts to get bad so we end up following the monkeys around trying to convince them to go to bed early so we can go home

5:00 - 5:45pm - conversations center around where the monkeys will go to bed and what is for dinner

5:45pm - leave the monkeys and start the walk out over the cow pasture to the car in the quickly fading light enjoying another beautiful sunset

6:00 - 6:40pm - get to car, pick up assistants from other monkey group, drive home

6:40pm - home sweet home after another 14 hour day; time to shower because we are stinky!

7:30pm - dinner time; everyone shares their monkey tales of the day

8:00pm - get food and water for the next field day (if going out again - we do a 2 day on, 1 day off schedule); get batteries for radios and get PSIONS (handheld computers)

8:30pm - get ready for bed; read a bit

9:00pm - pass out after another field day; good night!

Whitney the pirate?

I am wearing an eye patch today at home. It happened like this:

So I was having a great day in the forest yesterday and then I heard a monkey break a branch. I looked up to see who was causing the commotion just in time to see a piece of the broken branch falling towards me. Part of it hit my eye and it hurt a lot. I flushed out my eye with water and eye drops, but it still hurt on and off all day. This happened at noon so I had to spend the following 6 hours in the field wandering around with one good eye. No one can find anything in my eye so I assume it is just scratched. So today I am wearing an eye bandage over it in the hopes that it will speed up the healing process. And also hoping to start a new trend in Bagaces. But hopefully not end up one-eyed like Rulo. Check it out!




Whitney the pirate?

Seen in Bagaces

As I've mentioned before, the town where I'm living is called Bagaces. It has a population of a few thousand people. It's pretty small, but I like it. I wouldn't want to live in a touristy city.

Some fun facts about Bagaces:
1) It's located in the province of Guanacaste which is in the far northwest corner of the country.
2) Bagaces was named after an Indian Chief called Bagatzi who lived around here when the Spanish arrived. The name comes from the language Nahuatl and means 'field of reed'.
3) The main commerce around here is cattle ranching, vegetable and grain farming, and dairy farming. Tio Pelon, one of the biggest rice producers for the country is located very close to several of our monkey groups. Somedays we run into a lot of cows and pastures while following the monkeys around.

Seen in Bagaces
(Here are some things I've seen or experienced lately in Bagaces)
1) A guy riding into town on a horse (cowtown anyone?)
2) A guy riding out of town on a bicycle while leading a horse behind him (and you thought talking on a cell phone while biking was hard)
3) Music emitting from the backyard of the church in town that is so loud that I can't hear the music on my laptop even when I am sitting right in front of it inside a house (and the church is 4 blocks away)
4) A cannon shot off several times from the middle of town Sunday at midday that could be heard all through town and we weren't even sure about exactly what they were celebrating.
5) Howler monkeys living in my backyard. They didn't like the cannon shot either and would erupt into roaring vocalizations every time they heard it and for several hours afterwards.
6) High 80s in January (since I'm returning to the U.S. in June this means an endless summer for me).
7) Our dog bringing back cow bones (whole legs!) that she had found somewhere nearby...maybe in the river.
8) A tarantula living in my bathroom (hopefully he will help keep the termite population down).
9) Cold water showers (not that we really need hot showers here usually).
10) The man working at the bakery commenting on the insane amount of chigger bites that I had all over my arms, shoulders, and armpits (ah field work is fun).
11) Cars driving around town with speakers attached to their roofs blasting advertisements for concerts and other events.
12) People ride their bikes to work (just like Davis), but down the biggest highway in the country (which has no shoulders) with no lights on their bikes and no helmets while being passed by semis and buses (not like Davis).


Hope you all are well!
Whitney

My first 2 days with the monkeys

My research has started! On Monday, I went to the field with Rambo's group. They are a strong group with lots of tough males. One of my favorites is Pablo, who used to be alpha of the group.

Pablo, the godfather of the monkey mafia

I had a great time in the morning learning the monkey IDs and helping out with follows. It was amazing to be back with the monkeys. They are such curious, intelligent, and funny animals. Sometimes I forget that they're not human.

Are we studying them or are they studying us?

Monkey overlord

But of course all good things must come to an end. When I tried to run my experiment in the field, it was a disaster. For those of you out there who haven't heard my research spiel a million times, here's the basic rundown. I am trying to figure out how infant capuchins learn how to react to predators such as snakes. So my research involves examining infant reactions to snakes and who they are choosing to reference during a snake event. The idea is that infants should primarily seek information from their mothers and other closely affiliated individuals since these are the individuals they interact with the most. But it's also possible that infants might choose to reference whoever happens to be closest to them during the snake event. So for my experiment, I choose a spot in front of the group where I think they are going to travel. Then I set up my (fake) snake model and cover it up. When an infant is about to cross by the snake, I unveil and (ideally) the infant is the first to spot the snake and alarm at it. If all goes as planned we can record the infant's behavior along with which other monkeys are near the infant and who the infant chooses to reference.

For example, here's one of my boa models.

Looks real, right? Scared you so much that you jumped away from your computer, right? Well that is the intention anyway. Actually this is a 2-D photograph of a boa, but when viewed from the right angle it looks 3-D.

And here's my rattlesnake photo.

Not quite as good, but still pretty cool.

And for good measure my inflatable snakes.

They look fake to me, but the monkeys always alarm at them.

Okay enough science and fun with arts and crafts. Back to the disaster. Finding a place to set up the snake where the infants will walk right by it has been very difficult. My afternoon revolved around running ahead of the group and looking for a good spot. Then I would set everything up and pray for monkeys to arrive. At which point some adult monkeys would pass right by my covered snake. Which would cause me to rejoice since I was confident the infants would take the same path. And then after a few minutes I would watch the infants pass by in the distance, playing, twittering, and laughing at the foolish researcher who thought she could read their minds.

But all was not lost. Yesterday I went out with a different group called Abby's. They are not as tough as Rambo's, but still an interesting group. This time I not only ran into a live boa that the monkeys alarmed at, but also managed to set up a model and an infant was the first to find it and alarm at it. All hope is not lost!

So that's the latest scoop. Stay tuned for future details of life in Bagaces and the forest.

Whitney

Dogs of the Yellow House

Strider

Rita

They're not quite Rulo replacements, but they're nice to have around.

Life in Bagaces (Photos)

My piglet door

My pink room
Porch of the Yellow House The Yellow House
Pizza House

Arrival in Bagaces

I have arrived in Costa Rica! Yesterday morning I said my goodbyes to Rulo and hoped that he would enjoy his 6 month stay in doggie heaven (AKA rural Texas). After a short 3 hour flight from Houston, I was picked up by the field manager, Wiebke, at the airport in Liberia and driven back to Bagaces (along with Susan, the head honcho of the project and UCLA prof who was on the same flight). We soon arrived at the houses in Bagaces: the yellow house (named surprisingly enough for its yellow color) and next door to it, the pizza house (named because many years ago it used to be a pizzeria). I have a room in the pizza house which will be nice because there are less people here and most of the cooking and hanging out occurs in the yellow house so I might actually be able to get some work done on my days off.

After checking the room for biting insects and scorpions (none so far) and sweeping out the ever present dust, I emptied out my 2 suitcases of belongings onto the little wooden shelves and settled in for a semi restful night on my foam mattresses. I tried to wake up before 7 since I will have to get back into the routine of getting up at 4am for field days. Ah, the joys of monkeyland!

So...the news so far:
The good news: 1) We have wireless internet here!!! Can you believe it? Wireless in Costa Rica? Sorry, I am still a bit shocked since when I worked here 7 years ago we had to take the bus 30 minutes to Liberia to go to an internet cafe to send emails. And we had to walk uphill both ways in the pouring rain to get to work and...man do I feel old now. We've come a long way baby! This means it should be fairly easy for me to keep in touch. Yay!
2) Everyone seems nice
3) I'm living in a pink room with Piglet on the door.
The bad news: 1) After talking to Susan and Wiebke, I discovered that 2 of the 4 experienced assistants had dropped out recently. So now instead of the normal 6 assistants (plus Wiebke) that it takes to keep the project running smoothly, we have 3 assistants (with 2 new ones coming this week). Since my experiment depends on identifying all of the monkeys that I am videotaping and that are in the vicinity of my model snake, I am a little worried and frustrated right now. There are always setbacks in field research, but this is definitely going to be an interesting experience.
2) Termites have taken over my bathroom.
3) I'm living in a pink room with Piglet on the door.

I head to the field for the first time on Monday. I can't wait to see the monkeys!

Pictures to follow...