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!